If you take a certain group, divide it into girls and boys on the basis of a stereotype for girls, you are associating a similar stereotype to boys as well. Hence, when you say girls are emotional and sensitive, you are also saying boys are not. While girls have to try and fight to dissolve this stereotype, boys have sort of internalized it; they have internalized that boys don’t cry. Breaking this stereotype is the campaign titled: “Boys Do Cry”.
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The campaign details
The iconic rock band by the name of The Cure was formed in 1978. In the early years only, they created a famous song called Boys Don’t Cry (1980). An Australian agency, The Hallway, has launched a campaign that is challenging the pre-existing stereotypes about boys. Long gone are the days (or should be) that whenever a little boy got hurt, his peers or parents would tell him to not cry or man up. Now, people are speaking up that this should definitely not be the case. They do that by taking The Cure’s song and applying their own touch to it.
Instead of the rock band’s Boys Don’t Cry, it becomes The Hallway’s Boys Do Cry.
Who we see?
What makes the campaign even more impactful is how it starts. It starts with a group of men, 30 in number. They belong to every race and walk of life. You will find teenage boys and white-haired senior citizens. You will find Mexican, Black, and White men. And you will find jolly-looking as well as serious men. The oldest starts singing. One by one, everybody joins in.
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The way their voices all mix up, creates a sorrowful tone, but one that is making promises. It promises that the next generation will be better because they are pledging now to stop putting pressure on the young ones; the pressure of being strong.
Listen to this and if you end up crying, it is okay!
Hopefully, with more such campaigns, more people will internalize the idea that it is okay to express all emotions; that men can cry; that women need not cry.
Until then, let’s all play our part in this fight of breaking stereotypes. Let’s all fight not just for women but for men too.
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