She's just a girl.
She is nothing more then an attention seeking, overly emotional, dramatic girl.
She does not know what she wants and she thinks she deserves more than she is worth. How dare she strive for greatness and dream of success and achievement. Who does she think she is fighting for her rights and determining who can do what with her body? What makes her think she can stand up for herself and try to obtain equality in this world? Who taught her to be this way? Who ruined this girl and why does she think she can be self sufficient? Doesn't she know she is just a girl?
These are the questions society asks when they see a woman breaking the social norms.
As someone who has been the person in question more then once can I please ask what could I have possibly done to deserve this? To deserve being viewed as an object and not a person? Why does society feel like it is OK to make me live in my own personal hell where I strive for greatness and reach ultimate highs just to be knocked down because of the fact that I was born and fell under the category of female? Why is it acceptable to pay me less and treat me as if I will never be able to obtain the level of intelligence that my male peers may acquire? How come there has to be a debate on whether or not the comments made by a presidential candidate that clearly advocate sexual assault against women should be taken seriously or looked at as "locker room talk"?
Actually, let me apologize as this is not just a personal problem. This is not something that I personally have to deal with everyday but women all over the world face right along with me. Women are made to feel worthless in almost every aspect of their lives. We get paid less, demeaned more, and can't even stick up for ourselves without being seen as a problematic member of society. Starting at extremely young ages we are shown and told that we have to look and act a certain way and that if we differ from the norm we should do everything humanly possible to make our "flaws" disappear. Even if that mean self destructing, body harming behavior. Society beats us down until we can no longer fight for what we want and have no choice but to give into the demands being asked of us. Most of us experience so much mental abuse that we suffer from depression or anxiety and feel as if we have no other purpose in life than to please others.
What makes this situation so much worse is that even today with so many proactive movements occurring regarding so many different issues there are still so many people who view us as a problem. I have even seen women attacking other women for sticking up for themselves and fighting for their own rights.
We stick up for ourselves and start reporting sexual harassment and rape more and get tormented and bombarded with threats and insults about how we are liars, whores, and sluts. We are torn down until we decide to retract our very truthful and real statements and even when we do that we are still removed from society because we have brought shame to it. We advocate for self love instead of self hate and everyone turns into vicious savages and talks about every single one of the flaws they see within us. Whenever we try to better our lives it is as if it flips a switch and society turns into this population of vicious predators whose ultimate goal is to tear us all apart.
What makes this whole situation worse is that when tragedy strikes and a suicide takes place because she just could not take it anymore, the hate, the mental beat downs, the straight up disrespect, society turns around and talks about her as if they knew her and cannot believe what has happened. They act as if they did not drive her to it, like they had no part in it knowing damn well they are the reason she did it in the first place. They warn those about to commit heinous crimes to think about their mothers, sisters, or wife and how they would feel if someone attacked her. I guess my question is why? Why should that even have to be said? Why is this a crime that so many females face at every age? Why should women have be alert at all times because they never know who is lurking around the corner?
At the end of the day, women are just viewed as less. Less worthy, less determined, just less in every way there is.
I am not just a girl. I am a person who deserves to be treated like my male peers. I deserve equal pay and I deserve to be able to do as I wish with my body. I deserve to be able to walk down the street and not get stared at like a piece of meat. I deserve to feel safe walking my dogs at night or walking to my car alone when I am on campus. I deserve to be self confident and I deserve to love my self as I am. I should be able to live my life without feeling the constant pressures of society on my shoulders all the time. I should be able to go to school and work and not have to hear people talk about how she "belongs in the kitchen" and how "stuck up" and "prude" she was because she turned you down or how "emotional" she was when you blatantly disrespected her and she stuck up for herself. I am tired of strong and independent women getting harassed because they ignore society's standards and stereotypes. I am done trying so hard to please those around me who do not even respect me enough to acknowledge all of my achievements I have worked so incredibly hard for.
I encourage all of you amazing women reading this to forget about society's standards. You are your own person and you deserve to build the life you want to live. Continue fighting and continue sticking up for yourselves because you deserve it.
So, I am done being "just a girl" because I am so much more then that and so are you.
Stay strong girls, I am rooting for you!
