My Entry, "Women in the Spotlight ✨" #08

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In today's world and even in the olden days, women have always been more prioritised, more often in the spotlight, with a lot of expectations from society, critics, down to the pressures of getting married and having a family. But regardless of all these forces that may try to define them and the whole "it's a man's world" notion, they are their greatest challenge and more often than usual, women are always pitted against themselves.

The web of criticism and validation and expectations come from them the most which can lead to a cycle of negative behaviours, jealousy and self sabotage.

Women are the biggest enemies of women." To what extent do you agree with this statement?

I'm glad the context used here was "to what extent". Personally I agree to a reasonable extent that women can be their own biggest enemies because so often in today's world, where the notion should be "women supporting women", we see women who pretend to support their fellow woman, only to backstab her behind or contribute to bring her down or gossip about her or fight her.

Although I'll argue that there are still amazing women friendship and genuine sisterhood on the world, but most women are the main obstacles to each other's achievements and progress.
Some of these behaviours are characterized by jealousy, unnecessary competition, societal norms and the likes.

So instead of working together, they work against each other, criticizing each other's lifestyle, appearance, careers and choices.

For what reasons do women get jealous of each other?

There are so many reasons women would get jealous of each other, but I'll mention 3 main ones;

• Physical looks: This is another major reason women get jealous of each other. In a society where there's this huge pressure on beauty standards in women, most women feel jealous if they don't look a particular way like their fellow women or when a woman is valued or treated differently because she is more attractive, so they feel cheated and they get angry and jealous because they perceive other women to be more attractive than they are.

• Wealth and lifestyle: Now everybody wants to make it big. A lot of ladies in the 21st century wants to be that happening lady, they want to wear the most expensive hair, shoe, drive the latest cars, travel to fancy places and restaurants and so the bar is set very high especially for other ladies struggling to rise or cannot afford such lifestyle. There's now this unnecessary pressure to want to be among so they get so jealous that this other person has what they don't.
  
  Pixabay

• Personal achievements and Career: In the workforce, women can get jealous of each other especially when the other woman excels or is being offered a higher position because she deserves it. This can cause competition in that environment as the other woman might feel like she's undervalued or being left behind.

• Romantic Relationships: When a woman sees another woman as a threat to her relationship or she notices even the slightest bit of admiration for her fellow woman by her lover or his friends or other guys, she can get jealous and want to do something stupid. She can also get jealous if her fellow woman is in a relationship or marriage that she's been longing to have, thereby resenting her.
  
  Pixabay

If you know any such woman or have any story related to her, then share it with us.

Yes, I have a very sad and immature story of how jealousy can make women enemies of themselves especially when it comes to romantic relationships. This story happened yesterday, when a girl organised her group of friends to beat up her fellow girl in a hotel with sticks just because she saw her as a threat to her relationship with her boyfriend and believed that her boyfriend cheated on her with the other girl.

This all started when she snooped on her boyfriend's phone and saw the girl's name saved there in one of his chats. Apparently this girl is her friend too and she immediately concluded that the boyfriend cheated on her with this girl without concrete proof and because the girl is more attractive than she is.

According to her, none of her friends is supposed to have her man's number. Immediately she set the girl up in an hotel, pretended like she wanted to give her the money she's been asking for and on reaching there with other group of girls, she beat the girl mercilessly, tore her clothes and videoed her while the other girls were watching and also videoing.

This goes a lot to show how far jealousy can cause one to go and how relationships can be a major factor for jealousy amongst women.

Sometimes women get jealous and harm themselves. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

I agree with this statement to a reasonable degree. From my afore mentioned story about how jealousy caused that girl to brutally assault her fellow woman and acclaimed friend, it goes a lot to show that most of this women, when they feel inadequate, or feel threatened by the thought of another woman taking what they have, they're weighed down by their low self esteem so much so that the only way to feel good when they believe they're not good enough is by hurting others followed by other self destructive behaviours.

I invite @usoro01, @patjewell and @ruthjoe

Cc,
@aviral123