There is this stigma when a young girl buys a pregnancy test from CVS. She’s got negatives written all over her, and the guy at the register judges her for making a horrible mistake.
Our community ostracizes young women who get pregnant, and creates the assumption that they know exactly how she got to this point. They create a life story where she’s a lowlife, a whore, uneducated, stupid, reckless, and unfit to take care of not only herself but another life. No one has the right to judge another based on the products they purchase. Yet we do it on a daily basis. We assume the young girl buying a pregnancy test is less than we are, and we “feel bad” for her and where her life is going.
It is a shame that is our society’s first reaction to a women finding out about whether she is pregnant or not. People are so concerned about getting to the bottom of “why” or “how” they forget to treat the moment just as it is in front of them. Our prejudice and opinions get in the way of treating others like human beings. We forget we don’t know the specific and intricate lives of anyone around us and it is not our obligation to make up a story for them so we can understand them based on stereotypes.
Stereotypes stop us from getting to know people and cause us to treat them as if they are no different from another. In the aforementioned case of young women purchasing pregnancy test from CVS, so many stereotypes rise up from that single moment, and instead of being treated like a regular customer this young girl is judged, embarrassed, and ashamed. People feel the need to judge in order to make sense of a situation without getting to the bottom of it. It is a quick and insensitive way of making a judgement.
Our judgments are unnecessary and harmful. Who are we to make judgements of others, and who are we to judge a young girl in a moment where she’s scared and vulnerable. What gives us the right to feel that we understand her, and to feel like we know her. There is s so many different aspects about one individual that changes this one moment. For example, this young girl wanted to get pregnant and has been with a serious partner for a long time, or this girl is not pregnant at all but helping a friend who is even more scared, or this girl was raped and never told anyone.
People make it their business to form a judgement in order to give them peace of mind and they forget it is never their place to judge another. Judgements are selfish, and inhumane. For example, the girl buying at CVS is treated differently by the guy behind the register. He makes rude comments under his breath, does not look her in the eye, avoids offering her a sales pitch, and throws her things in a bag with disgust. She leaves the store, and as she passes others look her up in down with their eyebrows raised and their opinions front and center.
What if these judgements lead to doubt, and change this young girl’s opinion on if she keeps the child or not? What if these judgments are the last ones she can take and she ends her own life?
Life is so much more important than making judgements. We all need to take more time before we judge those around us. It is important to let people speak for themselves, and not judge those based on single actions we witness. It’s important to live with one another with open minds and open hearts.