Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s so sad that there are women with such intense internalized misogyny they can’t behave in a civilized, open manner with other women.
What is wrong with them? I will never understand. I’m so sorry OP.
The answer of course is to distance yourself and stay that way.
Women have always been like this. It has nothing to do with misogyny.
DP. Agree women have always been like this. But yes, it does have to do with internalized misogyny.
Women view each other as competition. For what? For the attention of men. Women compete for status because we believe that the higher our status, the better our chances of getting and keeping a man.
Women are also socially competitive and create social hierarchies in part because they were kept out of professional life where there are opportunities to secure status through work. Even though women work now at much higher numbers, they are still socialized to believe that their social status is a reflection of their worth. But also this kind of "mean girl" behavior among women tends to be worse among groups of SAHMS, or among groups of professional women in a sort of permanent lower status. This is why nurses can sometimes be so absolutely awful to each other -- in many medical professional environments, nurses can never have as high of status as doctors or even administrators, and thus they compete with one another (sometimes viciously) to secure the highest possible social/professional status within their group. This also sometimes happens in other pink collar professions, like teaching or the administrative staff in some professional offices.
Look at how one of the responses even to OP's question was what? To put down this woman by accusing her of being menopausal. Nevermind that menopause is a natural, inevitable process that should not be an insult or source of shame. The idea is that a menopausal woman is old, no longer fertile, less feminine. And therefore worthless, because of a collective belief that women's worth is based on their attractiveness to men and their ability to bear and raise children.
Misogyny is THE reason women treat each other like this, starting in grade school and continuing into our 60s and 70s sometimes. If women truly believed that they and all other women had inherent value that was independent of men and children, there would be no reason to create these hierarchies in order to compete for position at the top. It is all internalize misogyny that leads to deep-seated insecurity about our place in the world.
The patriarchy outsourced misogyny to women a long time ago, along with childcare, housework, and maintenance of social bonds. And a lot of women happily take it on. It's really something.