# @creatingcitizenssf on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CXcOAdZvmJ3
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/32550350-creatingcitizenssf-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/157f7bd97c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-12-13T23:08:40.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Creating Citizens (@creatingcitizenssf) — https://gondola.cc/creatingcitizenssf

## Caption

Our first session of #QuestionsUnasked is with Zaria Romero, who participated in last week's panel "Climate + Justice: Young Activists Speak Out". We asked her, “What is the role that gender plays in climate justice?”
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In my personal experience, I do not know many climate activists who identify as male. Almost everyone I know who is engaged in climate activism identifies as female. I think the gender difference is due to cultural stereotypes and norms that society creates for both men and women. For female-identifying people, society tells us that we are supposed to be caring and emotional. For male male-identifying people, society tells them that they should be strong, tough, and not to show their emotions because that would make them weak. This conditioning starts from the day we’re born and continues throughout our whole life. But masculinity in itself is not a “bad” thing, but it becomes dangerous when it turns into toxic masculinity.

Toxic masculinity can occur when men feel that they need to assert their manliness, and a way to do this is to reject actions that would threaten their masculinity. Some examples may be rejecting becoming vegetarian or vegan because eating meat is manly, or rejecting eco-friendly products because they are “too manly to care about the environment.” This can be detrimental in many ways, and to share a personal example which happened recently, I had an interview project in one of my classes and we could interview anyone we wanted.

One of my classmates interviewed a corporate leader I believe and one of the things he said was that it’s not that he (or other business leaders) don’t believe or agree with scientists about climate change, but that at least he believes we will come up with technology that will save us from climate change. In my opinion, that is a dangerous game to play, especially because according to the IPCC report we have less than 10 years before we will see irreversible damage due to climate change if we do not change our actions now. And speaking as a Conservation student, there are too many interconnected systems and networks at play when we talk about the effects of climate

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- **Likes:** 7
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## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Demille | @demilletaylor | https://gondola.cc/demilletaylor | Graphic Designer |
| Demille | @demilletaylor | https://gondola.cc/demilletaylor | Social Media Intern |

## Tags

questionsunasked

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