Being a female has its ups and downs, but when you get paid 79 cents to every man’s dollar, then you begin to realize how truly respected you are by the world. In honor of my fellow females, let me shed some light on what it feels like to be a woman to those of you who may not have a clue.
You’re told throughout your life hundreds of times that you’re a girl, not a boy, so stop playing with boys. You’re made fun of for growing boobs, everyone points it out. The second your period appears you are thrown into a world of tampons and pads, which women pay big bucks year round for a pack of.
If you don’t like dressing in a feminine fashion, you are judged because you look too “masculine.” If you dress too provocatively, you’re called a slut. If you dress conservatively you’re judged for being a prude, and for not being sexy enough.
If you wear too much makeup you are fake if you wear too little, the comments come rolling in: “Are you OK? You look so tired!”
If you have sex with multiple people, you’re a slut. Not to mention if you look good for a night on the town and get harassed by some man on the street, you were “asking for it.”
When you get older and join the professional world, don’t even think about having kids or getting married. Why? Because no one is going to pay you for maternity leave, and good luck if your job will be there for you when you get back from your unpaid leave.
So we get treated like nothing because we can bear children, but the second we become professionals we’re seen as a threat because it’s an educated intellectual female. But no matter how educated we are, we’ll always just be seen as “girls.” Not powerful women who help create and maintain the world.
Women are pressured to fit into this multifaceted mold of homemaker, professional, wife and mother. We’re expected to keep the house clean, cook for our husbands and do the chores at home after we get back from work. Except our husbands get to sit around, and if we just so happen to have a husband that actually likes to help us out, they’re looked down upon as weird or “progressive.”
These gender roles and the reality of this cultural and societal issue are detrimental to not only women specifically, but to this whole country.
You shouldn’t respect us because we are your mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters or nieces; you should respect us because we are people!
We have minds and hearts, dreams and aspirations that are so difficult to reach because society expects us to be 100 percent of something 100 percent of the time and then have the ability to switch roles all day long without being exhausted because we still have to look “good” to the public eye. Gain some weight and suffer from some kind of maternal depression and you’re looked at as a bad mom.
So, I’m here telling all you females out there in the world, you are strong, beautiful women. Whether you’re a cisgender or transgender female, together we should stand as one. We are all women after all, and we’ll all be getting paid those 79 cents and maybe even less.
A reminder to the men that will come across this post, this in no way shape or form is meant to bash you. Men are equal to women. For us to have a civil society that we can be proud of, both men and women, must stand together as equals and constantly remind the world of why we should love and respect each other.
Feminist is not a bad word, sexist is.
