We're the "entitlement" generation. We have everything handed to us. We're narcissistic. We take too many selfies, etc.
One thing I've noticed though is that these criticisms tend to be aimed towards the activities of teenaged girls more so than boys.
All the time, I see posts criticizing girls on their clothing, on the way they speak, the way they dress and what they like to do in their free time or even which restaurant they like to go to.
As someone who was a teenage girl not that long ago, it really irritates me and not just because I think those criticisms actually apply to a section of all girls and can't be applied to every single one (which is true) but because there's nothing wrong with girls taking 1,000 selfies. That means they feel good about themselves, in that moment. Considering the body image epidemic in the U.S., I am not okay with ruining even more how someone feels about themselves. There's nothing wrong with drinking Starbucks Frappuccinos. They are delicious. If someone wants to enjoy them, they should be able to, without criticism.
There's nothing wrong with girls wearing yoga pants or leggings with Uggs...that outfit is frickin' comfortable.
I came across a post on tumblr confronting the very issue I'm blogging about right here. It included a list of links of things that teenaged girls have done and I thought I'd share them below:
- Volunteered for the first line of defense at the Battle of Stalingrad to fight against Nazis.
- Invented science fiction.
- Rode twice as far as Paul Revere, in the pouring rain and alone, to alert Americans to the approaching British during the Revolutionary War.
- Pioneered the art of investigative journalism, and its use as a tool of social justice.
- Turned the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
- Put themselves in the line of fire, often literally, in order to help end injustice.
- Organized a student strike that helped spark Brown v. Board.
- Hid from the Nazis in an annex for two years and found such great poignancy in their experience that their ordinary day-to-day-thoughts have become world famous.
- Led Lewis and Clark across the North American continent— while pregnant/raising a child.
- Worked to desegregate schools in 1835, as well as to end slavery
- Helped found the ACLU and fought for women’s suffrage; also, got arrested for being radical socialists.
- Wrote the first known work of literature by an American black person.
I thought it was especially important to mention again Mary Shelley, who is the inventor of Science Fiction, especially given the crap that girls are given by boys and men in the genre such as calling them fake geek girls, etc.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818. Isaac Asimov, creator of Galactic Empire and I, Robot and often brought up as the creator of sci-fi wasn't even born until 1920.
And before Shelley was Margaret Cavendish, the duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) who wrote The Blazing World in 1666, about a young woman who discovers a Utopian world that can only be accessed via the North Pole. The Blazing World is often credited as one of the first sci-fi novels.
Teenaged girls can and do do great things. And I think they deserve more recognition- not just when they beat boys at something but period.
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