While enjoying one of my nightly mindless scrolls through TikTok, I began to notice that I had seen multiple videos discussing the hate that girls receive for simply enjoying things. If this sounds ridiculous and unwarranted, it’s probably because it is.
Typically, my obsession with TikTok does not manage to engage my thinking skills very often. However, these types of videos managed to stick with me over the next few days. I kept thinking about how it must shape young peoples’ perceptions of themselves and the world around them when they are told that their interests are not good enough to meet society’s standards.
These videos would often include young women discussing typical female interests and how these were frequently classified as “dumb” or “immature” by society. One individual was comparing how people react to a teenage boy discussing his obsession with football versus how people react to a teenage girl discussing her obsession with a popular boy band. The idea that the hobbies of a young girl are less important or valuable than those of a young boy perpetuates the sexist mindset that women are not capable of achieving at the same level as men.
This concept also works to enforce the gender binary, which only takes into consideration two types of people. The world is very diverse and unique, which means that these barriers on people only work to hold them back from their honest selves.
One of the videos I remember watching was discussing the rise and fall of the so-called VSCO girl. These individuals did not cause any harm to society; they just wore baggy shirts and carried reusable water bottles. However, many people soon attacked this concept, which led to the rapid demise of this particular style.
To make matters worse, it turns out that there is no real explanation for the hatred toward trends such as this one. Sometimes, it seems like people just want to bring others’ interests down as a way to elevate their interests.
This is seen often with the idea of high vs. low popular culture. The ranking of different popular culture topics into levels of sophistication seems to always put traditionally female interests towards the bottom of the chart. Whether this “low culture” is reality television or pop music, the division seems to make it fairly clear that some interests are more acceptable than others.
These elements of popular culture are often a target of hate, which makes no sense as they are trending for a reason.
This led me to find it particularly intriguing how some boys were discussing the need to bring back VSCO girls now that they have successfully shamed them into hiding. Society has judged, manipulated and shunned young girls for the trends they follow, and this unfair treatment must change.
This topic also upsets me because it is pushing the barriers of gender stereotypes onto young, impressionable people. Our society loves to shape people into molds that force them to be a certain way.
These stereotypes of how girls think and act only hold them back, which tends to lead to young women being scared to speak their minds or stand confidently in support of their passions.
It is important to have interests and activities to help you learn more about yourself and to escape from your daily routine. When a teenage girl is told that her pastime is useless and does not matter, she feels pressured to either destroy this part of herself or to keep it hidden from the world.
Society needs to realize that it is okay to have a trivial interest in something that may not matter very much on a large scale. As humans, we need to be able to have the freedom and support to pursue harmless fun. Life does not have to always be centered around such serious situations all the time!
The life of a teenage girl is already hard enough without the added pressure of trying to keep up with the rapid changes in acceptable popular culture. It seems like there is never a right way to enjoy yourself as a young girl, which can, unfortunately, cause lasting effects later on in life for all women.
If a young girl plays sports and rejects the popular new song, then she would be told that she “fits in with the boys” and is “cool.” This concept of some things being cool and acceptable always seems to favor the interests of men, no matter what age group is being discussed.
Whether you follow the popular trends or pave your own path, there is nothing wrong with having harmless interests. Sometimes, these hobbies allow you to breathe and distract yourself from other issues. Thankfully, people are multifaceted beings capable of having a wide range of interests. No one should feel forced to alter themselves as quickly as the tides of societal trends come and go. Unfortunately, the unnecessary hate toward teenage girls does not just end when you turn 18, which means this continues to be a mountain women have to climb. If society continues to attempt to silence the things that make us smile, our best defense is to just enjoy our interests as freely and loudly as we can.