“I don’t like girls”

A sentence that not only sends shivers down my spine but also makes me want to slap the idiot right off the girl who said its face.

I’m a feminist, that’s not a swear word, by the way, it just means I’m a decent human being. That’s why the utterance of this phrase sends me up the wall.

I recently heard a girl say this, as she was stood next to me asking for help at work. She, of course, was saying it to a boy before turning to me (after asking for my help, by the way) and then uttered the next phrase that should be struck from human usage; “no offence!”

The reason I can get riled up about this is because I USED TO BE THAT GIRL. I used to think I didn’t like girls because ‘girls are bitchy and I have a much better relationship with guys etc etc etc blah blah blah’. I realised a fair few years ago that not only was I making myself look like a fool but I was also feeding into the patriarchy which, at that time, I didn’t realise existed.

Did you know that there are literally thousands of words used to insult a woman? Bitch, bitchy, slag, whore, slut… the list goes on. Of course there aren’t that many insults for men, in fact even the term ‘pussy’ – used to put a guy down – is back handed and really insults women.

Back to the “I don’t like girls” thing. Saying this is not only kind of flirtatious towards men; A kind of ‘look at me, I’m one of the boys not some stupid, bitchy, whoreish girl like others’ which is insulting to everyone, but it’s also very anti-feminist because those terms feed into the stereotypical role of the woman in society who has nothing to offer anyone but sex and administrative duties in the work place, y’know?

It’s time girls and women started to realise that, yes, some girls can be bad friends (much like everyone on the planet no matter what gender or kind of sexual organs you have) but never has it been said that having a strong female friendship group (not just A group, but a real, solid and emotionally supportive one) is a bad thing. How can guys ever compare when they don’t understand what it means to have an itchy boob, an ingrown hair, a really aching period that makes you want to rip out your womb and set it on fire on the front steps of church whilst yelling “Why, god, why?” at the sky… but also whilst wearing a dress that makes your legs look great and underwear that makes you feel sexy with eyebrows that are finally behaving and hair that is finally at Pinterest standard?!

Girls are cool. We have our own secret language. Guys are cool, too. Mostly they laugh when we burp and they let us eat a whole pizza without mentioning calories… Let’s just NOT put a gender group down because we think it sounds cooler, ok?

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