We compliment women by using one simple adjective: pretty. Being pretty and looking pretty have taken such significance over female lives, and never for a second have we realized the emptiness of that word--a word that was set up to mean so much.

A close girlfriend and I were Facebook stalking, as per usual, random girls we came across while procrastinating in the library. Looking through pictures posted by these girls, we were saying the same comments on repeat: "She is so pretty!" "Wow look at her eyes, they're gorgeous," "How is she so pretty, it's unfair!"

And as flattering as these comments are to those girls we were genuinely complimenting, we both took a moment to reflect on what we just had said and done. We based our opinions on these women we did not even know solely on the pictures they took and posted, and how they looked in them. We actually had positive impressions of these women because they looked "pretty." What did that even mean, and what even made someone "pretty?" And who were we to decide if these girls were "pretty" or not?

"Pretty" is used to describe and compliment women for sure — but it is also used to describe objects. We describe flowers, drawings and anything pleasing to the eye as "pretty." I realized that as women, by calling girls "pretty," we were reinforcing the objectification of women and the enforced gender role of gaining value from being pleasing to men.

In addition, "pretty" is structured by the media and by society. We are controlled by the media to think that a specific look is "pretty." Celebrities are plastered everywhere and denoted as the epitome of beauty. The very word for fashion models makes it seem as if what they look like are "models" of perfection. Anyone who has similar features to these examples of prettiness is someone who we understand as "being pretty" — and I find this in itself to be the problem with using "pretty" as a form of a compliment.

It's so easy for us to compliment each other on our looks, and "pretty" at first is a pleasing word to hear. And making each other feel great about our looks is important for self-confidence. But think about it a little more before you show some love to your girlfriends, and what that word implies.