Collegiates, it’s time we talked about the elephant in the room. It’s something I’ve been thinking about and just genuinely don’t understand. It’s a question we don’t really ask ourselves or others. Answer me this: Why do we feel the need to tear other women down?
I know I’m not one to talk because we all have our moments where we just gossip about another girl. We are all guilty of it, so this isn’t an article to attack anyone or make anyone feel bad. It’s just a genuine question that I had. What makes us instantly talk about another girl or makes us want to bring her down? Is it out of jealously and insecurity? I know that jealously can make us do crazy things that sometimes we don’t mean. If a girl is dating a guy we like, we instantly feel the need to talk about her. If she’s well-liked by everyone and gets good grades, we talk about her. Insecurity leads us to tearing another girl down because we need to feel good about ourselves. We might feel that it makes us feel better if the other girl we’re jealous of us feels bad. Do we feel powerful? These are all the explanations that would pop up when I thought about this. Even with these reasonable explanations, I feel like it doesn’t answer the question
Why do we not chose to empower women? Ladies, we live in a world where we are constantly being criticized whether it’s by society or men. We have so many standards that society tells us to meet because if we don’t, then we are harshly judged. If we don’t follow society’s standards whether it’s how we look or if we don’t listen to society’s rules, we’re instantly criticized. Why do we need to compete with each other? Do you really think that anything is going to change if you beat her in this made up competition society has created? There isn’t a competition between us. In fact, we should be empowering each other and standing together. Why feed into what society wants? Can you imagine a society where women empowered each other and no one tore anyone down? I’m not saying that we don’t empower each other because we do, but a majority of us still continue to bring each other down.
I challenge you to empower your fellow collegiates! It’s true that when Beyoncé asked who runs the world? It is girls. We do run this world, so why are we going to allow ourselves to hold each other back. We need to build each other up. Be the person that empowers people instead of hurting them. A friend of mine once told me “Girls compete. Women empower.” Where will you stand?