We recently read something written by Caitlin Moran, one of our favorite columnists, that goes like this, “You can tell whether some misogynistic societal pressure is being exerted on women by calmly inquiring, ‘And are the men doing this, as well?’ If they aren’t, chances are you’re dealing with what we strident feminists refer to as ‘some total f**king bullsh*t.'” This really stuck with us because it’s so deeply true. There are tons of things we women experience that men don’t, and many of them have little to do with our anatomy and much to do with society. Here, a slew of annoying things most modern-day women deal with all too often.
Major Eye Roll
It appears Harry Styles is finally making these devices of torture stylish for men, and for that we applaud him. Still, we've ruined our feet for decades (centuries?) while men have been running around in comfortable footwear, which isn't even to mention the number of times we've risked tetanus out of desperation, just in order to walk like normal humans on the heels with which we were born.
It's fun to imagine hollering at some guy, "You're so hot, baby!" but also, we just would never because, you know, respect for other humans.
When you're a girl, everyone—even your friends—comments first and foremost on how you look, and if they don't say anything about your appearance at all, you assume you look bad.
So PMS is basically the worst thing ever. It makes you feel achy, cramped, bloated and, for some of us, like a totally different person. It's basically like donning a mental fat suit for a week that's also physically painful and emotionally distressing. We can't even imagine what it must be like to have that extra week of feeling good (or at least normal) each month.
Nobody cares how often and with whom a man is intimate, unless he's cheating on his partner (and even then it's sort of considered to be natural behavior). For women, navigating sexuality is trickier—we are sluts or we're prudes or we have a committed partner. There is no other category.
Imagine if your boyfriend/brother/father had to apply foundation and eyeliner every time he left the house. Now, think about how much money we spend on that stuff and never, ever feel guilty about letting someone pick up the check for your dinner again. As if it's not bad enough that we're conditioned to wear makeup, we also have to hear men claim constantly that we look better without it. Which is it? We're so confused, but also we shouldn't have to think about this.
We have never, ever heard our guy friends talk about Botox, and this is probably because by the time they start to worry about the physical signs of aging, we'll all be grandparents. Sure, in LA you sometimes see men who have gone under the knife, but the numbers are not at all comparable to those of women who have done the same.
Women of a certain age who do not have children are basically shunned from our society, if you really think about it. At the very least, they are called out and questioned about it (think Jennifer Aniston), and viewed as failures no matter what they've actually accomplished in life. Men who don't have kids, on the other hand, are no big deal (unless they're hanging out on a playground unaccompanied).
You might argue that men fear walking alone also, because, well, the world is dangerous. We would argue, however, that while men may be afraid to walk alone in an unfamiliar area at night, a woman would be afraid to walk around Beverly Hills alone past a certain hour.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie phrased it better than we ever could when she said, "Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a good thing, a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, and we don't teach boys the same?" Why don't we?
Maybe men experience this, but we've never heard one express anxiety over whether or not they "should" kiss someone after having dinner with them.
This isn't political, we promise. It's just that it's so creepy that men are always talking about what we should or should not do with our bodies. What if the shoe was on the other foot? How creepy would that be?
We're all either too fat or too skinny or don't have big enough boobs or a bouncy enough bottom—there's literally no winning. Men, on the other hand ... meh. As long as they're not Norbit, they're fine.
They're just uncomfortable, and also long in the crotch.
Even worse than tights.
