They call him ambitious, but they say that she’s too aggressive. They call him independent, but they say that she’s not a team player. They call him the boss, and they say that she’s being a bitch. She’s too power hungry, she’s acting too masculine — she needs to tone it down, because her actions aren’t very ‘lady-like.’
NEWS FLASH: We’re not trying to be ‘lady-like.’
We live in a world where you get what you work for, but for some reason, some people are under the impression that as a woman, aspiring for success and being “too” determined is unattractive. And of course, if somebody tells you that your actions aren’t very attractive, that should surely get you to change, right? Wrong.
Firstly, I want to get this straight: women don’t owe it to the world to be pretty. Actually, scrap that, we don’t owe the world anything.
I see too many young girls who feel obligated to use makeup and wear certain types of clothing, all because they want to stand out, and it’s become obvious to them that many people only notice the ‘attractive’ women. We’re so often defined by our looks, before our personality, before our intelligence, so naturally, these things become less important. She’d rather spend her money on cosmetics, than school books. She’d rather be skinny, than healthy. And eventually, she stops dreaming so big, she stops trying to break boundaries, because the limitations placed upon her are exhausting, and it has become so clear that she has to work ten times harder than all the boys to earn some respect. Can you see the problem?
We’ve made progress, sure. Women have more opportunities now — we’re CEO’s, bankers, doctors, lawyers, running for president, and television and film is representing women, more and more, in these lead roles, emphasising that women are equally as capable as men to run businesses and governments. But it’s still not enough, with issues like the gender pay-gap, the constant debate over reproductive rights, domestic violence, and the lack of education for girls, specifically in third world countries, proving that full equality doesn’t exist yet.
These issues affect women on a global scale, and I find it so hard to believe that in 2016, prejudice against women is still very much a thing. I believe that the misogynistic views of the people around us, is a major reason as to why the world isn’t progressing faster — some people are honestly just so uneducated and backwards that they’re stuck in a place where they think that the disgusting views that they have, are logical.
If you’re anything like me, you might feel helpless because all these problems aren’t solely in your hands and you can’t change the world overnight, eradicating sexism and every other form of discrimination. But maybe as women, we can fight this by continuing to empower each other, by standing up against stereotypes placed against us, and never letting other people change the way we decide to live our lives. And to all the men, don’t forget that this is your fight too, you must stand with us, for your mother, wife, daughter, and every other woman in your life — help us to shape the world into an equal one.
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