Oppressed by freedom
[DISCLAIMER: This is not a rant against freedom—but a reflection on what happens when freedom becomes manipulated, misinterpreted, or mistaken for truth. This is where the conversation starts. The posts that follow will narrow the lens—on gender, balance, and the beauty in our differences.]
Freedom of speech. Freedom to love. Freedom to write. Freedom to be whatever or wherever we want. None of it is freedom. We kid ourselves into believing we are free to choose. But why is it that when we fail, we blame others. We blame anyone but ourselves. We fight for freedom, and when we have it, we fail to understand it. Behind every freedom campaign there is a trapped door waiting for us to open it. We are tricked into believing that we are free to make our own choices, yet media outlets slam us with adverts and messages, which trick our psyche into choosing what they want, under the guise that it’s what we want, that it’s our freedom to choose, our rights to want it.
We are being programmed by a broken system run by corrupted politicians ans shady powerful people behind the curtains. This has been the way of the world since the beginning. There will be those who will tell you that freedom is your right, yet they’ll remind you that you have no right to be free. Unless we fight the system, unless we contradict what we are being fed to believe, freedom will always be an illusion. But even then, we are still slaves of the notion of freedom.
As a writer, I want to have the freedom to write whatever I want, however I want to. I don’t want my sstoriesor my thoughts to be structured or categorized by unnecessary labels. Many writers adapt to the world of poetic muse to write their stories, be it fiction, non-fiction or memoirs. I, on the other hand, prefer my disorganized thoughts, my scary, wild, and childlike imagination. My thought process might be amateurish, but writing is about self-expression. For me, there is no standard about how a good story should be written, or structured.
Professionals encourage creative thought process, and yet there are editors who bury those unconventional approaches under society’s definition of a politically correct structure of writing. They bury the author’s identity. Simple or complex, the writer has all the creative rights to position a character, situation or emotion within a story. The writer holds the evolution or destruction of the narrative.
No matter how illogical a story may seem it’s all the author’s thoughts. Anything is possible in a story. They are worlds we create. Yet, even I am a slave trapped within a race for freedom. The freedom to write. The freedom to express myself.
These ideals oppress us in the most unexceptional routines. We believe we’re free, we have choices, but one day we wake up and realize it’s not everything. We want more. That’s when freedom becomes a shackle we cannot unlock. However, although freedom might be a horrid oppressor at times, lack thereof can also be horribly oppressive, and through lack of freedom we limit ourselves to logic or emotions, but it doesn’t need to be either or.
Women or men, is it too binary? Is it too distinctive or specific? We’re all built the same way, but programmed and anatomically design differently. We believe that only men can be logic, but it is simply not true, sometimes the idea of logic comes with the belief of having control over what is believed to be the lesser of our species, and that in itself is not freedom. In turn, it is believed that women can only be emotional, but again, it is simply untrue. Logic and emotion are similar concepts, but delivered differently. It is not about control or lack of direction. We’ve designed systems where men and women of power, who have indulged in degrading and less than honourable acts have influence over our way of thinking, making us believe that women are creatures meant to be ruled over by men.
Yes sure, total equality is a fantasy, that is true, but men completely ruling over women is just as much a fantasy. We’re all the same species, we all have minds of our own, thoughts that drive our everyday decisions, desires and emotions. Men shouldn’t be made to feel lesser when they are emotional and women shouldn’t be considered heartless when they employ logic.
Lack of freedom is oppressive, but too much can be just as oppressive.
Let’s stop putting ourselves in boxes. Let’s stop listening to misogynistic men and misandrists women plant ideals in our minds and convince us that it’s freedom. Following someone else’s ideals and believing that it’s true or it’s your own is not freedom, it’s another form of oppression.
