Girl on girl hate is much worse than misogyny

It’s one of those things that I’ve always seen but never noticed. We spend so much time concerned about the way that some men perceive women as the lesser sex, and how we are discriminated against and not treated as equals, that we forget to look at the way that women actually treat each other.

This issue particularly came to light to me when I wrote an article about the world’s reaction to Kim Kardashian’s nudes. When I looked into it, most of the people who had attacked Kim seemed to be women. Possibly the most well known criticism came from actress and singer Bette Midler, who tweeted: “Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim wants us to see a part of her we’ve never seen, she’s gonna have to swallow the camera.”

Why is it that we can’t just accept that everyone has a different style, instead of giving out negative labels like ‘whore’ just to make ourselves feel better?

It’s like it’s bred into us to put other women down constantly. I was talking to a 9 year old the other day who has a boyfriend. She was really angry because he’d been seeing another girl at the same time (9 year olds these days, am I right?) She was telling us how much she hated this girl, when in reality surely he was in the wrong? But this concept completely baffled her, like how could it possibly be the fault of her boyfriend and not the other girl? The sad fact is that this is the way that young girls learn to think, meaning that they are essentially taught to shame other women before they are even aware what this means.

The problem with this is, if women go around hating on each other, calling each other sluts and whores, surely they are just taking rights away from their own gender? How can you expect your romantic and sexual choices to be respected when you don’t respect those of others purely because they are women, particularly when you are a woman yourself?

Why do we automatically hate the girl that our boyfriends cheated with, even if she had no idea we existed? Why do we see a pretty girl dressed in clothes we wish we could pull off, and instantly jump to thinking that she is a bitch? Even if you don’t class yourself as a feminist, it’s clear how toxic that this thought pattern is. Is it ever going to be possible for women to be seen as equals if we are still constantly putting each other down?