I know we’ve all been there. We look at other girls with our judgmental eyes, study what they are wearing, how they act, what they say. It is just what girls do. We cannot stop ourselves from staring at one another. Is it that we possibly feel threatened by other girls? It is because we are jealous of them? I know I find myself staring and judging girls every single day on campus. It is hard not to when girls are so critical of each other in today’s society.
But with plenty of other people trying to judge us and critique us, us girls need to stop fighting one another and learn to ban together in order to take a step in reclaiming our femininity. Tiny Fey, writer of the movie Mean Girls based off of the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which I am sure you all have seen about ten times, has some solid advice hidden in the movie we can learn from and start utilizing in our own daily lives about feminism and what it means to be a girl.
In the scene where all the girls are in the gym because they have gone absolutely crazy because the Burn Book has been scattered across the halls on pages, Tina Fey’s character Ms. Norbury tells all the girls something really important, “You all have got to stop calling each other sl*ts and wh*res. It just makes it okay for guys to call you sl*t and wh*res.”
I am going to let that sink in for a moment. Think about it. We go around calling girls these horrible names, sl*t shaming, and bullying one another for what we wear or our sexual actions. We are perpetuating sexism against one another. How are we suppose to rise above our patriarchal oppression if we don’t stick together? If we look at each other in negative ways because of this, it just lets guys do the same thing. For us to start making progress for gender equality, we must all stick together. Girls need to start loving their fellow girls because after all, we all are in this together.
It is okay to get emotional sometimes, let it all out. We all have plenty of emotions deep down inside of us, or more of them on the surface such as this girl. But just because we have feelings and emotions does not make us weak. It makes us humans because we have the ability to feel, to love, to hurt, to be enraged. Don’t let anybody tell you just because you feel, that you’re soft or powerless. Don’t let anybody ask you just because you might break down once in awhile, if you’re on your period. Us girls have the right to feel the way we want. And just because we might cry sometimes, doesn’t makes us unstable people. Holding in our emotions will only hurt us in the end. So, if you see your fellow girl looking down, help them out, let them know you’re there for them.
We all go through the same things, we all experience our excruciating periods, we all experience discrimination at one point or another for being female, we all see the looks we get when we’re wearing a short skirt or shorts. We need to be able to connect with one another and realize though we all may be different, and yes we do all experience different things, in the end we all are just the same: female. And letting each other hurt one another, that just gives males leeway into hurting us as well. Picking on one each other won’t change anything. It won’t change who we are like Cady says. So, in the end, all this name calling is only hurting ourselves.
Never dumb yourself down for a guy or change who you are just to fit in with the “right” crowd. We need smart, independent women in this world in order to lead this feminist movement into action. Never let anybody tell you you need to change how you dress, what you say, who your friends are, your intelligence, or anything about yourself. Be who you are and the right people will love you for it, if not they’re not the right people.
Girl World should be a place of support. We need to stop fighting against each other, and come together. Female empowerment starts with us, the females. It is plain and simple. So stop calling each other names, and start realizing we’re in this together: we are females and we are strong. We have the power to do anything. So the next time you’re walking around campus, make a point to stop yourself from judging other females, especially for what they wear. Instead, flash them a smile or a friendly head nod.
If we want to be taken seriously, we have to start taking ourselves seriously first. And that starts with all of us banning together in this awesome girl power love for each other. Remember to be kind always. We all quote this movie like crazy, let’s not forget the meaning embedded in it as well. And remember the words of Tina Fey, unless you want to end up getting hit by a bus. Instead, start promoting feminism, and you’ll be “going like Glen Coco.”