Stop being such a girl

I’m getting very bored of  hearing things like “he cried like a little girl” and the like. Maybe I am just more aware of it, but it seems like I hear or read the ‘like a girl’ thing more and more lately. Such as in this column, where Colin Espiner talks about Tony Abbott ordering a shandy with light beer and 60% lemonade, then says “The girl.”

I know a lot of people will say oh, this is nothing, it’s so innocuous. But I want to grind my teeth every time I hear a movie character talking about how so-and-so (male) cried like a girl, or someone who is being a sore loser is told to not be such a girl, or someone who doesn’t want to do something scary is told to stop being a girl and do it. Change the record, please. I’m tired of girl being used as an insult. But I guess what else could I expect from a society that views being female as a bad thing? Of course ‘girl’ is an insult. That’s why it is used in an insulting way, and why it is such an effective and derogatory insult. I guess maybe I would just like to live in a world where being female isn’t considered to be weak and inferior and undesirable and something to distance oneself from, you know? That would be great, thanks.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under change the record, lady-hate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Comments

  1. Katherine says:
    August 22, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    Everytime someone says “cried like a girl” when I’m around to respond (physically or internetally) I mention that I’ve seen way more men cry than girls, so really the appropriate phrase to use is “cried like a man”. Don’t have a comeback for the others I’m afraid, but all those uses really get my goat too.

    • steph says:
      August 23, 2010 at 3:54 am

      I hate them so much. Maybe people are saying things like that more, or maybe they are all having some sort of cumulative effect on me, because I rage up whenever I hear something like that said. It’s pathetic. And stupid. And ignorant, stereotype-based sexist untruths. I have no time for it.

  2. The Twenty-Eight Down Under Feminists Carnival « The Dawn Chorus says:
    September 4, 2010 at 10:38 am

    […] have Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town on unequal pay and Steph at Lady News on gendered language: Maybe I’m alone in this, but I dislike hearing gender-based generalizations like “men […]

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