Girlhood is a universal experience unique and personal to each young woman or girl who identifies with the meaning behind womanhood. If you have ever experienced what it’s like to be a woman, the path is not a smooth, paved, yellow brick road. In fact, it’s filled with witches, flying monkeys and a little dog, too.
Womanhood is filled with the constant fear that everyone is watching you and that all eyes are on you even though they are not. It is dealing with the under-appreciation of your work and the microaggressions from men that you convince yourself aren’t real but are. It is moving out of the way for men when you cross paths figuratively and literally.
All young girls and women have experienced these forms of aggression whether in large capacities or not. Women are told to be polite, look nice and not speak too loudly because that would be “too much.” But “don’t forget to speak up” because you are too quiet. Either way, you simply cannot live up to the multiple standards that women must uphold.
if you cannot fit society’s ideal woman, simply be whoever you want. In my experience of womanhood, I am a collection of every woman I have ever admired and known. I am shaping my own standards.
I have fashioned myself from pieces of my grandmother, sister and friends — every woman I have admired or grown up with. I catch myself using phrases my friends use, and find my actions mirroring my grandmother’s, whether good or bad.
For me, womanhood is paved by the women before us. We are shown to navigate the experience better than they did. Girlhood feels like a complicated mess that each young woman or girl tries to navigate through at a young age. It is a complete mess of emotions and always feeling like you’re not enough.
Womanhood is the ongoing cycle of having to sacrifice yourself to make others feel comfortable. Whether it is your mother, sister or friend, women are often seen trying to sacrifice for others.
By sacrificing so much of ourselves in our youth, we buy hair bows and stuffed animals to try to relive our childhoods in a meaningful way. By losing that childhood innocence so early, we search for nostalgia in the items we once owned.
Even though girls’ childhoods are taken earlier, there are more sinister problems bubbling underneath the surface of just sacrificing our youth. Most women fear sexual assault, myself included. On campus, walking late at night, or jogging in broad daylight, there is the constant fear of being assaulted around every corner.
According to an article by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for UN Women, 97 per cent of women between 18 and 24 years old have been sexually harassed in the U.K. While the U.K. statistics may differ from the Canadian ones, the same sentiment remains that women are routinely sexually harassed and are expected to try to keep themselves safe instead of telling men not to sexually harass women.
These statistics are the real-life reality for women. Women should uplift each other instead of tearing each other down in a world that already does everything to squash us down.
The Everygirl, a journal that published an article on being a “girl’s girl,” explains the meaning behind this tokened term. This describes when a woman enjoys being around other women, uplifting them, learning from their own experiences and feels joy being around other women who want each other to succeed.
In a world that is designed so women fail, my experience within the hierarchical system of society is that my friendships with women have been some of the most nourishing and rewarding in my life.
Nobody understands me quite like my female friends who have also experienced the same oppression from a society that wants us to be quiet.
To all the individuals reading this article who identify with womanhood, I hope you have a happy Halloween and are safe in whatever plans you are making. Take the time to give out compliments to fellow women, tell them their costumes look good and if you find yourself in a public bathroom, you will never be sparse for compliments.
