A Happy Medium by Erin Murtaugh

The past two weekends, two relevant events to our society aired on television: the Super Bowl and the Grammys. Both aired important messages to girls and women all across the nation. One featured gender equality and the other spoke about domestic violence and abuse. Next week, I’ll touch on domestic violence and abuse, but for now, let’s focus on gender equality.

A commercial was aired by the company Always during the Super Bowl, featuring the phrase #LikeAGirl. If you haven’t seen it, it starts with the director asking people to do things such as “run like a girl” or “throw like a girl.” The people (mostly women in their 20s or so, and boys) responded with actions that were very weak and ditzy looking.

Then, the commercial moves on to ask the same questions to young girls. The girls all showed their actions to be big and strong, much opposite from what the group of people before them were doing. It’s amazing how young girls see the phrase “like a girl” as simply doing actions like they normally would, but males and older women see “like a girl” as an insult.

The commercial initially aired in June 2014 and received positive feedback on its first go around. This time, when it aired during the Super Bowl, people all across social media reacted, not always positively. Female social media users started using #LikeAGirl on posts about how gender doesn’t stop them from doing something.

Male Twitter users came up with #LikeABoy, mocking the concept. This reaction upset many. The Super Bowl, a nearly four-hour event dedicated to an all-male sport, gave 60 seconds to a commercial devoted to females. I think that’s more than fair.

The phrase “like a girl” makes it evident that sexism does in fact still live in our society today. I think it’s time for a change. Ladies, go out and show the world what you do “like a girl.” I balance work and college like a girl. I love riding motorcycles, like a girl, and even have my motorcycle endorsement. I enjoy action sports such as water skiing and learned how to go around the boat and over the jump last summer, like a girl. Just because I am a girl doesn’t mean I can’t do these things.

Times are changing and it’s time stereotypical phrases such as “like a girl” change, too. So, what do you do like a girl?

 

Albert Lea High School graduate Erin Murtaugh is a first-year student at Rochester Community and Technical College. She can be reached at murtaugh.erin@gmail.com.