You run like a girl.
You fight
like a girl.
Now imagine someone yelling that at you, how do you feel? Usually when we hear like a girl we associate that with something bad. Why does running,
fighting, and throwing like a girl
mean you can't do it, you’re not good at it, or you have to flail your arms and
legs around? ALWAYS took a stand against saying “like a girl” as a bad thing.
It shouldn’t matter whether we do something “like a girl” or “like a boy” we
should make sure we just do it “like ourselves”.
In the
ALWAYS commercial they asked many people to run, fight and throw like a girl. To no ones surprise, those
tasks seemed like they were hardest thing to do. What was shocking was when
young girls between the age of six and fourteen were asked the same thing. They
all ran, fought, and threw their hardest. One little girl even responded
to “what does it mean to run like a girl” with “it means to run as fast as you
can”. So “when did doing something like a
girl become an insult”?
A little
girl was asked, “Is like a girl a good
thing”?
She
responds, “I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing…it sounds like a bad
thing. It sounds like you’re trying to humiliate someone”.
“A girl’s confidence plummets during puberty”
ALWAYS states.
Put yourself in their shoes, you remember how confusing everything was. At that
point in their life girls need all the confidence boosters they can get, they
don’t need to be told they do something like
a girl, as if it’s a bad thing. During the commercial a woman gave a
motivational speech about doing something like
a girl, “Keep doing it…if you’re still scoring…still being first, it
doesn’t matter what they say. Yes I kick like a girl, swim like a girl and I
wake up in the morning like a girl because I am a girl, and that’s not
something I should be ashamed of.” Then at the end, all the women who had
flailed their arms and legs around when asked to “run like a girl” had another
chance to run like themselves.
ALWAYS made a couple more “like a girl” commercials.
· Zoe, a14-year-old girl
· Linden, a 9-year-old boy
· Karlie, a 14-year-old girl
Zoe talked
about her golfing completion that she won against a boy. She was excited like
any golfer would be but then started to question it when she went to school the
next day. Everyone told her opponent, “I can’t believe she beat you”, as if winning against a girl was something to be
ashamed about. Why is it now that girls can’t feel victorious like boys?
That’s
answered in the next commercial ALWAYS made with Linden. Young boys, including
Linden, think that “throwing like a girl insinuates you’re bad…. and throwing
like a boy is not an insult”, he said. It’s clear to see that when we’re young
we’re taught that girls are inferior and it usually sticks with us the rest of
our lives.
One girl who
proves that the stereotype didn’t stick with her is Karlie Harman. She’s the
quarterback on her all boy football team and doesn’t make the phrase “like a girl” stop
her. People on her team have told her she “throws like a girl” but she takes that
as a complement because she “throws with power and dedication”. She is an
inspiration to never let peoples’ words bring you down or make you want to give
up. No matter what, boys and girls alike, we should always strive to be the
best we can be, whether we do it “like a girl” or “like a boy” we should make
sure we just do it “like ourselves”.
