In a world that glorifies men, specifically masculine strength and perceived superiority, females are placed at a inferior rank on the societal totem pole beginning at a very young age. Through a combination of common stereotypes and insults thrown around, intimidation tactics, as well as the current political climate, young girls’ confidence and self-worth are plummeting to reach an all time low. This downward trend can only continue south at this rate, and in this post I would like to outline and explore this phenomenon of how and why females are held to this level of inferiority.

According to a recent study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, when randomized groups of five year old boys and girls are similarly presented with the question “which gender do you believe is smarter?”, girls sided with girls and boys sided with boys. By the time, the groups aged a single year, the tables had completely turned and both the girl and boy groups majorly agreed that boys are smarter than girls. Around the ages of six and seven, it is psychologically proven that girls begin to lack self-assurance in their mathematical and scientific abilities “and thus score worse than they would otherwise, which discourage them from pursuing science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) fields”, adding to the notion that boys are more capable in these ‘difficult’ fields. In a similar experiment, researches told these same groups a story of a successful individual without any mention of gender and asked the children whether they believed the character in the story was male or female. A similar pattern emerged, with younger five year olds siding with the character being of their own gender while as the groups rose in age, both young girls and boys agreed that the character in the story was most likely male. Researchers additionally have attempted to explain this phenomenon. Ideas include toy marketing (lab sets for boys, dollhouses for girls), history books / textbooks are comprised with accomplishments of men, and an innate sense of overconfidence in males. The real root cause for this variation in perception may never be discovered, yet it must be eradicated.

Adding to the stigma around men being superior are the colloquial, stereotypical phrases thrown around in the attempt to diminish women’s worth and criticize men “through a feminine comparison”; “you throw like a girl”, “you run like a girl”, “you have a girly voice”, etc. just to name a few. These expressions are thrown around as an insult rather than a compliment, which is harmful both to those becoming the object of the insult as well as females who are being blindly ridiculed through these notions. Attempts are being made to change the connotation of these phrases, such as the 2014 Always brand commercial titled “Like a Girl“. The commercial took a group of individuals ranging in age and varying in gender and asked to act out certain phrases such as throwing like a girl. It showed people acting out athletic and confident motions, emphasizing the fact that being a girl is strong rather than flimsy and weak (commonly associated with the insult). Further, individual women are being recognized and noted for blatantly defying this outdated and dimly supported stereotype. Take stand out little league-er Mo’ne Davis for example. The 13 year old Philadelphia native pitched for the Taney Dragons in the 2014 Little League World Series and brought the team nearly to victory, completely putting the “biological” argument of “throwing like a girl” to shame. These attempts at encouraging new perceptions and harboring individuals who obviously defy the boundaries of said social confines aid in changing the negative feminine perception, yet due to America’s current political situation, these attempts are proving futile.

To nurture a positive, empowering environment for females to grow and prosper, we must ALL perpetuate such ideals. A key component of this is to have a leader who extends our ideals, however, President elect Donald Trump does the exact opposite. President Trump has been documented as far back as the early 1980s making extremely lude, inappropriate, sexist, derogatory comments about women that quite honestly horrify me not only as a women, but as an American (but that is a whole other story). President Trump has referred to women as “only beautiful pieces of ass”, has said that they must be “treated like sh-t”, “putting a woman to work is a dangerous thing”, has bragged about how good looking and dateable his own daughter is, Trump has joked about dating minors, etc. just to name a few horrible comments. Additionally, Trump purchased the Miss USA pageant and said he sought to make “the bathing suits smaller and the high heels higher”; Trump makes every contestant for his pageants walk before him pre-show and makes preliminary cuts based off of who he believes is attractive and not.

Besides being a sexist, disgusting, sexual scumbag, the more important aspect which is central to my argument is that Trump has reduced accomplished women athletes, politicians, actresses and intellectuals to their appearances time and time again. This connotation adds to the perceived stereotype that women are not valued for their accomplishments and abilities, whether they lie in academia, athletics, the arts, etc., yet they are inferior in all of these fields and only hold substance and value if they are deemed attractive. How is it possible for young girls to grow up in this society, watching their President indirectly belittle them time and time again, and still manage to muster up self-confidence and assurance?

To change the stereotype, perceptions, stigma and stupidity all need to be looked at.