Why can't boys grow their hair long?
Schools speak of equality, our constitution speaks of equality, gender equality is trending everywhere, feminists voicing out the suppression of women even for the most subtle of causes. Agreed, society should treat all the genders equally. But things get complicated when inequality is practiced right in front of our eyes but is overlooked because the victim isn’t the quintessential sort of victim.
Yes, we’re talking about men-the gender that is almost always overlooked these days. People who belong to other genders treat men like they are privileged in some way or the other, this puts the modern man in a state or situation where he is barred from even complaining about the misdeeds done against him.
Schools in India generally have rigid rules that students have to follow, some of these rules are accepted as they make some sort of sense, some rules simply don’t make sense-like the one that prescribes that boys shouldn’t grow hair longer than 2 inches. I mean, in a society where girls can grow their hair long, why can’t boys do the same? Why can’t boys, or even men, grow their hair long without raising a few eyebrows in the public?
Schools state that it is to maintain discipline, well, how is discipline related to hair length? Plus, when girls are allowed to grow long hair, why aren’t boys allowed to do so? Isn’t that what you call inequality?
The growth of hair must be considered a personal thing, schools shouldn’t have any authority over the length of one’s hair or any other body part for that matter. Would you slice the legs of a 6 ft tall guy just because he is tall?
Indian schools leverage the fixation that Indian parents have towards the education system to dictate unnatural and absurd rules on the students. These rules must be revoked as they are not utilitarian in any way.
Students must protest against such atrocities, this can only be possible if schools actively practice democracy. In a democratic country, it is only fair to have schools that follow democracies, not those authoritarian, dictatorial ones that pass rigid laws and treat their students as slaves.
Indian schools also practice discrimination against boys in other ways, for example, A boy child is more likely to be slapped by a teacher than a girl child. Although physically assaulting students is banned in the country, the laws are not rigid enough to eradicate this archaic practice.
It is time for Indian schools to accept versatility as a normal factor and not try to force students with different physiques and abilities to flock into a generalized system. Generalization stunts growth and kills creativity, generalization may come at a cheap price, but the cost that the students have to pay is huger than one could fathom.
It is in the hands of the students to remove these rigid, unwise, and ineffective laws from authoritarian schools and make schools what they are supposed to be student-friendly.
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