To the girl who is unsmiling, assertive and knowledgeable, but called a bitch for it.
To the girl who is judged for wearing too much makeup, and the girl that is told she needs to look more “like a girl.”
To the girl who dares to work hard in “a man’s world” and has to work harder than everyone else.
To the girl who must keep on proving.
To the girl who gets those looks for wearing short skirts, and gets mocked for dressing too modestly.
To the girl who walks on by doing her own business, and cringes while her legs, arms, chest or face gets stared at and catcalled.
To the girl who is alone, and wonders why a group of girls are whispering and looking at her.
To the girl who reads a lot and is opinionated, and is told to be quiet.
To the girl who gets judged for her voice: too squeaky, too high-pitched, too meek, or too cute.
To the girl who gets ignored because someone batted her permed lashes and got the men’s attention.
To the girl travelling alone and has to answer for it.
To the girl who honestly cries, and is immediately reckoned to be weak for it.
To the girl who drinks alone somewhere, and becomes subject to attention that is often unwanted.
To the girl who obsesses about her body, because she can’t attract the guys she wants from the way she looks.
To the girl who is victim to other girls’ viciousness and envy.
To a girl who is victim to her boyfriend or husband’s arrogance and betrayal.
To the girl who is questioned so much more at the boardroom, just because girls tend to break.
To the girl who gets lesser trust with numbers, technical ideas and complicated decisions, because she is a girl.
To the girl who is told she is pretty, and therefore will be a great secretary.
To the girl who is taunted for dry hair, hanging cuticles on her nails, eyebrows beyond the perfect arch, skin that is too dark, scars that show, lipstick on her teeth, and underwear that shows.
To the girl who bravely chooses to become a mother, and is told to do this, this, this, and this, and also told not to look like a whale.
To the girl who just endured 9 months of unknown body changes and 36 hours of labor, and then told to start making her body look normal again.
To the girl who wears sexy clothes, and is labelled an attention-seeker.
To the girl who dresses differently, and is exasperated by feeling like she must pay for it.
To the girl who hits 35, and her family tells her she’s un-marriageable.
To the girl who gets judged for not being able to breastfeed her child.
To the girl who is derided for being a bad mother, because she works and is less present.
To the girl who tolerates bad bosses and egotistic peers, but keeps her cool.
To the girl who is expected to be timid and is victim to intimidation.
To the girl who feels like she can never keep up.
To the girl who is socially awkward, and loses to other girls for it.
To the girl who can’t cook, bake and keep an immaculate house, and her neighbors scoff: “Poor husband and children.”
To the girl who is single, and is asked “Why?” and told, “You’re getting older.”
To the girl who is told she’s not strong enough.
To the girl who grew up with Barbie dolls, princesses and fairies, and feels cursed by not looking like any of them.
You are exasperated by the impossible perfectionist standards we all must face everywhere even in our modern times. Other girls feel you. I feel you. Tired or not, this is our day.
Today, let us feel for one another.
Let’s celebrate us for all that we are and all that we’re not.
Let us be the one to say it: Happy International Bitches Day!
mrswilley.com 