Friday 8 January 2010

144.

Women are funny creatures. I guess I'm allowed to say this since I am one.
I've been feeling very contemplative lately, inspired maybe - just thinking about all these random little facets of life in general.
My new found confidence and self awareness has made me think about what it means to be a woman in this day and age.
Some like to say that we do it tough, others that we do it easy.
If you look at the stereotypical side of women, we love to shop, we're emotional, we are nurturing, we take forever to get ready, and we obsess over silly things like leaving the toilet seat down.
I've never really considered myself to be a 'typical' woman. And sometimes the behavior of some of my 'sisters' .. really just boggles my mind. Yes guys, you're not alone in not understanding women.

One thing I don't think that I will ever understand about women is why some of us feel the need to drag each other down all the time. You know what I'm talking about... you're out on a Friday night. Everyone is dressed to the nines and out to have a good time. As the night goes on, you have to brave every girl's worst nightmare: the ladies bathrooms.
So you go and line up, behind about 20 other girls.
An attractive girl walks out of the stall, washes her hands, fixes her hair.. then leaves.
You hear the two girls in front of you start talking to each other..
Girl 1: 'Oh my god, what the fuck was she wearing?'
Girl 2: -laughs- 'I know, and did you see the guy she was with before? He could do way better!'

If another female dresses provocatively, she's automatically labelled a skank.
If she gets along well with males, and seems to get a lot of male attention then she's a slut.
If she's smart, and intellectual - then we find a reason to pick at that too.
Girls that are thin, get the 'eating disorder' tag.
Girls that are curvier get called fat arses.

Ladies: I'm not saying that all of us are like this all the time. But I think it's safe to say that we've all been guilty of some of this woman to woman combat at one time or another.
I definitely can't say that I've never done it before. And that makes me wonder... why?

Are we really so insecure that whenever we see a pretty girl - or any other girl for that matter, we have to try and rip her to shreds so that we feel a little bit prettier? Or smarter? Or more superior?
It would be nice, if we could just be supportive of each other instead of feeling like we are in constant competition with each other to be the Queen Bee.

Something that came out in the news recently made me think a lot about this.
Jennifer Hawkins recently posed for untouched, un-photoshopped nude pictures for Marie Clare magazine to promote healthy and positive female body image.
I bet she wasn't expecting the huge wave of criticism that followed this. Everyone seemed to weigh in on this - saying that Jen was a bad example because she wasn't an 'average woman with body image concerns'.
Biance Dye even said: "She was born beautiful. She has not had to go through any stress to look like that,"

And so what? Just because someone is beautiful, does that mean that we have to slam them? I personally applaud Jen for her decision to pose for the photos and have them published without being touched up. Yes - she may not have as many bumps or lumps as some of us. But it's still a brave step for any woman!

We are complicated creatures, and maybe it's just built into us to try and naturally compete.
But I think it's a shame that we do.
Women and men are always portrayed as having to fight against each other, the whole battle of the sexes type thing.
But the truth is - our biggest battle isn't against males.
It's against ourselves.

Let's stop the girl on girl hating.
I reckon we could accomplish so much more if we did.
:)

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