There exists an issue of demonizing (by way of claiming not to be like) “other” women – which exemplifies internalized sexism.

The problem with lumping virtually all women into a specific group identity is that it traditionally calls upon all of patriarchal society’s most harmful stereotypes.

One assumes that most girls are… what, exactly?

That very phrase – “most girls” – calls forth connotations of catty, shallow, vain, fake, hyper-emotional, and hyper-feminine, particularly when used in this context.

When I began to deconstruct “bitch” as a cultural and linguistic phenomenon, it became apparent that many aspects hinge on female competition. And female competition is frequently instigated by internalized messages of sexism.

This phrase constructs a hierarchy with traditional images of femininity at the bottom, the stand-out, masculinized exception of a woman (or two) sort of straddling the line of androgyny like Wonder Woman, and then traditional masculine stereotypes at the top.

Beyond the assumption that masculinity is superior to femininity, it also sets different categories of femaleness against each other.

I guess, with all of the struggles to communicate amongst female identifying individuals already, innate and dismissive language such as “Other women are such bitches!” adds another layer of struggle on top of all our unique journeys, and it is historically proven that the most effective way to drain power from any group is to divide and conquer.

So saying that other women are bitches can also be igniting a firestorm of sexist connotations we just don’t think about on a daily basis that is harmful both to other women and the speaker.

The first step to empowering individual women is to stop playing into grand schemes of misogyny."