Why Do Women Look Unreal

When I was in elementary school still, I shared a room with my older sister. I would sit on her bed and watch her walk back and forth from her closet to the full-length mirror hanging on the door. She would frown and sigh and change clothes, unsatisfied. When she left the room, I would stand in front of the mirror, leaning close and standing on my tiptoes, trying to get the same view. It didn’t take long before I did.
There is a phenomenon that occurs when you stare at a word for too long and it starts to look unreal or nonsensical. That started happening with my face. I would stare in the mirror and squish my features around, convincing myself that what I saw was wrong. As I got older and entered high school, an arena filled of judgment and superficiality, I found myself sneaking out of

I blame the media, constantly hyper sexualizing the female body and rarely praising or acknowledging women unless it is for their beauty. I blame Disney movies with stepmothers that talk to mirrors and princesses who walk in glass slippers because that’s where I learned that women should always be in competition with one another, and that women are only relevant in relation to a male counterpart. I blame teachers and neighbors and society as a whole for teaching me that people who are biologically female grow inward, shrinking and absorbing, while people who are biologically male grow outward, shouting and building and expanding, taking up room. I am alive during a time that society is constantly demanding me to define who I am, to project “perfection” 24/7 in person and on social media. Despite how deeply engrained and large this issue is, it is not unsolvable. Being an individual who believes in gender equality and social justice, it is easy for me to feel overwhelmed when confronted with these problems, but I am starting to fight back in small