It's my blog, and I'll whine if I want to...

It's not so much a whine as it is a vent or expression of frustration. WOMEN!! Every single one of you (so, like the 3 of you reading this, who aren't the issue anyway haha!) needs to step back and take a look at the times in our lives we have hurt other women. I can see the times I have done it and I have owned it and done my best to not go back to those behaviours. We live in a society where it's not only okay, but acceptable and sometimes encouraged to be cutthroat and vicious to other women.

I want you all to think about why this is okay? Why is it okay to say rude things and criticize another woman's body? Why do people laugh when we make fun of another woman's clothing? Since when is it absolutely acceptable and even sometimes coveted to be the "other woman"? We live in a world where we are raised to think we need to FIGHT and SCRAP to "win" - men, status, beauty... Maybe, if I roll my eyes and talk about what a "bleep bleep bleep" that girl is, my boyfriend won't like her and he'll view me as better. Maybe if I comment on how trashy she looks, people will notice how much higher status I am socially that I don't dress like that. If I hit on him and he comes home with me, he wants me more than his wife/girlfriend and then I "win". STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!

One of the reasons I love powerlifting so much is that I see less of this. I used to be involved in other sport, where this was rampant. I can still look back and remember some of the terrible things my friends and I said and it makes me sad that I resorted to the same crap. Now, I admit, powerlifting isn't free of this... I still see it and I hear it and it emerges, but it has always shocked and impressed me that there is so much less of it than in other places. I'm not saying you need to like everyone. I'm the first person to tell you I'm not going to like everyone and everyone isn't going to like me... but, what we should do, is respect each other. What you're wearing doesn't impact me... wear it! What you do for exercise doesn't impact me... do it! What plastic surgery you want to have done doesn't impact me... pay for it! And I don't win anything in life because I hit on your husband/boyfriend... if he goes home with me, I probably shouldn't want him anyway, because clearly neither of us is respectful.

Wouldn't it be nice if we remembered the reasons we fought for each other, not against each other? I see the next meme all over the place and I really love it... my powerlifting friends share it all the time (of course). I'd like to see it happen... I'd like my daughters to grow up in a world where THIS is the case...