With the growth of social media over the past few years, I've noticed an increasing trend of people bashing women for… enjoying things and living life.
From the incessant jokes about obsessing over the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Lattes to literal verbal attacks on women speaking their mind, it seems that the internet has been and still is a breeding ground for misogyny. And it's honestly so ingrained in us to just say unnecessarily rude things when you only see hate comments under every post.
So why don't we try and stop criticizing people (especially young women) not only in real life but also online? And if you can't think of your own reasons for not being rude, here are some I thought of for you!
1. If these “basic” girls aren’t hurting anyone, what’s the point of hating?
Of course, if a girl (or anyone) is actually saying something that is actively harming someone else, you should try and explain to them why it's harmful. It's easy to get defensive when you're angry and this is totally valid, but constructive criticism and civility might be more effective if the two sides are already in opposition. Although this doesn't guarantee that they will listen or change their mind, at least you'll be reassured that you didn't legitimately cyberbully someone today.
2. Being “basic” is such a weak insult.
When people use the word "basic" to describe people (especially girls), they probably just mean the person has very common interests. (How does drinking a specific flavor of latte make someone worse than someone else?) Maybe they choose to live like that, and there's nothing wrong with it. No one is telling boys they're basic for liking sports, right?!
3. You have better things to do.
I know it can be fun to roast others on the internet. And if you're roasting your friends out of love I guess that can be excused. But maybe leave the rude roasts to yourself and find another hobby? There are millions of other things you can do instead of leaving mean comments under random girls' Instagram posts.
Go read a book or learn an instrument. Meditate, do some yoga, anything. You could leave a nice comment instead! Or log off and take a walk. Talk to your friends. No matter what you end up doing, there's a good chance it'll be more productive than leaving a hate comment.
4. There’s (usually) a real person behind the screen.
This might be the age of bots taking over social media, but that doesn't mean every account is run by AI. Remember that most online personas are actual people, and they might be hiding how they really feel about all the criticism they receive. Just because it's through a screen doesn't mean it's somehow less hurtful than if it were in person.
5. Let young women have fun online.
Speaking from experience, life is already pretty hard for women. We can't walk alone at night, we can't say no, we're expected to be mothers, and we're tired. Social media is definitely an outlet where we can escape or even talk about our problems, and we enjoy using it. So just leave us alone and let us have fun posting silly pics or tweeting about ourselves. Cyndi Lauper said it best: girls just wanna have fun.
There's enough talk of the memes about respecting women. Now it's time we actually do it.
man running in forestPhoto by 
