“Say to yourself, I am perfect the way I am. Say to yourself, I am beautiful the way I am. Say to yourself, those who do not accept me the way I am, do not deserve me in their life.” ― Abhijit Naskar, The Bengal Tigress: A Treatise on Gender Equality
Have you been told that you hit, throw, run, punch, or cry like a girl? Do you think it is an insult? I did too. I was told I did push-ups like a girl, and I could barely do any. It was not a fact of gender; rather, I had never tried working my arms out before. A first, I felt I was doing it wrong, I needed to work harder, and not do it “like a girl.” But at the same time, all these voices telling me I did it “like a girl” made me work harder, push harder, and keep going. I reached my goal of ten push-ups in a row. I didn't care that many others could do more. I knew I set a goal and I accomplished it, like a girl!
Whether we realize it or not girls are forced to become weak and give into everything. There is such a narrow path that has been created for us to walk on. If we are not exactly what society says we should be, we always feel like were not enough and we have to be more. Girls are not supposed to like cars, get dirty, or be good at sports. Yet when we are the world’s idea of a “girl” we get teased! Now, I know it is not every guy’s fault. We are all raised in the same world and are exposed to the same ideas. But this mentality gets so lodged in us, whether we are male or female, sometimes we don’t even realize it’s there.
Of course I understand girls are built differently and I understand that genders are very different. But just because we are different doesn't mean we are inherently worse. The truth is, if you are told “you hit like a girl” it is just a fact: you hit, and you are a girl. There is nothing wrong with that!
“Stop acting like a girl.”
“Girly-girl.”
“I’m a girl, I can’t help it.”
“Stop being such a girl.”
We likely here these all the time. It is not bad to be a girl, act like a girl, think like a girl, hit like a girl, or cry like a girl, because you ARE a girl. I hope that one day “girl” will not be an insult. Girls can like cars, get dirty, be tough, and do whatever they want. They should be able to do it without someone saying “you are good - for a girl.”
During the push-up test in P.E. I talked about earlier, guess who got the most? A boy got 37 pushups, and a girl got 38. Girls can work just as hard as boys can. She did not let boys dominate just because it is physical fitness. In school, soccer was all-boys. My friend and I finally had enough of it and joined in. I loved soccer but it did take some time before a boy decided to pass the ball to me. We might have always been picked last, but we never let that stop us from doing what we wanted.
There are so many stereotypes for all people today. Do not let them define who you are. Do not let them create your limits. Do not let them change you for the worse. Let them motivate you to show the world who you really are, and that some silly saying is not even close to the true you. Stick up for someone else, and never ever think that you have to not “be like a girl." So the next time someone tells you “you hit like a girl” you can say, “if you tried a little harder, so could you.”