Is How Others Perceive You, Your Identity?

For the longest, ladies have been looked at as fragile and we can't do certain things all because of the perception of others. But does that make us women who we are? I guess my overall question is how others perceive us really who we are? 

I talk a lot about this stuff and I get so in tune with it because I am not who others say I am or who they think I am. Because I have basketball all of my life and grew up hanging out with boys, I feel I am better than others, stuck up. Because I am a girl though, I am trying too hard and still fragile. 

When reading over Fear by Gomez, it touched me because to me, it states if you are a man, you have to be hard, you are untouchable and you cannot show that you are fragile. I think otherwise! Because of how others see you, doesn't define who you actually are. That is not your identity. 

A quote that really interested me: "Men puff up their chests and curse and yell and fight and even die to avoid being called afraid, as if it were a mortal sin, the worst one of all."

The article even talks about how fathers have plenty talks with their sons about being tough but I feel that sometimes it is okay to not be tough. It is okay to cry. 

In this generation, it is so hard for people to really grasp that you do not have to mask it. Take off the mask, be yourself and forget how others identify you.