I am not writing this because I am a feminist, a hater of all Greek life or an angry single woman.
I am a so-called millennial woman, sick and tired of society, and even worse, of the men in society, telling me how I should behave in a relationship to be perfect.
So, when I read the list that the white male who goes by the pen name "Stuff Frat People Like," dressed in an American flag bandana, shirt with the number one on it, dark sunglasses turning his eyes into black beady circles like a shark hungry and ready to devour his prey, pointing at me, telling me about "50 Ways to Be the Perfect College Girlfriend," I had to type away my feelings of disgust and degradation, and help tell the world that, even if this is a "joke," this message is very much problematic.
The main fallacy with this list is the title, "The Perfect College Girlfriend." The definition of perfect provided by Merriam-Webster is "having all the qualities you want in that kind of person, situation, etc." The idea of perfect varies from each individual to the next; there is no such thing as a universal perfect anything. There are social constructions of a female's perfect body size, hair type, and eye color that are enforced by popular culture figures, but the reality is, everyone has a different idea of perfection.
Besides this misconception of the word "perfect," this list blatantly reinforces female stereotypes, which is an unfortunate mindset that we should have progressed from by the year 2016. Point five says that the perfect girlfriend should "not be an emotional drunk." Not every woman is a sensitive, pure, emotional mess who needs to be talked to and treated with careful attention not to make her explode with anger or cry at the blink of an eye, especially during menstruation.
In fact, women experience different phases within their menstruation cycle that do not necessarily make them as emotional as they are portrayed in movies and online. "Estrogen and progesterone, which rise to their highest levels when women are ovulating, have anxiety-reducing effects," the part where the so-called emotional side comes into play is when the levels of those hormones drop and can leave "women more sensitive to stress than men" ("The Double Life of Women"). I am not going to lie and say I am not emotional. I am a writer who finds beauty and sadness by looking at an ant on a leaf ... or something poetic like that, but I have many female friends that have cried less than some of my male friends, even when it is that time of the month. It's not accurate to categorize all females as sensitive, because each female has different levels of hormones that may or may not fluctuate at different times, and more importantly, each female has a different personality.
Point six on the list goes back to that idea of perfection, "There's nothing less sexy than insecurity, except maybe love handles." When I read this I felt the acidic liquid rising up my esophagus; I was going to be sick, and I had 44 more to go.
Skinny, fat, or curvy, each woman is born different, and each person has a different aesthetic preference. Today, women are constantly pressured by the media to have, as Tina Fey put it so beautifully in her book "Bossy Pants," "Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits." It is truly unrealistic for women to live up to those standards, and even more unrealistic that they should do so just to please a man.
Point seven defines the perfect girlfriend to "make [men] work for it but only a little bit." Ha, what does this even mean? I know what it is alluding to: Don't be a slut, but also don't be a prude. It is typically more common for men to be praised for having sex with multiple partners, and women shamed for doing the same thing. The word "slut" was coined specifically to shame women for the very thing men get praised for. The etymology of the word started by meaning a dirty or untidy woman, and in Dutch a careless man, but by 1966 the word was used to mean "a woman who enjoys sex in a degree considered shamefully excessive," and this definition has persevered to this day. It is wrong to shame women, or even anyone, for their sexual experiences (Online Etymology Dictionary 1). It is their business and their body. It is absurd that we still use this word and have these stereotypes about women.
Point 19 says the perfect girlfriend will "bake [men] something from scratch." We live in 2016, my friends; yes, women are still more underpaid than men, do not have as high-ranking positions as men, and face many other prejudices against them, but there has been so much progress. A woman is running for president of The United States of America, and there are so many lady boss entrepreneurs making magic for their companies.
This whole idea that the women should stay at home, watch the kids, clean and cook should be long gone. If a woman genuinely wants to play that role, she should be free to do whatever she dreams, but that is not every woman's place in this world, and the only person to determine her place is she herself.
I could tear this list apart, number by number, but I would just keep repeating the same words of sexism, stereotypes, and flawed ideas of perfection.
It is time for us to stop creating stupid content that negatively paints women. It is time for us to stop feeling like there is one perfect way to live. It is time for us to be whoever and whatever we want to be, and not be judged for it.
It is time for us to change.