Last night, for the first time in ages, I went out into town for some drinks. It was heaving in all the pubs because the rugby had been on, and we ended up in Pier, one of the clubs. It was all good fun and I was having a nice night, up until a minor incident left me absolutely fuming. I went to the toilet, and when I came out, a couple of girls were waiting because all the cubicles were full. One girl nudged the other as I walked past to indicate my just vacated cubicle, at which point her friend said this:
"Shotgun not going after that girl, I'll get AIDS."
Wow.
She didn't say it in an undertone or anything, I could hear her, clear as day. I don't know whether she thought I was deaf or whether she simply didn't care if I heard, but either way I was completely flabbergasted. I didn't know this girl, I had never seen her before in my life, and so I can only assume that her comment was based on my appearance. I'm 21 now, I've gone through all my teenage insecurities and I'm now at a point where I feel pretty comfortable in my own skin. I leave the house with no make-up on fairly often without feeling hideous, and when I go out of an evening I always make the effort to look nice. But with one comment from a complete stranger, I reverted back to that 15 year old girl, standing in front of the mirror hating my reflection. I was furious. Who was this girl to judge me on how I looked? I mean, clearly she'd not looked in the mirror before she left the house, considering what she was wearing...
Oops. Pot - kettle - black. This is when I realised that I am guilty of doing the same thing. Granted, I've never said, "that girl looks awful, she must have AIDS", but I have sat with my friends, made some kind of snarky comment about an outfit some girl was wearing and said, "what was she thinking?" Some girls magazines have whole pages just dedicated to celebrities who have made some sort of fashion faux pas, and it's seeing things like this that make girls think it's ok for them to do it too. Girls are mean enough to each other already, without getting validation for their behaviour from magazines, etc. I'm not saying that all girls do this, by the way, but an awful lot of them do, and it's horrible. I never thought of it as that harmful until I heard it being directed at me. But then again it's never a big deal until it happens to you.
I don't know where this 'mean girl' mentality came from, but wouldn't it be nice if girls could stop judging each other on what they're wearing, what their hair looks like, and maybe keep their opinions to themselves if they haven't got anything nice to say. From now on that's certainly what I'll be doing, anyway. I'll see if I can hold myself to that.
Finally, I read a quote from Dame Helen Mirren today which I thought was funny: "I think of myself as somewhat of a bag lady, not a style icon. But I do hope I wash up nice."
Today I'm loving: The Peppa Pig stuffed toy that Luke gave me after winning it in the arcade. It had a tenner attached to it, which I would have preferred, but I'm happy with the pig.
Today I'm hatin': the horrible wind, it has been playing havoc with my hair.
Song of the Day: Tonite by Spacebar.
So tell me/Is this cool now/Will I ever get my chance to show you how good this can be?
No Comments Yet, Leave Yours!