One of my favorite internet memes is the “let people enjoy things” picture above. Why? It’s pretty self-explanatory. As a societal whole, we need to start letting people enjoy things. Let people do what they want. If it doesn’t involve harming themselves or others, being disrespectful or hateful, then why are you trying to stop them from doing that thing? Why does it bother people if girls wear a lot of makeup or like sports? Why does it bother people when boys don't like sports or want to wear makeup? There is a universal truth that we are all just hypocrites, but shouldn't it be our duty as humans coexisting to at least try to minimize the damage?
My inspiration for this article comes from an incident that occurred about a month ago. There was a video circulating Facebook that attempted to portray sororities as creepy and controlling cults. I do not even really feel the need to explain why that is completely inaccurate. I saw this video before I was even in a sorority, before I even began the recruitment process to join a sorority and it bothered me. The sorority I am now proudly a part of is literally based on love, labor, learning, and loyalty. Our primary purpose is genuinely “to inspire the highest type of womanhood.” We are a group of strong and intelligent women who are very different in a number of categories from height to political beliefs. There is absolutely nothing about us that “discourages individuality” or is "deceptive", such as the video suggests. The video is enforcing every negative stereotype there is about sororities and the problem isn't that I'm being too sensitive about this. The problem is this is just wrong and disrespectful. All of the sororities at my school are far from this stereotype, we all speak to each other regardless of the difference in letters and support each other's philanthropies. While it may be amusing to call it a cult, the facts are that it just isn't like that.
I digress, would the people sharing the sorority video feel the same way about me sharing a video considering something they enjoyed a cult? Why can’t we just let girls enjoy being a part of a sisterhood? What is so wrong with that?
I’m not addressing the “It’s my page, I share what I want" argument, I am trying to make people realize their hatred and judgement is unnecessary. You won’t see me sharing how the concert addicts or car lovers are part of a cult because it is something that people enjoy. It is just another area of interest that despite the fact it may not entertain me, it entertains someone else. I would never reject someone's hobby or something they love to do because 1.) what is the point? 2.) if it is not personally affecting me negatively, why would I care? 3.) UH, it is just plain rude.
The idea that I am trying so hard to verbalize is that you cannot make someone feel inferior for not liking the same things you do or liking things that you don’t.
If you’re a girl that enjoys eating pizza and hanging out with other girls, that is okay. If you’re a boy that wants to dance a ballet to a Bowie song, that is okay. If you’re a girl who wants to dye your hair a million times and follow an EDM dj around the country, that is okay.
The amazing part about the human species is that we can literally be any person we want at any time. We are not restrained to being one kind of human or living one kind of lifestyle. I can go shopping with my sorority sisters, golfing with my guy friends, and rock out to Rage Against the Machine with my little sister that same night. We’re limitless. We don’t need someone telling us what we like to do is wrong because it’s really all a matter of our own opinion. Gender roles and stereotypes have become such an integral part of our society that I have noticed genders turning against themselves. Don't feed into it. We do not need to conform to a certain standard of societal expectations, our brains are way too complex to even consider such a thing.
So let girls be loud and preppy and wear makeup and not have their hair done every day. And let boys watch The Bachelor and be a bandwagon Patriots fan or not be into cars and video games.
And the next time you see something that you don’t necessarily enjoy, but other people might just remember:
