It’s rather obvious that society has developed girls to see their own gender as the enemy. In quirky chick flick movies, girls who love makeup and cares about her appearance is portrayed as vain and self-centered. Whereas the girl who rejects her femininity is portrayed as wholesome, unique and someone who is worthy of praise. In action movies, the main female character is effortlessly suave and sexy as she disparages femininity as something to be ashamed of. She says “I’m not like other girls” smoothly as if it was a badge of honor.
I’m ashamed to say that at the beginning of my high school career I strived to be not like other girls. I wanted to people to notice that I was “unique” and “quirky”. Which, for the record makes me wanna to cringe now. But I realize that it was a form of pure attention seeking. And it ironically in search of fulfillment I became empty. I was no longer able to explore interests that I had such as fashion because I didn’t want to be girly. I felt like it was something to be ashamed of. Something that I had to actively hide. But as I grew older I realized that there is no such thing as other girls. It’s just a concept made by society to make girls feel bad for being themselves.
Women, like men, are complex individuals. They can’t be summed up in “every other girl” and “yourself”. It’s an absolutely ridiculous concept that I can’t understand. It’s like saying that I’m not like other Destiny’s because all other girls named Destiny’s are gross. You can’t hate or label somebody because of something so trivial and superficial.
But I can’t blame other girls for falling into the trap. I did myself. But at the end of the day everyone who says this is attacking their own gender to boost their self-image. And that’s a very ugly thing to do. Being feminine is not the problem. Being like “other girls” was never the problem. However, being casually sexist is. And if you’re not able to compliment yourself without using sexism then that’s the real problem here.