Ishita Says:The Problem With The Phrase 'Like A Girl'

    • Ishita Mishra,
    • Standard: IX-K,
    • DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL (INDIRAPURAM),
    • Delhi.

    • Publish Date: Aug 14 2017 9:37AM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Aug 16 2017 5:31PM
Ishita Says:The Problem With The Phrase 'Like A Girl'

Has you ever heard the phrase ‘like a girl’? ‘Ladki ki tarah'? For instance have your friends ever told you that you throw the ball ‘like a girl’? Or your sports teacher telling you to run faster, and not ‘like a girl’? Or someone saying, “Come on, stop crying ‘like a girl”.

All of us have heard that at some point in our life. Either people have told us, or we’ve heard others being told. Last year I saw a campaign on my mom’s Facebook page where people of different ages were called in a studio and asked to do an action ‘like a girl’. A man was asked to fight like a girl. He mimicked a cat pawing and scratching with knees bent to show weakness. A teenage boy was asked to throw a ball like a girl. He raised his hand to throw the ball and then showed the ball dropping from the hand and exclaimed, “Aww..” A girl in late teens was to run like a girl. She began to run slowly and get conscious of how her hair looked and constantly brushed it with her fingers.

Then young girls were called and asked to do the same things. And they did it just like you and I would.
When asked wether doing something like a girl was a good thing or a bad thing, they replied saying, “I don’t know what that means. It sounds like a bad thing. Like you’re trying to humiliate someone. The older we grow, probably when we're 11 or 12 or about to enter teenage, the world tells us that doing something ‘like a girl’ is bad and an insult. And we believe it without bothering to think why. But now its time we ask ourselves a question..

Since when did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult? A bad thing? Wouldn't you naturally run or throw a ball the same way anyone else does? If you ask Saina Nehwal to hit the shuttle like a girl she’d do it the same as now. Mithali Raj and Sania Mirza would hit the ball the same as they would otherwise. Adelinde Cornelissen would ride the same as she does now. So why is doing something like a girl known as an insult?
I decided to do a project. I asked girls around me, from my grade and those senior and junior, “If I tell someone that they do something like a girl, what does it mean?” 95% of the times I got an answer saying, “It means you're not doing something right,” or that “its obviously an insult.” Getting such answers was shocking. Girls telling me that doing something ‘like a girl’ was an insult, without even a moment of thought! So what do you think?

Is it justified to use the phrase ‘like a girl’ as an insult? Let’s stop using this phrase as an insult and to humiliate. Let’s make ‘like a girl’ mean amazing things.

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Comments

Hemalatha.G Sethu Bhaskara Matriculation Higher Secondary Scho

True! You are right my friend. These orthodox beliefs are cruel. "Like a girl" is ofcourse not an insult. Girls are more powerful. There are mentally busy. They are so great. I understand that this phrase has a great good meaning only after reading this. So people have to be aware. Well written Ishita!☺!

Antara Bose Shri Shikshayatan School

The girls should be the parameter for comparison and not the boys...The stereotype era has changed and so is the beliefs.Now "like a girl" is not an insult anymore rather it is a compliment..Proud to be a girl and very well written Ishita!!!

Aishwarya Iyer Deens Academy

This is one of the most amazing articles I''ve read on the NIE website! Indeed, the phrase, ''like a girl'' is said like an insult to the way girls do things. This is disgusting and an extremely sexist remark. I hate this remark and have heard it being said to many people many times. This world is still highly sterotyped. Your survey is really incredible!! #Proud2BeAGirl

Emima Thangapandi PADUA HIGH SCHOOL-MANKHURD

You are a good observer.Actually from many years that is nearly, from ancient times we believed that being girly is a bad thing.It was put into us from generations.We were always told to be a man.If someone used to do something wrong people start saying "Show your inner man and don''t behave like a girl".It is bunched inside us from decades that a man in stronger than a woman,women are always called weak.So,I think this is the reason why the word like a girl is still insulting for us.

Ishita Bajoria Sindhi Model Senior Secondary School

This was an amazing article.Very well written Ishita, nobody must have ever thought from this point of view and it is very nice of you to do that.People believe that girls are weak,but they must know one thing for sure that girls are way more intelligent ,mentally and physically than anybody else.

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