triple bind

Ok this might sound like crap to you but hear me out.

Sometimes I think that the feminist movement may have hurt women more than it helped.

That being said I don't think that all the time just sometimes, and here is why:

Women, well specifically teenage girls, now need to be good at all of the traditionally "female" roles as well as the traditionally "male" roles to be acceptable in today's American society.

The traditionally "female things"being : pretty, good at relationships( a "good girlfriend), sexy, a good friend, ect.

The traditionally "male things"being: good at sports, smart, emotionally unattched, ect

So now a typical teenage girl has to fill the role of athelete, girlfriend, daughter, friend, student, pretty girl, ect.

This might not sound hard, but if you are attempting to be above mediocre at all of these tasks it gets much more diffactult. Say you are a serious student, a serious athlete, a serious girlfriend, a great friend, and a good daughter who helps out at home what time do you have to just be good at being you?

The book The Triple Bind talks about the confliction between many of the "male" and "female" roles as well.For example society dictates that you be pretty or unacceptable, however if a girl is preoccupied her looks she is considered0and probably is- obnoxiously obcessed with ther appearence. Another example would be in the area of sexuality, because a girl who isn't having sex is often considered a tease, while one who is is often considered a slut. So now we as girls have to be effortlessly beatiful and find the line between sexy and slutty somehow, all while being an occomplished athlete and A student.

Anything less than this is considered unacceptable and either parents or peers will often make that clear.

So I think we can see how some girls can crack under that kind of pressure!!

Now I'm not saying that we should take back anything accomplished by the feminist movement. On the contrary I'm saying that we should free women,and in fact all people, even further by begining to abolish these ridiculous ideas of what other people should or should not be.

After all who exactly are we to tell someone else to and how to do something? Who made us the experts?

So lighten up on yourself and everyone around you because as my mommy says " Do you need to be perfect?"-well she said something like that anyway.