This quote is floating around the internet and, frankly, it's making my blood boil.
As if women don't have enough negativity in their lives without quotes that tell us that we can either A) subscribe to a very limited list of shallow qualifications in order to be female or B) be men. Not only that, all the qualifications that make one female involve altering your physical appearance. While many women enjoy applying makeup and putting outfits (you go, fashionista girls), many of us do not. Personally, I put very little effort into my appearance. That doesn't make me any less of a woman. I still deserve my vagina. The idea that swearing, drinking, and eating copious amounts of your favorite food (we all do it) somehow makes you ineligible to be a woman is not just annoying, it's harmful.
It's harmful because it encourages women to believe that they have to be a stereotypical, heterosexual, cis-female in order to deserve to be called a woman. It encourages people to judge and admonish women who enjoy going out and taking full advantage of their right to free speech. Moreover, these lists are part of a larger movement that restricts females to a pre-set lifestyle, which has been derived from outdated stereotypes and a fear of independent, unique women.
This isn't the only message that limits girls to a narrow list of characteristics, and that's an even bigger issue. There are plenty of lists, memes, and gifs being shared right now, each one saying something along the lines of "I don't know how to be a girl" or "teach me how to be a girl."
We don't need anyone to teach us to conform to some outdated, highly restrictive set of personality traits in order to feel OK about our gender. We need to support each other in whatever we do, and however we choose to do it. Some of us may love dressing up and styling our hair, and that's great. Others may enjoy putting our hair up and moving on with our day.
Too often we tear each other apart from a distance, and we do so based solely on each other's physical appearance. "Why is she wearing makeup at the gym?" or "Why didn't she dress up? This is a [insert event here]" are other ways that we restrict ourselves and the women around us. In order to beat these limitations and support our gender, it's imperative that we stop sharing these messages and stop enforcing them upon ourselves and others. We are worth so much more than our physical bodies and what we are willing to do to alter them.
