By society’s standards, there can only be one woman on top: One female pop artist, one female tennis player, etc. — but why? Only a single woman can be talented at something due to this underlying concept that there is only space for one in society. Then comes the idea of competition between especially young women, and in order to be the best at what you do, you must shove other women down.
The other day I was scrolling online and I saw this article about TikTok Stars Bella Poarch and Charli D’Amelio.
At the surface level, this is just an article about how TikTok star Bella Poarch’s follower count has been rising. The article discusses how Bella could slowly take the top follower count from Charli D’Amelio. This could be true and maybe Bella will eventually have more followers than Charli — I can’t help but find myself wondering, why does this matter?
When you even compare follower counts, Bella stands at 38.3 million and Charli is at 94.4 million. Their follower counts are not even close enough to compare who will take the top spot.
This article is about pitting successful women against one another because it maintains that there can only be one woman on top who produces TikTok dance videos.
This concept leads women, especially young women, to believe that they must compete with other women. Rather than supporting, we are taught to fight one another. Instead, women should be coming together to fight injustices they face from the patriarchy.
The sexism in this article is so ingrained in our society that it becomes normalized. The idea that there is only room for one woman in a given space is hegemony at its finest.