I’m a girl, just not ‘girly’
And no, that does not make me a tomboy
The internet describes being ‘girly’ as ‘displaying traditional feminine traits’ and as someone born in the 90’s, allow me to put down what I see as ‘feminine’ in my time. Disclaimer alert! These characteristics could differ according to the generation you belong in, age, location, race, religion and so many other factors and the following story is strictly my experience with the societal expectation of femininity.
I wouldn’t change anything about my childhood years. I was that trouble child who always came home with mud stains on my white school uniform, scraped knees and an occasional dose of my class-teacher’s scolding (although if I could change the past, I would have definitely made my mom’s life easier back then. Cleaning my dirty uniforms was NOT fun for her).
However, growing up I noticed that a lot of people found the adult version of this behavior odd or rather not very lady-like. I was never someone who wanted to change who she is just to validate the commentators around me, but lately I’ve been hearing comments centering my style, how I speak, what I choose to do to my body and a dozen more things which always end in the same note; you are not technically a “girl”. And as any other normal person would do, I did a deep dive on the good ol’ internet only to find out…
