i hate pink.

In second grade, every girl starts to hate the color pink. The media and the people around her are the catalyst for this event. It is the provenance of internalized misogyny and a hate for herself that she cannot detect. We're trained by our fathers, and most surprisingly, our mothers, to hate ourselves. "You're such a drama queen!" Is a phrase a young girl hears from her father after she disagrees with him. She isn't spared at the playground either: "You run like a girl," a classmate taunts. From the moment she learns to understand the language spoken around her is the moment she learns to hate herself.

I, myself, hated the color pink once. It was never about the color but rather about my gender. To be a girl meant to be weak. We were dressed in pink and referred to as delicate princesses. In every Disney movie, we watched the princesses were incapable of saving themselves, and a prince had to protect them. Little girls didn't want to be lissome items of desire; they wanted to be adventurous and express a great deal of valour on the playground. No matter how hard a young girl tried to step out of the box of femininity, there were always whispers around her, telling her that she was no more than a feeble girl.

At school, girls were dressed in beautiful dresses, or brightly colored tops, while boys were dressed in lax jeans and dark colored dinosaur shirts. The horseplay that children take part in leaves an unavoidable result of dirty clothes. So, why are girls repeatedly dressed in clothing that is easily made dirty? Parents hold different standards for girls than for boys. Girls are expected to be prim and proper, whilst boys are expected to play outside and explore. Mothers dress their girls up as if they were dolls and often forget that they're living beings who want to enjoy the fun of being a child. It is a recurring concept that girls are to be seen and not heard.

As stated by Marilyn Simon, Femininity was disenchanting, with little to offer. While I was out on the mountain trails with the guys, testing and challenging my strength, the girls would be lazing on a lake dock, reading magazines, painting nails. Girliness was boring." Many girls stray from the small, suffocating box that is labelled "Femininity" because of stereotypes. In the media that young girls consume, it is blatant that all they're expected to do as they enter their 20s is shop, date, tan, and go to salons. Being dainty, mindless shopping addicts is continuously pushed down the throats of young girls, whether from watching movies or hanging out with males.

There is nothing wrong with loving pink, shopping, tanning, or going to salons, but women who find joy in partaking in these activities are often portrayed as bimbos who've been lobotomized. Misogynists have found every way to demean women in front of young girls. It doesn't matter if a character in a show is interested in STEM or loves to weld; she will still be wearing the tightest of latex, and her breasts will be spilling out of her shirt. Girls are taught that the most valuable thing about them is their sex appeal.

Femininity is wrapped in a nice pink bow, something that girls are taught to despise from the second they learn to walk. It's understandable why girls choose to be "not like other girls." In their young, impressionable minds, maybe, just maybe, someone will respect them. What is not understandable is why young girls are taught to hate themselves. There is no acceptable answer for why misogyny is still rampant in our society. It is the 21st century, progress has been made towards a comfortable society, but not enough. When do we finally deem that enough is enough? Adults are supposed to protect and love their children, but why are they actively damaging their psyches? I believe that it's finally time to stop pushing the agenda that girls are simply objects of desire, and not little humans themselves.

Marilyn Simon's article: Why girls should be tomboys - UnHerd