As girls in college, we need to stop pitting ourselves against each other.
I keep seeing articles defending girls who are in their "party" phase and articles defending girls who have never been and would never go to a college party in their lives. None of us should feel the need to defend ourselves. None of us are better than anyone else, whether you spend your weekends dancing on tables drunk, or reading your favorite book curled up in bed, for the millionth night in a row.
If you're a self-proclaimed party girl, the nerdy girls look down their noses at you. You're a bimbo. An airhead. A whore. Asking for it. They look down on you for going out to the bars, the parties, for drinking, for doing anything as simple as wearing a crop top. They feel superior, patting themselves on the back for not being like you. You rush to your defense, saying that you just like to have fun, and don't want to waste your youth. You scramble to come up with a way to properly invalidate the person attacking your personality, assuming who you are, and making you feel bad about the life you are living.
If you're the self-proclaimed book nerd, the party girls look down on you from atop their stilettos they use like thrones. You might consider yourself a bit awkward, so you try to act like the spitfire women in the books you read. You jump to your defense when people call you a stick in the mud, or roll their eyes when you stay cuddled up in your blanket burrito as opposed to going out to a bar or a party. You say things like "well, at least I don't need alcohol to have a good time!" You use all the big words in the monologues you've read in all your favorite novels and pat yourself on the back for being the strong female character you were meant to be.
It's not just the party girls and the nerdy girls, though. It's the country girls, the hipster girls, the manic pixie dream girls, the Victoria's Secret "Pink" girls, the athletic girls, the musical girls, and every girl in between. We need to stop all the name-calling and superiority complexes. You're not better or worse than anyone just because you like drinking, or reading books, or shopping, or mudding in your free time. There is no right or wrong way to be a girl. You can love or hate, do or don't do, approve or disapprove of any number of those things, but those things you like to do don't define your entire being. You don't have to limit yourself to being shoved into a labeled box. You can like partying, mudding, heavy metal concerts, vintage clothes, and nerdy books and movies. You don't have to waste your time screaming about how being a certain type of girl is better or worse than being a different certain type of girl.
Instead of constantly bashing each other and defending our hobbies, we should take a step back and empower each other. There's nothing wrong with being proud of who you are and what you love, but doesn't it get exhausting constantly feeling like you have to bash those girls who are different from you? Stop with the catty attitudes and find something you have in common with a girl you would normally bash. You might be surprised. You'll feel better when you realize that it's more fun and freeing to let people love what they love and not to care if they try to judge you.
Remember the ancient proverb: "girls just wanna have fun;" not all girls think the same things are fun, and that's okay!
