"Women, not Girls" by Mayim Bialik. Female disempowerment at its best.

When we use words to describe adult women that are typically used to describe children, it changes the way we view women, even unconsciously, so that we don't equate them with adult men. In fact, it implies that they're inferior to men. - Mayim Bialik

After watching this video by Mayim Bialik, known for her role in the TV-series Blossom and The Big Bang Theory, I felt it was important for me to share my thoughts on her message. She is after all assuming to be a voice for all women. Hence I felt it is my duty to, as a woman, express where I stand and why I do not agree with this new type of "activism" which seems to have been coming up more and more lately.

Activism used to be a movement motivated by human beings seeing and understanding the oppressive and abusive nature of their or others' position and actively taking a stance to change it. In the times before and during the industrial revolution, where children were used for labor, women couldn't vote and slavery was still a thing, the oppression and abuse was a real thing. It was a physical fact. People were being harmed and/or denied rights and opportunities because they possessed some trait which by law was deemed "inferior".

However, the understanding of "activism" seems to have taken a strange turn where it's now no longer about facts and real situations, but about "feelings". As Mayim Bialik expresses in her video, being called a "girl" rather than a "woman" is supposed to make us women FEEL oppressed and inferiorized due to the connotations which may or may not have been associated with the word "girl" in the unconscious mind. To a degree, I can see her point. Sure, how words are defined and given context in the unconscious mind is based on our human history wherein, yes, women WERE regarded as inferior to men.

HOWEVER, what she and so many others today are saying is that these words and unconscious meanings have power over us and that we should actively strive to eradicate them from our vocabulary. We should stop a person who uses the "offensive" word in their tracks to point out that they are actually busy oppressing us. Although it may appear on the outside as though this is us women taking our power back, it is in fact the opposite of female empowerment or any empowerment for that matter.

Empowerment to me means that I have the power and the ability to decide and choose whether or not I will take something personally and feel oppressed, offended or inferiorized. My Empowerment exists in knowing that no matter what anyone calls me or thinks of me and no matter the "connotations", "implications" or "insinuations" certain words may be expressed with, it has no influence on me because I know who I am. I don't need anyone else to recognize that I am empowered, worthy of respect or equal in value because I know I am.

If you find yourself agreeing with this new type of "feminism" and feeling oppressed by words like "girl", then my question to you would be: "Where, how and why are YOU not recognizing or seeing your own value, worth and power?" If you are fighting so hard for a FEELING, something which only exists inside you in the first place, then that means there is something you are not giving yourself.

Now that us women have physical equality, in terms of having equal rights recognized by law, it is up to us to also recognize our inner "beingness" equality. We have to stop doing all those things in our own minds wherein we devalue ourselves and make ourselves feel inferior. The external fight is over, now we just need to stop the internal one.

Thanks for reading!

Kim Amourette