Why We Should Stop Putting Other Women Down

by Mahira Taj

It’s quite common for the public to stereotype the masses. Often these stereotypes come with racist and sexist connotations. Women are no strangers to this, since a lot of television and other media like to make fun of the female gender- particularly adolescent females, shaming them for liking their favorite bands, movies, etc. ‘Chick flicks', movies and books apparently popular with young women, is a term created to look down upon the media young women consume. The twilight saga, a movie series that has many faults and predatory behaviors displayed by the male leads- has its content excused by the fact that it’s “mostly young women” watching, so of course it’s bad. The same cannot be applied to other bad movies directed to a male audience. In that case the bad movie is entirely the fault of the writing and directing cast (which is how it should be) and no association is made with males.

On the other hand, these generalizations often have bad outcomes. Women are ashamed of being themselves, and being outspoken about their preferences. When speaking about their love for boybands, like One Direction, BTS, NCT etc. (all hugely popular because of their music and creativity) women are usually ridiculed. The media continue to criticize their likes and dislikes, shunning their tastes in music. A notable example of how these stereotypes affect others is Billie Eilish- a Grammy award winner whose songs are shrugged off as being the makings of a “typical emo teenage girl”, disregarding any talents and struggles she may have had as a human being.

The reason for these things remains hard to understand. Part of it may come from an objective view society holds that women “don’t know any better'. The stereotypes assume that women are guided by their emotions and that we refuse to critic any type of media that is successful tapping into our emotions. Many misunderstandings and generalizations are apparent in this statement, but an effort in bringing this to light would be countered with men saying that women are being “feminazis again”, another attempt by society to highlight the extreme few examples of feminists, and exaggerated jokes made by feminists- and using that to downplay women's struggles.

In order for society to progress, we must listen to each other: without prejudice, or judgement.