The Bitch Code

"You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it ok for guys to call you sluts and whores" - Mean Girls.

All right, so last night me and Julien went out to karaoke with our friend Armie, along with a group of his friends from the musical he was in. I had a good time but overall the whole night was mostly ... well ... educational, to say the least.

Since I was homeschooled, I never really had much of a chance to absorb the whole typical female "culture," since most of my time was spent studying, playing music and being very very shy. I was always a bit jealous that I wasn't able to get to know lots of different girls - that I didn't get to go to high school and have that whole social clique thing that you see in different TV shows and movies. (Of course, now I know high school isn't like TV at all, but I had my fantasies.)

So the group last night had a few girls in it, most of whom were very nice. So all of us hung out last night, drinking and smoking and just chatting it up. Well, I observed something very interesting over the course of the evening that, no matter how long it went, never went away: all the girls called each other bitches, sluts and whores all night long. ALL NIGHT LONG.

Am I missing something here?

At first I thought it was just a fluke, a glip in the language of the evening ... but no, it certainly wasn't. I don't think the girls ever called each other by their first names unless someone was asking where they were. Not only the girls, the guys were doing it too. Every woman there (save for me, thank goodness, because I would've gotten pissed) was called a bitch or a skank over and over again.

What the hell?! Is that supposed to be in good fun? Because it bothers the shit out of me.

When did it become okay for women to thrive on calling each other bitches and whores? How has that become common language for girls to say to each other? I don't get it people. I seriously DON'T GET IT.

The whole thing reminded me of the movie Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan. In it a homeschooled girl goes to high school for the first time and gets absorbed in a culture of girls who constantly berate, backstab and insult each other in order to make their lives feel slightly more meaningful. I thought it was an exaggeration, for entertainment value, but it turns out I was wrong. Girls actually speak to each other like this, on a daily basis.

I personally think it's complete bullshit. My reason? Because it's complete bullshit, people!

I don't want to spend all my time shooting others down while they do the same to me, over and over again, just so I "belong." How can that be at all productive, meaningful or genuine? It completely separates women from each other, turns us into parodies of the female experience and allows us (no, encourages us) to constantly insult each other under the guise of female stupidity. It's pathetic.

Well, I personally will never fall under this moniker. If someone calls me a bitch and I don't deserve it, I'll tell them to shove it right back up their ass. Because I'm not going to be one of those girls. Ever.