90% of beauty standards women feel are enforced by other women, not men

25,544 points•1,694 comments•submitted by _ImperialCereal_ to r/unpopularopinion33

It's crazy to me that there's so much talk about toxic masculinity, but toxic femininity is ingrained in our society and no one bats an eye.

Cosmo, vogue, fashion shows, reality t.v. Who is really perpetuating the unattainable standards for women to be skinny, to have matching outfits, to wear loads of makeup and possess flashy jewelry. Most guys, in my experience, never complain or even notice shit like that. But every woman I have known talks shit behind other girl's backs or to their face. And a lot of these are impressionable, young girls that drive so much toxicity.

And if we're talking about gender standards, there has been a huge reverse in standards against men in the last decade. If men even desire a woman to be in shape or presentable, there's an uproar of sexism. But most women are able to have a laundry list of expectations for men and it goes unchecked. Its ludicrous.

TL;DR: Women have unnecessary beauty standards placed on them but it has nothing to do with men. This is toxic femininity and it's dangerous. Sorry this was so long.

Edit: Okay obviously I didn't expect this to blow up as much as it did so I would like to clarify some things.

  1. This thread was not made to bash women whatsoever. I have no control over the comments made here or if they misconstrued my original point. People who are using this as a platform to ridicule women are doing the exact opposite of having a civil debate.

  2. I am simply drawing attention to the fact that we as males are told constantly why we are perpetuating toxic masculinity. But there are huge examples of toxic femininity in our society and this is one of them.

  3. People refuting this with facts or having a civil discussion, thank you. Those calling me mysogynistic or saying this post is a circle jerk, I think it's important to look outside your bias and see maybe women have A LOT to work on if they want to strive for a less toxic society. It starts with themselves, calling for women to be held accountable is not mysogynistic.