One of my friends and I have been talking for some time about the “I’m not like those other girls” syndrome (let’s call it INLTOG, for short). We both had fallen prey to it, and sometimes, I think I sometimes fall into that trap still though I try to be more aware of my thoughts and actions.
Of course we are all unique. We all have our different quirks and talents and things we do. But when it comes down to it… are we really all that different from other people? We become like the people we spend time with. Anyway, why do we want to be so different from other people? As I’ve thought more about INLTOG, I’ve realized that part of my reasoning has come from all the times I have felt left out. Sometimes I don’t feel like a girl because I don’t know much about makeup or fashion and I don’t like to talk about boys all the time. Sometimes I’ve felt isolated by this fact because a lot of the girls around me always seem to be talking about something I don’t know much about. I’ve been excluded by a lot of them, too. But the truth is… A. Sometimes I am the kind of girl that’s more girly. It depends on my mood, but, more importantly, B. Does it really matter if I’m a stereotype? Doesn’t being a woman mean so much more than just the outside – or, rather, the artificiality that our society tries to create? In a world where girls are raised to cut down other women, to take pride in that “they’re not like that,” I think it’s important that we women stick together. And, no, I don’t mean in the radical feminist get-rid-of-all-the-men way. I mean in the way of being decent human beings and helping one another.
HOWEVER, another thought has occurred to me, and this is that this kind of thinking does not take place only among women, or only in secular society. It seems, sadly, to be a Continue reading “I’m Not Like (Those Other People)”
