Ok I was wrong
A really long time ago I wrote about how “boring” my girl friends were but I was just being stupid and condescending.Â
This past year I’ve cultivated some of the most fulfilling and fun and wonderful and empowering relationships with WOMEN.
Just because many women are more emotional or whatever, does not make them - us - weak. I am sorry I subscribed to such a sexist idea.Â
I also used to always say I wish I were a guy because 1) they’re physically stronger, 2) get paid more, 3) don’t have periods, 4) don’t have to be pregnant aka have a parasite in their body for 9 months (sigh......), etc., etc., but recently I’ve been really happy and proud to be a woman, esp. in the STEM field, which has traditionally and has continued to be male-dominated.
It’s sad because I never realized just how much sexism is present in the real/professional world, which I feel like you never really see in school... I see it in the way my usually bitchy boss turns unusually soft and compliant when she is berated by a male superior; in the way she is treated with less respect than her male counterpart, though she has worked in the lab for longer; in the way my female coworkers are treated differently in the workplace based on their appearance; and of course in my own interactions...
In the way my female lab manager initially assumed I was dumb and incompetent, because I “wore too much makeup”Â
In the way the dentist I shadow told me recently that I should just marry a rich guy to provide for me because I’m a “cute girl”Â
In the way too, that I make certain assumptions about someone based purely on gender.
I used to be lowkey annoyed at really loud-spoken feminists. Like ok I get it we’re equal, but we’re also different, you know? There were certain things feminists seemed to want/ask for that just didn’t make sense to me. But now I’m not so sure where the line is, between equal and different. Yes, we are biologically different, but are certain differences I see a true indicator of how we are, or is it how we have been conditioned to be, through centuries of subjugation? (And why do I feel the need to apologize for using such a forceful word?)Â
I used to think certain stereotypes were stereotypes for a reason - because they were fundamentally true. But are they really, or does our belief in the stereotype perpetuate that stereotype?Â
I don’t know anymore.
