For the longest time, women have been criticized for their femininity. Since pre-k, the “girly girls” have been made fun of for choosing pink as a favorite color, because “all girls like pink.” We’ve pushed to differentiate ourselves from the so-called “other girls,” because there we’ve found some inherent weakness in natural femininity. This push for differentiation caused a mass of women to put down other women for doing the things that they enjoy, just because these things are stereotypically girlish.
But things have shifted to change.
The first instance - at least that I can recall - is Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. She proved that a woman can be smart, strong, and worthy of greatness, while still embracing a divine feminine; adorned head to toe in pink, and utilizing her knowledge of both cosmetology and law to solve a case. She broke the mold, befriending the girl who initially put her down for her femininity, proving herself as both feminine and strong.
Elle Woods was before her time teaching young women to embrace themselves as “like other girls,” and feel no shame or weakness in the things that they love.
Since then, we’ve made slow steps toward finding power in femininity. Music and movies have been geared more towards female empowerment - with artists like Doja Cat and Cardi B creating masculine styles of rap with feminine lyrics that empower women. Female artists as a whole have started to acknowledge that other women aren’t the root of their problems and that we all deserve to experience love and celebration. In Taylor Swift’s new release All Of The Girls You Loved Before, she thanks her current lover’s exes, acknowledging what they were able to teach him instead of putting them down.
The overall mindset has changed. We are being taught by each other to uplift, instead of convinced by the male-dominated media to bring each other down. The body positivity movement has been largely important to this change, as we’re taught to see beauty in everyone instead of latching onto insecurities and bringing other women down because of them.
We’ve learned that we find strength and greater accomplishment in a web of women who are empowered by what connects us, instead of all using our differences to separately tear each other apart to try to get ahead.
Written by Lily Greenberg