I still cannot believe that in the 21st century, the year 2017, femininity is still seen as a weakness. It is exhausting really to work hard, study hard, give everything your all and still be seen as weaker because of your gender.

At this day and age, we can recognize the strides made by the feminist movement. Now more than ever, equality is out there, and while we continue to fight for our reproductive rights, access to education worldwide, and global equality, we struggle with societal stereotypes.

I am in no way trying to say that femininity being seen as a weakness is the biggest inequality all women face and that it much more important than contraception, abortion, education, female genital mutilation, and domestic violence, among other much bigger problems, facing women around the world. It is just one of the few that have recently peeving me.

Not a day goes by where I don't hear someone, women included shame femininity. Whether it be one girl looking down on another for liking makeup and boy bands, a guy calling that same makeup loving girl a shallow bimbo without knowing her, or a guy shaming his friend for doing things or liking things that can be seen as feminine.

I remember growing up thinking that I had to be a tomboy because those were the type of girls that were respected. No one would want to be my friend, no one would want to vote for me for Second Grade Class President, no one would take me seriously if I played with Barbies or loved the Cheetah Girls. So I began to play sports, I watch Avatar the Last Airbender and I listen to classic rock, not because I actually liked those things, which I eventually grew to love (but only because they're objectively really awesome things to like) but because being a "girly girl" was the worst thing I could possibly do.

On the low, however, I devoured InStyle magazines, rewatched High School Musical 87 times, and spent my free time searching for the newest, coolest makeup tutorials. Now, I don't care what people think about my interests, whatever they are, and whatever category they fit into. I also don't think of myself as superior because I grew up wanting to be Chemist instead of a Fashion Designer like the other girls. (I wanted to be both actually).

I grew sick and tired of girls, and boys, bringing other girls down because they deem their hobbies or interests "too girly". Since when is it a competition? Since when does "not being like the other girls" make you better? Are you really that much more of an intellectual because you don't care about makeup and One Direction (gone but never forgotten)? We are all allowed to like whatever we want to because at the end of the day that is what makes us special.

I wrote my college essays about a debate competition in which me and my pencil skirt clad girly girl best friend of a partner where looked down upon for being the girly girls, even by the other girls competing who couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that your interests and hobbies have so little to do with your merit. I once went to sign up for Philosophy Club and high school and was given the "up/down" by a boy in the club who asked if I was signing up for the wrong club.

If Hillary Clinton was given so much smack for rocking those pant suits, imagine if she would've thought to wear a skirt. That being said, she was still looked down upon for expressing herself with her outfit choices, when that had nothing to do with her policies and ideas, regardless of whether or not you agreed with them.

Femininity continues to be seen as a weakness. A girl cannot like makeup and fashion and be taken seriously. Girls themselves look down on the "girliest" of the bunch, and I am tired of it. We are allowed to be girly and intellectual, they are not mutually exclusive, and just because you are not overtly feminine, it does not make you superior to those who are.

You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift is still one of my favorite songs of all time, mostly because it will never not be relatable (if you know, you know), but I also recognize the flaws in her thinking. Just because the other girl wears short skirts and you wear t-shirts, it doesn't mean you're better than her. Comparing ourselves like that leads to more harm than good, if you want to prove you are the better choice, do so by comparing how you both treat him, while Taylor loved the guy, the other girl never understood him. Thats a valid comparison, not the cheerleader vs marching band.

I think the best example of all of this is my favorite movie, Legally Blonde. Although fictional, it has served to inspire me each and every single day. Elle Woods never saw her femininity as a weakness, even while others falsely did. Every time someone does that to me, I just want to shove the movie in their faces and show them that my favorite color, the filler words I like to use, and my love for cheesy dramas, have so little to do with what I am capable of achieving.