Gender norms are not real. They never were.

Society and culture have always reigned over behaviors and identities, telling us right from wrong.

The fact is, gender norms are not a thing.

We are each born with a biological sex but that does not mean that is who we are on the inside. Biological sex and gender identity can be different.

On top of that, gender expression—the traits we identify with and choose to express can be primarily masculine, primarily feminine, or a mixture of both.

Western society has played a big factor in keeping women in a box and making men feel as if they need to participate in toxic masculinity.

Society is so focused on labeling us, it prevents us from being who we really feel like we are on the inside.

A heterosexual female can identify with traits deemed more "masculine," by society, and a heterosexual male can identify with traits deemed more "feminine." In addition to this, gay men and women do not have to be more this or more that. A gay woman can still identify with more feminine traits, and a gay man can still identify with more masculine traits—a common misconception. While we are on this topic, stop trying to put same-sex couples into a box—both parties can identify as more masculine or both can identify as more feminine, or one could identify more masculine and one more feminine, but there is no commonality.

The fact that there are common misconceptions about same-sex relationships all stems from early Western society's ideas about marriage—early ideas about marriage in this country told us when we were young that we would all grow up and partake in a heterosexual marriage, have kids, the American dream—blah, blah, blah.

That's not reality. Cut the shit.

This is the same way that masculinity and femininity were engrained into our society—early ideologies. The men were the breadwinner, they must protect and care for the family—they must be hard, tough, show no emotion; "manly." Women, on the other hand, must be soft, delicate, caring, emotional—as they were the caregivers, there to supply men with their sexual desires, tend to the children, make the food with the money the men supply.

Now…does that sound like a perfect world to you?

There are countries all around the world that accept the fact that gender is fluid and that masculinity and femininity are made up.

In said countries, a member of society takes on both "roles," of society, both masculine and feminine. Each day, they wake up feeling differently, one day a man, the next a woman—and it is accepted. It is who they are, because gender is fluid, and the only real difference between men and women is biological, not emotional.

In the U.S. we would call this nonbinary or gender queer. While identifying as this means that you are a third gender, and you do not fully identify with either, it also means that some days you wake up feeling more masculine, other days more feminine, some days a mixture—but sometimes they feel they always possess mixture and cannot fully identify as a man or a woman.

Wake up people, if this was a made-up concept, and gender was not fluid:

(1) This would not be a cross-cultural phenomenon, and

(2) We would all be robots, all living the same lives, all possessing the same traits, and who the HELL wants to live in that world?

Now, what I ask of you, the reader is to take a step back and imagine if you were born into a biological body that you did not feel like fit you on the inside. Imagine how shitty that would feel, to feel like you did not belong in your own physical body.

In addition to that, REMEMBER, you do not need to fit into a perfect box that society tries to put you in—boys are born with the same potential to be emotional, embrace it. Girls are born with the ability to have the same interests as men. Or you could be a mixture or wake up day to day feeling differently.

No matter who you are or what traits you identify with, you are valid.

Embrace who you are.

You do not owe anyone an explanation.

And ALWAYS, ALWAYS be kind to and mindful of others.