“You can always tell who the strong women are. They are the ones you see building one another up, instead of tearing each other down.” -Unknown
As a woman, it breaks my heart to see women “hating” on other women. The way that society has conditioned women plays a part in this cycle. We are constantly told what the standard of beauty is, and if we’re not up to par, we must be lacking something. Wrong! Truth is there’s enough room in this world for every woman to succeed.
Supporting a fellow woman is the ultimate honor. We shouldn’t look at a woman’s success and be envious. Her success should motivate us! When I look at successful women, it makes me want to progress in my life and set new goals for myself. Don’t confuse this with competition. I will never be in competition with another woman because we all bring something different to the table.
Photo by: Sa’Maria Boyd
Another thing that I noticed is that women are continually being pitted against one another. For example, Rihanna came out with Fenty Beauty last month, and everyone is talking about the shade range of the foundation. Rihanna released 40 different shades in the Pro Filt’r foundation to accommodate every skin tone. Amazing, right? Huda Kattan, founder of Huda Beauty, is releasing her own foundation, Faux Filter, on October 13. She’s releasing 30 shades, ranging from light to deep dark. This is amazing too, right? You’d be surprised to find out that people are accusing Huda of not being inclusive enough and trying to down her brand, because she didn’t do what Rihanna did. News flash! Rihanna and Huda are two different women with two different brands. I’m not sure why there is a need for a competition between the two. Both have an impressive amount of shade ranges, so both should be celebrated and not compared to one another. Let’s support both women and congratulate them on doing something amazing instead of trying to make one better than the other.
Social media is another thing I want to address. I notice that a lot of negative and nasty comments come from other women. When did it become okay to be negative to other women online? Telling another woman that she’s “fat,” “ugly,” or whatever the insult may be is not okay! Sitting behind a computer or phone screen and being a bully is not okay. If you have nothing nice to say, please keep it to yourself. There is absolutely no reason that you need to tear down another woman to make yourself feel better.
Photo: Sa’Maria Boyd
I don’t see why all women cannot win. We stand in our own way when we choose to be hateful towards another woman. Women already have to work twice as hard to receive the same credit as a man, we shouldn’t have to work that hard to receive that same credit from women. Leave the nasty comments to yourself if you have nothing nice to say. If someone’s makeup is beautiful or if their outfit is incredible, tell them. There’s no reason that we can’t uplift other women. When women support other women, amazing things start to happen!