Do You Hate Women?

Have you ever experienced that pang of jealousy when a tall blonde girl walks past you on the street, looking like she was cut out of a magazine? The sinking feeling when you flip through the newest edition of Vogue and realize that all the models seem way more attractive than you? Have you ever heard a malicious voice in your head whispering "Slut!" as an attractive young woman turns men's heads on the subway? I have!

Just to clarify - I do not suffer from low levels of self-confidence, I do not recall having had my ego injured by mean comments from pubescent boys in the past and I am quite happy with the way I look. So why on Earth should I have these feelings? Do I hate other women?

Let me tell you a little story to illustrate my point. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you surely must have realized that I have a big passion for high heels. Well, my passion is not reciprocated by the majority of women in Austria where I used to live. Due to this, wearing pumps became sort of a rebellion as well as a fun game for me - I would casually put them on to do things like going shopping or running errands and count how many times I have been given a dirty look by a female passer-by or actually called a Schlampe (German for whore). Again, if you are a reader of my blog, you probably know that I do not dress like a prostitute and I can assure you that I am not employed in the sex industry. So why should another woman, not knowing anything about my background or occupation feel entitled to call me a hooker solely based on what type of clothes I choose to wear?

My hypothesis is that a woman's choice of clothes (provided that she is not dressed like this, in which case I understand) has very little to do with the way other women perceive her. If a grandmother or an obese lady - in other words a woman that is not defined by our society as a common object of sexual desire - walked past one of the female name-callers I have come across, my guess is that they would not say a thing. The feeling making these women feel negative emotions is called the inferiority complex. They feel threatened by the presence of another woman who they assume might be perceived as more attractive by men.

So where does this inferiority complex come from? It is fed to us by the media. Here is a little excerpt of Naomi Wolf's novel "The Beauty Myth" trying to explain how images of beauty in the media are used against women:

"The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance. Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another. Youth and (until recently) virginity have been “beautiful” in women since they stand for experimental and sexual ignorance. Aging in women is “unbeautiful” since women grow more powerful with time, and since the links between generations of women must always be broken."

Who owns the media? Men, of course. That is unsurprising as it is primarily men own most, if not all, businesses in the world. If the male-dominated elite of the Western society succeeds in dividing women from one another by instilling jealousy in our minds, one can just imagine what tragic consequences will derive from it.

But what we fail to realize is that this process has already begun. If you said yes to any of the questions in the opening paragraph, you are directly influenced by this oppression. You are not having these negative thoughts because you are a jealous woman-hating fury, but because the makes of the modern culture are quietly whispering that you are not good enough everywhere you go. I say - ENOUGH! 

-Sabina Supernova

Disclaimer: I see these sort of articles becoming a regularity on "Sabina Supernova", so I hope you enjoyed this one! I will be following up on this post and I would love to hear your responses.

Images: Nejat Talas