Get angry at a culture that teaches you your appearance matters more than anything else and then smacks you around with a beauty standard you were never meant to meet. At times, our culture feels like it was deliberately designed to make girls and women feel ugly. The virtually inescapable Kardashians peddle appetite suppressant lollipops […]
In a corporate office, for instance, women are infantilized, so they continue to be seen as inferior and therefore less powerful to men professionally. A month ago, a colleague in the corporate office I used to work in asked if I was an intern. I didn’t express how I felt — because why would you, how […]
I guess I was supposed to be flattered because people said I was pretty. But it felt like a liability to me. A dangerous burden. Something that could go wrong. By the first day of fifth grade, I was 5’5″. My almost painfully skinny body made my A cup breasts look much larger than they […]
What I hope for my daughters—for young women everywhere— is an authentic experience of sexuality, free from self-consciousness, shame, or violation. When Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus sang together at One Love Manchester, an all-star benefit for victims of the May 22 terrorist attack, they showed tenderness instead of hotness, a shift from their usual […]
When Democrats say they lost the election because Hillary Clinton was their candidate, what they’re really saying is that they lost because their candidate was a female. I fear that this is the takeaway for young women and girls. There are a lot of reasons to be sad right now. All the progress that’s been […]
Girls, taught to ignore their anger, become disassociated from themselves. Anger is a recurring theme of the current presidential election. Every male presidential candidate has directly and overtly tapped into the very evident rage that the American public feels. They thump podiums, raise their voices, curse, and shout without being called divas, shrill, unhinged, ugly, or unlikeable. […]
I didn’t realize how much I valued my sexual attractiveness until it was “gone.” I’ve been mentoring a young woman in my industry (marketing and content writing). I’ve encouraged her to attend local networking events as a way to build connections and help her build her client base. I’ve been doing the same for years, […]
I look like a typical 51-year-old, and it is just bizarre realizing that my appearance is something many young women dread. I’m going to tell you a story that is so common and so troubling it is effectively split off from the emotional lives of young women, tucked away into whatever neural recesses exist for […]
Fox News says young single women aren’t qualified to vote because they’re all “healthy and hot and running around without a care in the world.” Wait…seriously? Late last month, a panel of Fox News commentators discussed the coming elections when host Kimberly Guilfoyle explained why she didn’t think young single women should vote: “It’s the […]
This originally appeared on The F Bomb. Republished here with permission. “Be careful! You’re just a girl!” people told me before I set off to South America this summer by myself. “Be careful, you’re just a girl!” I heard this phrase far too many times this summer as I prepared to leave for Brazil and […]
