Let's be frank here: women can be vicious creatures. Just go to any middle school, high school, celebrity Facebook page, or bar and you're bound to hear a woman insulting another woman. Too fat, too skinny, acne, bad dye job, broken nails, nasally voice, slutty clothes, big nose... The list goes on and on.
When we faced these problems as children we were told to "just ignore it" or that "you're the better person, so don't let them win." We were told that the bullies would eventually learn their lesson or stop messing with you, but let's be honest here: the women who insult others won't stop picking on them. Whether they still pick on you or they move on to a new target, they will still be at large, terrorizing others, and your pacifism will do more harm than good.
There is a solution though, one so simple that we tend to overlook it or act as if it's impossible. One so blatantly obvious, so low-risk, and so simplistic that it could be implemented at any time in every part of the world...
Just stand up for each other. Don't be a pacifist, don't watch as it happens and do nothing, and don't join in on the torment that so many women face.
The main reason we don't do this is because of our "let's not get involved" and "what if they ostracize me" mentalities that, let's be honest, are pretty sad. We are allowing someone to be judged or even tormented in some cases just because we don't want to get involved.
We don't want to step in and help get that person out of a bad situation. We don't want to tell our friends that they were being rude. We want to fit in, and who really even cares about the poor girl with nerdy glasses and braces at 23-years-old? She's weird, you're not, and that's all that matters.
We've been shunning "weird" people for millennia, justifying our right to pick on them and make them feel useless, but it's time that changes. If women united to focus on the positive and accept the "weird" in other women, we could create a revolution where the tormentors no longer had a platform to speak on. Their views, now actively rejected, could fade away.
If we push these tormentors out of their comfort zone by actively confronting them and helping their target get away, two things will happen: the women saying those things would eventually be unable to find a target, and the women being judged would feel more confident in who they are—potentially even confident enough to help another woman in a similar situation.
But women aren't the only ones who judge women; there are entire movies, television shows, and events where fraternities rank women by their looks. Men are equally at fault, but if enough women stood up, the push for a more positive and accepting environment would hopefully overwhelm these people who have normalized cruel, judgmental statements.
The choice is yours: do we stick to the status quo, or do we rise up against these comments and start a revolution?
