There’s one thing all weak men have in common, and that’s that they’ll always try to bring strong women down. Independent, strong women scare weak men because when they see us being complete and total badasses, their fragile masculinity gets threatened. You don’t have to put up with it, though — if you hear a guy say any one of these things, take a deep breath and walk away.
- “You’re too pretty to have these problems.” First of all, beauty does not relieve us of life’s problems. Second of all, he’s saying that because of the faces we were born with (that happened to fit with the societal standard of beauty), we’re better than someone who happened to be born with a different face. Nope. No one is better than anyone, especially not having to do with looks. We are all beautiful and we don’t need a man comparing us, let alone trying to relieve us of our issues because we’re “too pretty.”
- “Men don’t like a woman who is super obsessed with her career.” Not everything we do is for or about guys. It might sound nuts to them but it’s 100 percent accurate. In fact, almost nothing we do is for guys. We dress for ourselves, we work for ourselves, and we do what we want. We don’t give a damn what guys like or don’t like. We’re not here to make them happy.
- “You’d be so hot if…” Yeah, we don’t need to hear the end of that sentence to feel my lunch creeping back up. We just don’t care. All that matters is that we’re happy with the way we look. Making critical comments about our appearance only makes the guys saying them look bad. We weren’t put on this earth to be a shiny object for men. We’re human beings worthy of love and affection, even if we don’t fit their subjective standard of beauty.
- “Your independence makes me feel like you don’t need me.” If guys ever want us to break up with them real fast, they should just say this. They’re basically telling us that they want us to be weak and needy so they can assert their masculinity and feel validated in our relationship. Screw that. They should admire and respect my independence because it’s awesome.
- “I’m here to protect you.” Hmmm, did we say we needed their protection? Probably not, mostly because we’re not damsels in distress. We’re not here to be saved so they can feel better about their “duties” as men. Women can fight for ourselves and we don’t need guys diminishing our strength by assuming we need them to protect us.
- “When we get married, you’ll stay home with the kids.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom if that’s what you want. In fact, parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world because you’re never off the clock. But if the topic of kids comes up, and guys just assume that we’d be the one to stay home with the kids because we have vaginas, then we’re about to have a real problem.
- “Come on baby, have a sense of humor.” This phrase usually comes after some sexist joke that we didn’t laugh at. We should refuse to laugh at humor that degrades ourselves and our fellow females. We’ll never find it funny to put down an entire gender (the same gender that gives life, raises our children, and puts up with patriarchal BS day in and day out, BTW).
- “Relax a little, you’re being too serious.” We probably have a lot of beliefs about feminism, animal rights, human rights, environmental issues and politics in general. We should choose to speak up (kindly!) because we believe choosing silence means siding with the oppressor. If guys don’t want us speaking up, then we’re not the women for them.
- “Are you really a feminist if you do (insert totally acceptable thing to do here)?” If there is anyone we don’t need telling us how to be feminists, it’s dudes. We’ve dealt with their BS since the beginning of time, and it’s about time that we stand up for ourselves. Feminism is about freedom. There’s no right or wrong way to be a feminist, and we don’t need to hear them question our motives.
- “I know it’s your dream, and I’m just saying it’s going to be hard for you to get there.” Yes, of course, we know our dreams sound far-fetched, but we also know that we don’t need guys convincing us that we won’t get there. Weak men try to bring women down because it makes them feel better, and we should refuse to fall victim to these comments.
