None of us would consider ourselves mean (I hope), but the truth is girls are not always nice to each other. We may be nice to each other’s faces, but behind girls’ backs, who knows what is being said.
Let’s look at the best example of mean girls: the movie Mean Girls. Clever, right? We would like to think that an experience of repeatedly being hurt by a bad friend (bully, frenemy, etc.) would make girls more empathetic towards others in similar situations, but Mean Girls actually shows us that this has an opposite impact. The girl who has been hurt by her mean friends might be equally mean to someone else. Don’t be like those girls in the movie. I know that sometime in your life, a girl was mean to you; it’s happened to all of us. But that does not make it okay to be mean to other girls.
Here are some common questions to ask ourselves about why girls are mean to each other:
1. Why do girls call other girls pretty or skinny with a tone of disgust?
2. Why do girls call other girls sluts?
3. Why are girls so judgmental?
4. Why do girls gossip?
5. Why are girls such bad friends to each other sometimes?
Now the real question is – do any of these have answers?
It is probably true that some girls are jealous and bully others to make themselves feel superior. Some girls may be trying to mask their own insecurities by focusing on other’s imperfections and insecurities. Plus, Facebook and other forms of social media are now providing more of an open arena for this type of indirect female bullying. The virtual world provides an unlimited, retaliation-free space for mocking, shunning, and attacking other people.
So listen up BC girls – we can’t continue this madness. It is sad enough that young girls face bullying so often in school today, but it should not extend through high school and into college. So how can we fix it? How can we stop girls from being mean to other girls? It starts with you.
Don’t stick to first impressions. Sometimes girls just make fun of other girls based on appearance or what they “think” they know about those girls. But these can very well be mislead judgments. It is not fair to assume things about people when you don’t really know them.
Remember that all of us have insecurities, and life is challenging enough without loading it with useless verbal garbage. The truth is we have NO IDEA what other girls are going through. Isn’t it fair that we get to know another girl before we judge her? After all, we would want other girls to do the same to us.
Let’s all try to be nice, ok?
Photo Sources:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/23700000/Mean-girls-mean-girls-23…
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m70kmmfKMn1rb0bzho1_500.jpg