on girlhood, on womanhood
Female swagger, to XCX, comes with insecurity, because no matter how much bravado she displays, she must navigate overwhelming societal standards and expectations for her behavior. Brat , then, is about how hard it is to be a brat—to project untouchability and ambition in a world that relentlessly questions successful women.
Shirley Li • The Brat-Ification of Kamala Harris
Whereas the millennial women of Instagram — the millennial women associated with the “that-girl” trope — would strike the perfect pose and use filters to enhance their natural beauty, Gen-Zs use their phone cameras to distort the natural ideal of the human face, obscuring their features with emojis, cartoon glitter, surreal lighting and other... See more
the critic • The death of Ideals
How can any girl sustain the belief that she is loved, truly loved, when all around her she sees that femaleness is despised?
Bell Hooks • Communion
But women also possessed an organ of the highest biological – and social – value: the uterus. Possession of this organ defined the purpose of women: to bear and raise children. Knowledge about female biology centred around women’s capacity – and duty – to reproduce. Being biologically female defined and constrained what it meant to be a woman. And
... See moreElinor Cleghorn • Unwell Women
That was part of being a girl—you were resigned to whatever feedback you’d get. If you got mad, you were crazy, and if you didn’t react, you were a bitch. The only thing you could do was smile from the corner they’d backed you into. Implicate yourself in the joke even if the joke was always on you.
Emma Cline • The Girls
One might assume “girl” identity as a way to show naysayers just how clever girls actually are, or to show men how unserious those things to which they ascribe such importance may be. Claiming that something that is supposed to be “for boys” — say, baseball, the Grateful Dead, Karl Ove Knausgaard — is really “for girls,” is like a pinprick into a
... See moreNew York Times • Why ‘Girls’ Rule the Internet
Among our Potawatomi people, women are the Keepers of Water. We carry the sacred water to ceremonies and act on its behalf. “Women have a natural bond with water, because we are both life bearers,” my sister said. “We carry our babies in internal ponds and they come forth into the world on a wave of water. It is our responsibility to safeguard the
... See moreRobin Wall Kimmerer • Braiding Sweetgrass
How our inner child isn't just like... a very young one. It's also you as a pre-teen and teenager. Remember her??