Why all the stereotypes?

Just be yourself when it comes to what you like

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Caitlin Merill, staff writer

I can say without a doubt that almost every woman, at least once, has experienced a misogynistic comment about one of their likes or hobbies.

For me, a lot of it started at a young age. I’m the youngest of my three siblings and the only girl. So for the most part of my childhood, I grew up around my brothers, cousins, and their friends; who were all boys and played contact sports and played rough. I ended up getting involved in their games.

I think the first time I touched a football I was about 8 and from age 8 to maybe 12 I rarely put it down. If my brothers and their friends would let me hang out with them I was there.

Once I went to middle school is when the brunt of the misogynistic remarks from boys my age came rolling in. I remember we had a designated day of the week that our team got to have, which essentially was recess.

I was throwing a football back and forth with my friend when a boy came up to me and snatched the ball out of my hand and told me I wasn’t doing it right. He then proceeded to tell me that girls shouldn’t play football because they don’t understand it, as well as boys, do. Which at the time and still today doesn’t make any sense to me.

And the idealization that women don’t belong in sports doesn’t stop at kids. As a woman in sports statistics, you’ll make 98 cents for every dollar that a man who does the same exact job as you makes. 23.7% of careers in sports statistics are women while 76.3 are men.

While if you’re a woman and a sports field manager you’d make 87 cents for every dollar your male coworker makes. 83.3% of sports field managers are men leaving a measly 16.7% of women in that career field. So essentially if you’re a woman in the sports entertainment field you’ll be paid less than people who do the same job you do.

The amount of times I have seen a woman wear a shirt representing a musical artist or band and seen a man approach her and quiz her on whether she really just likes the music or if she’s wearing the t-shirt for an ‘aesthetic’ is infuriating because even when the woman can name over 10 songs the man acts like the woman doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

It’s annoying because it’s not the end of the world that a girl likes the same music that you do. The same goes for women.

Countless times I’ve been scrolling through Tiktok and seen a video of a guy singing along to female artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Megan Thee Stallion, and more and the comments are always girls commenting things like, ‘You don’t know anything about this.’ Or if it’s popular songs by those artists the comments will be ‘You only know the popular songs’.

At the end of the day why does it matter? People will treat artists like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift like artists that are just getting their feet in the water when in reality they’ve been making music for over 10 years.

Just let people love music and stop bringing negativity into the world over things that don’t matter. There’s so much going on in the world and you’re worried about someone who you think doesn’t fit the stereotype of a person who listens to a certain artist? At this point just grow up and let people enjoy what they enjoy.