Something you start to notice growing up and living as a, let's say, not conventionally attractive woman, is how much feminist rhetoric, especially the kind that gets really popular and commercial, is from the viewpoint of pretty women.
And I'm not saying anything that's being said is wrong per se, but it feels very specific to their experiences, and carries the vibe that they haven't really devoted much thought to what it's like existing as a not-pretty woman.
Which ultimately makes it feel pretty alienating?
Like yeah, it sucks that you get treated like a doll and are expected to just shut up and look pretty, that shouldn't happen. I'm sorry to hear that. Girls like me are expected to just shut up and.... end of sentence. Disappear, preferably.
You don't hear a lot of girl power songs referencing that on the radio.
It just feels weird to watch music videos about how women are treated like shit and deserve better and 99% of the women in the video are still like, very pretty and dolled up. And then there's maybe one dolled up fat girl or one kinda butch girl (never a fat butch girl let's not go crazy) thrown in for decoration.
Like watching the Barbie movie was wild because while it was very clearly a feminist movie, and did in fact have a couple not classically beautiful women peppered in, all the talking points still revolved around the problems thin pretty women encounter with very little consideration for how not being beautiful tends to intensify a lot of these problems, not dodge them.
And it's VERY hard to point this out and talk about it without having internalized misogyny pinned to your vest like you're in the Go Fuck Yourself Girlscouts.