On Internalized Misogyny

I have had a very close hand experience with internalized misogyny . Even to this day I still find myself practicing it on myself and on women around me , which led me to question : who taught me this because I definitely didn't , I never envisioned myself practicing it . This led me to question the and study the micro behaviors and quiet and silent taming of me and many young women around me by this society . For those of you who don't know what internalized misogyny is , according to the Oxford English dictionary internalized misogyny is defined as subconscious and unconscious societal misogynistic beliefs by women leading them to internalize negative views of themselves and other women , and no I am not talking about patriarchy , as many people are confused between patriarchy and internalized misogyny . Patriarchy is the mistreatment , disrespect and hatred towards women by men and women , often to keep women in the subordinate position and make them docile and easy to control . But internalized misogyny is different in the aspect that it is practiced among women . That is hatred , bullying , disrespect and maltreatment of women by women . I have seen it SO many times in my life that at a time I started to believe it as the truth. 5 or 6 is the common age that most of the women , around the world first experienced the impact of internalized misogyny on their lives . For me it came as bullying . It took me six years to finally see this belief as nothing but a lie told me to make me feel less confident in my skin . You will come across many stories of women who have experienced internalized misogyny. but today we are going to talk about why it exists in the first place and how to get rid of it for good . Internalized misogyny exists because of the silent competition among women from getting good grades to looking good or being with a desirable man , this silent competition exists because of years of being forced to live in the dark , deprived of any opportunities and control over their destiny so much so that even if we do get any opportunity we start feeling insecure and put other women down to make ourselves feel superior and deem worthy in the eyes of others . It can only be conquered once we realize it at large that this pitting women against each other exists only to make us weaker and to hold us back for realizing our true potential . We , as sisters , should found a tribe of women who build each other up instead of tearing each other down . It is only through sisterhood will we overcome this challenge ,because think about it , whenever you fell down it was a woman who came to water your feet right and help you stand back right ?