malalai khan

Do you fight like a girl? If yes, then you’re a weakling. Or that is what society says. Girls are talkative. Girls are disloyal. Girls aren’t smart. You’ll find and hear tons of stereotypes and myths like these surrounding the very state of simply being a girl. History follows these into grave events like the Salem Trials of 1692 in the US where hundreds of girls and women were burned at stake or executed solely to have been alleged as “witches.” Girls are, after all, the scapegoats for society’s own prejudices.

Girlhood is a unique experience in the development of female youth. Yet, it remains a target of hate from people, specifically men. A classic example in today’s era is that of the “fangirl.” The other day, I finished an anime series, Vinland Saga, which I absolutely loved and immediately had a favourite character, with whom I obsessed over to the point that I started my hobby of drawing more often to make fanart sketches. As much as they could see me happy, I noticed people telling me, “Oh you’re so crazy over it,” “Girls are always crazy over something,” and using the word “fangirl” like a slur. Yes, I was (and am) a fangirl. What’s so bad about that? Does that make me less worthy or “smart”? The irony here is that those same people will have their own obsessions whatsoever; boys literally shout swears when they play video games which I believe is a very clear indicator of severe addiction. Doesn’t that make them “obsessed” and “crazy?” 

This is only one side to the multifaceted problem. Girls have been, from ages ago, deemed as weak and emotional, which has always been debunked again and again. Somehow, no one mentions the fact to boys that anger is also an emotion, and rather a violent one. Moreover, girls are also labelled as being bad at mathematics and science—another utterly disgusting stereotype that is disproven continuously. We see Mariam Mirzakhani who won the Fields Medal in Mathematics and Marie Curie who won two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics. They shattered those myths, fighting like girls.

Another horrid myth that has been around for a long time is that girls don’t like sports, or that they aren’t good at it. I love sports and I have always adored it ever since I was little. I am a sprinter and participate in athletics, always on the go to run on the racing track. Too many times have I encountered people telling me to stop just because it’s not a “girl’s thing” despite my wins and achievements. This is a sad truth for many girls who get discouraged from going into sports, afraid of not fitting into the false frame that society created. Girls can be athletes just as great as anyone else, which is quite apparent from the Olympics.

Adding to this list is the common generalisation of girls being more talkative than boys. Personality has nothing to do with gender, and one can be quiet or chatty depending on their own personal psyche whether they are introverted or extroverted. Social situations can also influence how much someone talks as certain settings could give space to specific topics only. Studies on daily word count actually show very little difference between girls and boys. Hence, it is just another tag used to blemish girls in any circumstance without a grain of scientific and rational truth, fabricated purely on superstition and misogyny.

The funny thing about stereotypes is that you box the person to such an extent that you leave no space for them to actually do anything other than the label assigned to them. The same has been going with the myths of being a girl—rarely have girls been left the whole room, the whole world, to themselves for reaching new horizons and unique experiences. Yet, despite all the oppression, society really has the audacity to create tropes on them and shame them to the ground, treating them as inferior to boys no matter what they do or achieve. But girls, after all, fight like girls and are not backing down any time soon.

(I wrote this for an assignment on Feature Writing in my Mass Communication course in 2nd semester :>)