Our own worst enemy

If five men are thrown together in a room, they’ll probably be a bit awkward at first, but once they find something in common to talk about, they will probably open up and enjoy each other’s company.  

If you did that with women though, chances are cliques will be formed, one girl will be the leader and one will be the outcast of the group.

Women are their own worst enemies.  

Gender scholar Peggy Drexler wrote an article for the Huffington Post titled “Why Aren’t Women Voting for Women?” It talked about how women are harsher on other women in practically every way.  They judge everything about each other, from how they wear their hair to the way they speak.  They just can’t win with each other.

This goes back to history, where women couldn’t be as outspoken as men about things.  

They had to be sneaky in their arguments and fights, and this sneakiness hasn’t gone away.  According to a study conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute, women verbally abuse, sabotage jobs, misuse power and destroy relationships over 70 percent of the time.  

The media doesn’t help this problem.  In fact, it nurtures it.

Hillary Clinton recently spoke at the Benghazi Hearing, and according to the Yahoo, had a “fiery moment” where she “raised her voice” and “banged on the table.”  Before even watching the clip, I thought something big had gone down, because Clinton usually remains pretty composed in tough situations.  

When I watched it, I was stunned.  

Yes, Clinton did slightly raise her voice so that she could speak over Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who was pestering her with questions that he wasn’t allowing her to answer.  

She didn’t bang on the table, she put her fist down for emphasis on what she was saying.  The media has frenzied over this moment, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why.

Clinton has always had it tough in the media.  She is constantly hounded about how cold she is, and how she isn’t nice enough.  A woman is supposed to be sweet and cuddly when she is in positions of power and if she isn’t, she is immediately condemned by all those around her.  

This is a product of our society and how we view our women.

I would like to think that someday, we can move past the backhanded remarks and the whispers behind our back and move forward into a little more enlightened thinking.  

Yes, we will always judge each other, and yes, we will probably not like every woman that we come into contact with, but we don’t have to.  

We need to do our jobs, enjoy our lives and quit harping over who looks fat in that dress or who stole who’s man. 

We have come a long way ladies, from essentially being property to being on the same playing field as men in many ways.  We still have a ways to go, but we are always making headway. 

Women who want to fight for their country because  the combat ban that forbade women to fight because they were too fragile to do it has been lifted.  

Let’s not be each other’s worst enemy and constantly tear each other down.  Let’s focus on respect and continue to move forward. 

We live in the greatest country in the world to be a woman, so let’s take advantages of the opportunities given to us and work together, instead of against each other.