When I slept over at my best friend's house for the first time in elementary school, I remember her older sisters showing us the movie "Mean Girls."
At the age of 8 years old, I found the movie funny. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen, and it still stands as one of my favorite movies to this day.
Despite its ability to be quoted in pretty much any situation and its all-star class, there's an important scene that when I re-watched it in high school stood out to me more than ever.
Near the end of the movie when all of the girls are in the gymnasium and Tina Fey's character talks to all of them and makes a speech about why they should be nicer to each other, she says,
Sorry to break it to you, but she's pretty. Just because she's dating your ex, doesn't automatically mean she's uglier than you.
Bashing other females based on their appearance only makes you bad. Negativity about other people makes you that much less likely to be trusted by other people.
Slut-shaming is a real problem, and like Tina Fey pointed out, we can't expect guys to treat us with respect if we don't treat each other with respect.
As females, we should stand together no matter what we look like or who's dating who or who said what to whom about whatever. We've come a long way in feminism, but things could always be better.
Bottom line is, we shouldn't go out of our ways to make other people feel bad. If you try to lift me up by putting down another female, it isn't a compliment. It's an insult towards the other girl, and it makes me want to not be around you.