My Personal beliefs on the demonization of hyper/ultra femininity (and the ¨not like other girls¨) trope

I absolutely despise the ¨not like other girls¨ trope

Whenever I see a female character in the media that is hyper/ultra feminine she is almost always portrayed negatively, antagonistically in some way shape or form. 

For example: Regina George, Chloe Bourgeois, Mackenzie Hollister, Cher, 

In media, hyper/ultra feminine characters are almost always portrayed as shallow, mean, rude, uncaring, two faced, or straight up just dumbed down.

They're usually portrayed as witty, charming, wealthy, or with an extreme talent and popularity.

They almost always lack depth in their character in one way or another, whether it be emotionally or in any other way; they never have any meaningful backstory either, almost always having the reasons for the ways that they act being related to their parents or just not well written in general at all. Their reasons for the way that they act are always enough to explain why they act in the ways that they do but never enough to provoke any actual empathy for their characters.

This also has to do with why I personally enjoy watching Legally Blonde so much; Elle Woods (the protagonist of the film) being so feminine and not being portrayed as antagonistic or to have any bad intentions at all throughout the film (this being one of the central points throughout the film, along with the dealing of people associating femininity with unintelligence/stupidity) really meant a lot to me as a viewer as i do not see this often, if at all, in media. This is one of the few times in media in which I could view a character who is feminine and for those traits to not be shown to be a flaw/weakness.

Hyper/ultra femininity (or just any form of femininity [stereotypically feminine traits included]) is not a weakness or a bad thing. 

People can have certain interests, dress and look a certain way, without having it define who they are.

People have painted femininity negatively.

to the point that many young, impressionable girls (including myself for so many years) have rejected stereotypically feminine hobbies/interests. 

So much so, that the ¨not like other girls¨ trope is a thing now too.

The not like other girls trope is unnecessary and harmful to so much of the audience consuming the media whether they realize it or not. The not like other girls trope indicates that all women are the same, that we have no differences (not portrayed positively), even that we are not intelligent, that we are close minded, stupid.

In reality I've met so many incredible, intelligent, open minded, caring, strong willed, opinionated, amazing women and I have so much incredible respect for every single one of them individually.

The not like other girls trope indicates that people in reality would have none of those incredible traits (simply because of them presenting more feminine or enjoying stereotypically feminine things), so when one character that does have even one stereotypical masculine trait (or a character who simply rejects any stereotypically feminine trait) shows up, she is immediately shown to be portrayed more positively than any feminine characters. 

Examples of the ¨not like other girls¨ trope would include, Bella Swan and Cady Heron

The not like other girls trope shows a female character who arrives with an opinionated voice (which is amazing, i love that) and strength. Then she is put next to, compared to a character or multiple characters (who are almost always portrayed as feminine) and are seen as above them/better than them. 

The concept of one character being superior to another simply because of how they dress/ their interests is idiotic and closed minded.

I especially dislike how characters who are portrayed as more feminine than others are not shown to be opinionated and instead shown to be closed minded.

It is common sense that everyone has different interests and I am glad that people celebrate that and we should celebrate our similarities and differences both as well as it brings us together. However, the same people that say that we are each individually different and that we should celebrate that portray other people to be exactly the same, to not have minds of their own.

Even characters who are shown ¨positively¨ in media who carry stereotypically feminine traits are almost never represented or portrayed properly at all. Almost always being portrayed as weak, a damsel in distress, and needing the ¨big strong man¨ to help them with any inconveniences/problems. 

Just because someone is shown to be more feminine than another person does not make them any less capable than anyone else.

Young people see that and immediately will associate those things, and any other stereotypically feminine trait/hobby/interest/ or anything feminine at all and will reject that, immediately dislike the thing(s) and maybe even some people who enjoy the thing to seem ¨different¨ (avoiding making friends with/ associating with people who do enjoy those things). Myself being included as one of those people when I was younger.

I feel as if the demonization of femininity is way too normalized these days. 

The normalization of people correlating whether someone has any intelligence or not or whether theyre a good person or not to the way they dress and/or their interests is completely idiotic as well. If you can't look past the way someone dresses and can't appreciate them when there's nothing wrong with their interests then you should take more time to reflect on yourself.
   

Y'all really just hate to see a girlboss building her empire