I'm not writing about this to throw shade at these women, but to raise an important question: Why are (some) women quick to be threatened by another woman's position of power or try to "overpower" a female co-worker?
For the past (school) year, I have been at the top of an organization, where those who have the same job title as I do are men. I have a second job, where I am basically at entry-level, the same as my co-workers. Yet, the only people who have challenged my work or position have been female.
My generation of millennials often discuss and support feminism, and yet we falter to the same issue as generations before ours. Its so strange that women, the protectors, advocates, and progressors for feminism, are often the sex that acts the least feminist.
TO show how prevalent this is in American culture, let's time travel back to 2004, when Mean Girls came into our lives:
I love Mean Girls as much as the next person, maybe more. Let's remember that this movie is a comedy, which exaggerated behaviors of teen girls at the time.
Nothing in this movie is a problem and we all find it so funny because we can all relate to some aspect of the storyline. (Not to mention the genius of Tina Fey & Co.) There is, however, a big problem with this film, as it shows fugly truths about our culture.
As if the constant slut-shaming wasn't enough... Women slut-shame women just as much as men do. Ok, that's ridiculous. How is it that patriarchal ideas and behaviors seeped into the lives of women?
Women have a strong desire to be viewed and treated as equals, but when we begin to adapt cultural traits that are often anti-women or uphold the idea that men are, for some reason, better than women. This is applicable to the workforce, as well. I never thought that I would receive the most undeserved negativism. I know that I'm not the only woman who has experienced these things.
To work toward fixing this issue, women must be kinder to one another. It's hard enough for women to be respected, to find a good job where you get paid even 3/4ths of what a man in the same position makes, to attain a degree, to not be made fun of when she's having a bad day, to know that people value your intelligence more than your looks (which hardly ever happens, it seems), or a multitude of other behaviors and beliefs that control at least half of our nation's population.
Honestly, I have probably heard and equal amount of slut-shaming coming from men and women, but I've never had a man act as if threatened by my job title. Everything I have gained in college has been earned, not given.
When I was younger, I was close-minded and ignorant in some ways, one in which I was fine with slut-shaming and even sometimes condemning of a woman expressing/accepting her sexuality. As soon as I understood what I was saying in this and the negative impacts it could have on other people, I stopped. Men have been granted permission by our culture (compiled by both men and women *gasp*) to embrace and flaunt their sexuality.
America, I think its time to move past the misogyny, already.
People are people are people. Black, white, tan, purple, blue, green, gay straight, bi, lesbian, trannsexual, asexual, queer, non-gendered, polyamorous, tall, short, thick, thin, rich, poor, WHATEVER. We all deserve to be treated with the same kindness and respect you would show to Abraham Lincoln.
It's only fair.
Who knows if this double standard will die in our lifetime, but I hope I see the day. There are great people in this country who are put down or who put others down regularly. Life is temporary. Being selfish isn't going to get you any closer to eternity than the rest of us. Mortality is our (and the rest of life on this entire earth's) reality.
Humanity must change before we all become cold, shiny, hard plastic.
