Twitter Users Just Shared Some Great Life Advice That All Women Can Use!

There’s always a certain standard to live up to when you’re a woman. And it’s a standard that’s often set by even the most casual remarks made over dinner, or at tea time with your neighbours, or even in classrooms. A stray “settle down while you’re young,” or “you earn more than your husband?” or “she shouldn’t wear those clothes” can go a long way in telling not just a few women but all women that there’s a certain acceptable way to be. Now many of us have realized we just don’t want to play this game any more. If we were to rewrite the rules, would things turn out pretty different? Well, that’s exactly what Twitter user @mentalexotica wanted to find out yesterday, by tweeting this to her followers:

And people were quick to respond with really solid messages like this one:

Users began to flood timelines with loads and loads of advice on a variety of issues that directly impact women’s lives.

On The Pressure To Have A Family:

On Cultivating Confidence In Yourself:

And Cultivating Solidarity:

On Claiming Public Spaces:

And Making The Personal Political!

It isn’t perhaps until you go through the entire thread that you realize just how much women are being held back. What no one usually tells you about conforming to the preset standard “woman,” is that it often means dialing back your freedom of movement, your freedom to make choices about your body (aesthetic or otherwise), and even your right to access economic equality. All of this creates an individual who is woefully dependent on male relations, and must often compete with other women for the few resources they are ‘allowed’ to have.

The downside to all the advice listed here, as good as it may be, is does lump all women into a single category. A woman’s class, caste, or race identity, their sexual orientation, whether or not they live with a disability – all of this determines if they are in a position to follow the advice. The ability to make decisions about your role in a family often has to do with what kind of power structure already operate in your family. Similarly, what kind of capital you already have at your disposal will influence what decisions you can take. Context is everything, and the responses in this thread likely come from women who have been able to walk their own talk.

Nonetheless, [envoke_twitter_link]the women who do realize these pointers in their life will only be the better for it[/envoke_twitter_link].