#like they unironically will be like a woman being assertive means she's in her masculine energy

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

I think something that really irks me about the whole "feminine energy and masculine energy" garbage that gets peddled on TikTok and other platforms is the fact that there's this constant implication that a woman being masculine is a serious error in her that needs to be fixed. Masculine women aren't broken and in need of a supposed masculine man to push them back into their femininity; their masculinity (whatever that means and looks like to them) is a feature of them that doesn't need to be repaired because they were never in error to begin with.

[punkeropercyjackson]

A minor rant: the way a lot of people talk about feminism these days really makes me feel like feminism is going backwards and recircling into misogyny. Allow me to explain.

I remember when people used to protest the use of "like a girl" and "for girls" as an insult, by rebranding it into a compliment and showing that just because something is seen as for girls doesn't mean it's stupid because girl isn't inherently an insult. And now we're seeing women on TikTok and Instagram use "girl math" "girl dinner" "don't ask me, I'm just a girl" "explaining math and cars and movies and politics and ethnic cleansing for the girlypops" "girl money" and overall using girl as a shorthand for being stupid, insipid, frivolous, ditzy, and lacking substance. The very idea that girl means inferior that we used to fight against is now something that is being parroted unironically by internet misogynists who unironically think that "girl=stupid" is the pinnacle of feminism.

I remember when feminists were calling out the idea that femininity is a bad thing and means weakness, and showing that being feminine doesn't mean that you can't also be strong, badass, or capable, when Legally Blonde and Sailor Moon and Friendship is Magic were praised for showing unapologetic girly girls whose love for pink and fashion didn't at all stop them from being ambitious, or kicking butt, or being a good fighter, or showing the world who's boss. And now whenever a female character who is feminine also shows traits of strength or intelligence or doesn't adhere to misogynistic stereotypes that women should be passive or demure, people are complaining that she acts "like a man" or is "masculine"(as if being masculine is a bad thing) or "why can't she be feminine and strong?"(when she is, but what they really want is for her to be meek, submissive, and docile because they see those as feminine traits while being outspoken, assertive, and bold are somehow masculine traits, and then praise that somehow) People complained that Princess Peach was being made masculine in the Super Mario Bros. movie and in Princess Peach Showtime!, just because in the former she was a badass fighter and in the latter they changed her face on the box art to be more realistic...but I thought we wanted female characters to be both feminine and strong, and now that we get them people are claiming that they act like men...

I also remember when people used "not like other girls" to refer to women with internalized misogyny who thought that liking girly things made you inferior, who tried to be "one of the guys" because "girls are too much drama", or who went through a phase of being ashamed of their girly interests because society taught them to hate them. But eventually that just morphed into people(even self-proclaimed feminists!) unironically declaring that any woman who wasn't feminine had internalized misogyny and was a "pick-me"(when that is aave) who thought that they were better than other girls and wanted to be a guy and that if they didn't eventually become pink and girly then clearly they were still stuck in that phase. And now if women so much as critique legitimately harmful gender roles like the makeup industry or shaving, other women will tell them that they are pick-mes or not like other girls who hate the women who partake in those things.

And don't even get me started on the bimbo crap. That was funny at first when people were just using it to project hyperfemininity without downplaying their intelligence(and I saw some guys partaking in the bimbocore trend, too!), but eventually it did just devolve into women pretending to be dumb idiots who cater to male egos by acting superficial and clueless and like they can't do a damn thing by themselves...even though a large part of feminism is not dumbing yourself down to make a boy feel smart, I remember learning at the age of like 11 that if you have to do that because a boy is intimidated by your intelligence then that boy is not worth it(no boy is worth it now but anywayz), but apparently according to modern-day faux-feminists it is cute to pretend that you need a man's help for everything because you're "just a girl".

I also remember when we used to fight back against the idea that teenage girls are dumb, naive, and insipid, and that they are shallow and not worth being taken seriously, only for grown adult women to call themselves "20-year-old teenage girls" as a way of saying that they're immature, silly, and incompetent, and it drives me up the wall. Not only are you infantilizing yourself, you are throwing teenage girls(many of whom do not act like this) under the bus to do so!

And it just makes me so drained and exhausted to see how normalized this is and that this is what passes for feminism these days. And before people say it, yes, I know the sexist attitudes I complained are so widespread nowadays were always around. I'm not saying that they're new or only became prevalent through the rise of TikTok. I know that's not the case. However, it definitely feels like these ideas are becoming more normalized than ever before, and hardly anyone is speaking out against them, because if you do, people will come at you with "so you hate women having fun? just let women enjoy things! what's wrong with femininity?" and everybody will ratio you, which is incredibly frustrating and invalidating.

And ykw I noticed is that most if not all of these people I see doing these things are white women. I haven't seen many if any Black or brown women engaging in the self-infantilization and bimbofication of their entire gender. I know I shouldn't have to explain why that is. But this just proves for me that white women can really pick and choose whether they are allies to the feminist cause or not. They can choose whether they want to be oppressed for their gender or privileged for their race, while women of color don't have that "luxury". They can appease the male status quo because it was made for them in the first place, while also seeking the oppressive power that white men have. It's really sad. It's like we're doing male misogynists' work for them by playing into the "women are bimbos and shallow and can't do math, being a girl sucks, teenage girls are stupid, femininity is shallow but also if you're a tomboy or butch then you obviously must hate your sisters" ideas that have been forced on us for literal fucking centuries and it is just so depressing to see. I hope people come to their senses soon because this is legit getting concerning.

But hey, what would I know? I'm just a teenage girl.

THIS WHOLE RANT.BEAUTIFUL,THE TRUEST TRUTH EVER!!!!!!