“Women should be more complacent” is an ideology that has been all too prevalent for centuries. Women are expected to be timid, quiet, and obedient.
As girls grow into adolescence, they are told to keep quiet about their sexuality. This creates a conflict of not embracing your sexuality for yourself versus presenting yourself sexually in a manner to appease those around you.
While boys are expected to be playboys, girls are expected to somehow multitask by being modest and immodest. Often labeled as “prudes” if they do not act sexual enough and “whores” if they act too sexual.
And yet when a woman steps out of this paper-thin line, she is shunned by society.
Pop culture heavily dictates a woman’s role, whether that is being complicit or being outgoing, sometimes going as far as shaming other women into what is considered a “pick-me girl” in today’s society.
A pick-me girl revolves around internalized misogyny. Often played as an exaggerated character in skits, she is a girl who will put down other women, and sometimes herself, for male validation.
Popular anti-feminist males, such as Andrew Tate, run podcasts ridiculing women while oversexualizing them yet claiming they need to be more submissive.
Men like Tate influence young males and females everywhere, and due to their manipulation, there has been a chain reaction of transformations in how women willingly present themselves in the media.
The key word is “willingly”; women are finally beginning to own their sexuality
instead of being forced into it. However, progress does not always mean everyone is on board.
Media is moving quickly, and social media is shortening our attention spans. There are trends women are expected to keep up with, and there are too many subcategories that we are being sorted into.
Feminism has become a warzone. Many men online have coined the phrase, “Equal rights, equal fights,” and while they believe it to be humorous, it is setting a horrific precedent.
Young boys will see this, and in turn, mock feminism and call women too sensitive for fighting for equality.
Because of these attitudes in the media and online, girls are being influenced by this and developing internalized misogyny as a way to feel more accepted in a male-dominated society.
Some girls may agree to not be criticized or harassed further by ruthless internet persecution.
Furthering this need to be categorized and fit everyone into a box has been detrimental to the minds of our youth.
Kids already struggle with self-discovery, and constantly being told who they should be can lead them down a dark path.
Our children are being set up to normalize abuse and accept bad behavior from the men in their lives. What kind of message is it sending to young girls that a boy is only picking on them because they like them? Why do we let our boys get away with this?
Young girls are terrified of boys’ opinions of them. I can speak from experience that during youth, this social hierarchy feels like life or death.
Youth are being influenced in negative ways. Cyberbullying is prevalent, and suicide rates in youth are rising. According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death in 10-14 year-olds.
In the end, I know a random article may not be very influential. You will finish reading, and maybe I slightly impacted you, but you will ultimately make your own choices.
Maybe you simply do not care about how quickly society’s views on women change, and how detrimental these ever-changing opinions are affecting society’s developing youth; however, if we let these fears of no one caring stop us from using our voices, then we would never have change in our society.
It is important to discuss uncomfortable topics and question why these things happen.
I do not need to be a psychology major to understand humans are complex; we like what is safe.
Venturing out of our comfort zones sends alarm signals to our brains, but if no one ever spoke out about what they believed in out of fear, then we would not have the progress we have today.