Dear Real Women

Dear Real Women,

I’m writing in regards to some of the advertisements that I have found on the internet for you lately.

According to your ads real women do a lot of things but–also don’t do a lot of things.

I’m confused  by the idea of some women being more real than others  but I’m also concerned that this is limiting the type of woman that real women can be.

Using the phrase “real women” leaves me with the impression that there’s a whole lot of fake women out there. Now me being the feminist that I am, I want to believe that the fake women you compared yourself to is the media’s portrayal of women and not actual women at all. But the more I find, the more I realise, that this is really just women talking about other women.

Some of these slogans have me convinced that there is a feminist aspect to this. Like real women don’t do what society expects them to. But the further I read the more I realise that the “real woman” statements are just as intolerable as the media portrayal of women, but in their own special way.

Oftentimes real women statements are perpetuated by other women at the click of a share button. And with one small action your fellow women feel lesser-than.

So I ask, what makes one woman more real than another?

Some women can do somethings, and some women can do other things. It doesn’t make anyone more real than anyone else.

Women hating on other women has to stop. What is our inherent need to treat each other like competition?  No one woman is less than any other. We should be building each other up and not tearing each other down.

I believe in a sisterhood united together and empowering each other. All women are powerful, beautiful and brilliant people, not just the “real” ones.

Sincerely,

Emergency Wine