You're Not Allowed To Age (And 7 More Lies We Constantly Tell Women)
Don't buy into this.
ZaitsevMaksym / Shutterstock Society, by and large, misleads women in many ways. It tells us that we're bad at math, we can't fix things that require tools, and there's only one type of beauty. Society feeds us lies and sometimes we eat them up; other times we know better, scoff, and do things our way.
Because we live in a world where society has somehow been allowed to dictate fallacies, women get fed a bunch of lies. For example, telling women they don't need to get their clothes tailored is a bunch of malarkey. That's suggesting every single body is either small, medium, or large, so if your clothes don't fit perfectly, then you just need to deal with it.
Nope. That's not how things are and if you want anything to fit perfectly, you need to get it tailored. Women don't only come in three shapes and sizes. But telling women to stick it out with ill-fitting clothing is just the beginning of the BS we get fed.
Here are 8 lies women are told:
1. When you get your period, you're a woman
I got my period at the age of 11. I was, in no way, a woman at that age. But for some reason, you grow some pubic hair and get your period, and people are telling you that you're a woman. Not really. You still have a few more years to go, so don't rush your childhood.
2. You can't wear a bikini unless you're thin
Ugh. There's nothing quite like the lie that you can't wear a bikini unless you're skinny, or that by the time you're 30, you need to put the mini-skirts away. When I hear this sh*t, I cringe. Here's a fun fact: Everybody has a bikini body and you'll have to tear my mini-skirts from my cold, dead hands.
3. Size matters
Another lie we get fed, especially once we become sexually active, is that size matters, as in penis size. Again, this isn't true. While no woman wants to meet a guy with a micro-penis (one that's less than an inch in length), sex has more to do with skill and less to do with size. Sadly, most women don't realize this until later on, which leads to them focusing too much on size and less on quality, effort, and technique.
4. You're not allowed to age
We live in a society where it's totally cool for a man to get grey hair, wrinkles, and age, but if women do it, it's like they've committed a crime. Here's another fun fact: Everyone gets old and as much as women would like to be super-human (although we are in many ways), we can't stop the hands of time. Plastic surgery can only do so much if that's the route we want to take.
5. Being married is the only way to feel complete
I'll never understand why being single is deemed such a bad thing, but for some reason, women are told that the only way for them to be complete is to be either married or in a serious relationship. This isn't true. What is true is that you come into this world completely and your relationship status with someone else doesn't change that.
6. All women love shoes
That's like saying there are only four types of women: Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda. No. There aren't only four types of women, we don't all love shoes, and we don't all use retail therapy or Ben & Jerry's to recover from pain.
7. Women aren't as sexual as men
Say what? Although it's 2015, there's still that persistent nasty rumor out there that women aren't as sexual as men. We don't crave sex, we don't desire it, and we sure as hell don't masturbate. All lies. Human beings, all of them, are sexual. Women aren't somehow exempt from this.
8. Women can't have it all
Women are told they can have a career or a family, not both. That's a huge lie. I mean, look at Hillary Clinton. Granted, we have to work twice as hard, but as women, we already have multitasking in the bag anyway. Case closed.
Amanda Chatel is a writer who divides her time between NYC and Paris. She's a regular contributor to Bustle and Glamour, with bylines at Harper's Bazaar, The Atlantic, Forbes, Livingly, Mic, The Bolde, Huffington Post, and others.