Dear Women of the World, 

Wonderful women, it breaks my heart to see us tear each other down. We are classified by weight and appearance, whether we are healthy, or how we dress. We are forever engaged in a civil war with our gender, and the battle is painfully trivial. 

 

We have all felt the humiliation and defeat, the sadness and loneliness of being a woman among other women. We fight over who is more attractive on the outside, unaware that the ugliness on the inside is competing in its own sick, twisted beauty pageant. We have felt the sting of harsh words, and the nagging feeling that somewhere, someone is coughing a catty remark just out of earshot. 

We are better than this. All of us. 

You are not beautiful solely because you are thin, nor are you beautiful solely because you are heavy. 
You are not better than the woman who shops at Wal-Mart because you buy your clothes at Nordstrom.
You are not less successful as a waitress than the business woman who works across the street. 
You are not wiser because you are old, and you are not less intelligent because you are young.

I beg you.
We are setting an example to young girls who will someday take our place.
We are telling them to judge themselves and others. We are conditioning hateful rivalry.
Our message to each other needs to change. 

You are fat. You are thin. You are in-between.
You are short. You are tall. You are average.
Your hair is black, brown, blonde, red, and every other color of the rainbow.
You have freckles. You have hidden birthmarks.
You have pale skin, olive skin, and dark skin.
You wear dresses, you wear jeans, you wear comfy sweatpants.  

You have memories. You have favorite things.
You have mothers. You have daughters. 
You have fathers. You have sons.
You have sisters and brothers.
You have boyfriends and husbands.

You have people that love you unconditionally.
Isn’t it time we learned to love each other in return?

Sincerely,
A fellow female.