There is nothing like the bond of two drunk girls in the bathroom. Complete (drunken) strangers will tell you how freaking boss you look that night and how great your lipstick is, and that is probably the most important bond you have. It is completely unexpected, unwarranted, and undeniably genuine, and that is what makes it so strong. Female friendship is paramount. Sisterhood, yo, is the strongest bond I think there is. There is something special about female bonding that I don’t know can be matched anywhere else. There is a reason Meredith's person is Cristina and not McDreamy and why so many women can connect to that.
The importance of female friendships is something I didn’t really realize until I was a sophomore in college, a year into being in a sorority, and pretty deep into my women and gender studies minor. Since then, I've been constantly noticing notice the positive effects these relationships bring in myself and others.
There is this absurd notion that women hate each other and are in constant competition, but I think that is definitely the exception, not the rule. Who else is going to understand the hustle better than another woman?
I think the weirdest place I have found female friendship is in a page on Facebook, “This Is Not A Cooler But …” This connection page is a reject page from a much more popular page called “The Cooler Connection,” where people post pictures of the coolers they have painted, ask questions, or share anything else cooler-related. “This Is Not A Cooler But …” was created to enable people to ask questions and share their creations that were not specifically about priming and painting frat coolers.
At first, this page was strictly about crafts and other handmade goods, but it has evolved to be so much more than that. Girls from all over the world post about everything from formal dresses to senior thesis titles to Bell’s palsy. Sure, it's polite to post a craft you have made on posts not related to crafting in order to keep it relevant to the page, but sometimes the posts are so personal that that isn't really appropriate. These girls are strangers, and yet they feel like this is a place they can come no matter what -- some girls even ask for advice they wouldn’t ask their friends. There are always women who get angry about the non-craft posts, but for the most part, this group is largely positive.
I think the beauty of this group really hit me in early January when a woman, Kate, posted about her fairly new case of Bell’s palsy. She posted late at night when she was at her wit’s end. She wasn't necessarily there to post about her woes but to give advice so other women wouldn't go through the same pain she was experiencing. The post was inundated with motivational comments from other women with similar stories and kind words. I have never seen more strangers come together and show so much support on a post.
In a day and age when the internet can be a very negative outlet, and women’s issues are often swept from view, here is this massive, 20,000-person group on Facebook that is literally there for anyone who needs help or wants to share something they are proud of. Regardless of affiliation or location, this is a sisterhood bonded by female friendships -- and that's so important.
