It's Hard.

(No, not like that!)

Do you think a boy ever understands how difficult it is to be female?

Being female entails quite a few suffocating constraints that one can never truly escape, despite our movement towards a more "modern", equalizing era. The sad thing is, we're always going to be pressured to look a certain way. We're always going to be belittled in some way by some misogynistic fools. There will always be sexism, the same way there will always be racism and homophobia. Those bigots will always be thriving and strong in some filthy, disrespectful corners of the world.

Being female means insecurity, from the start. Are there any girls ever who have never felt the soul-crushing, all-consuming pressure of being generically thin and beautiful? We have to be thin and beautiful. It's a requirement, we tell ourselves; it's practically a berating demand that we be so, in any way we can achieve it. And then we go after it for all the wrong reasons, these unhealthy notions instilled in us from the start; we exercise not to be fit, but to be attractive, and then diet not to be healthy, but to be pleasing to others. We'll hunt for that golden mean, in whatever shape or form we can find it in–well, in whatever shape or form that will allow us to be "pretty". It takes a considerable amount of commitment and time and effort to make oneself "pretty", if not naturally born such a way. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder (yeah, keep telling yourself that), but that's not what society says, ever. Society is nearly always dictating.

Never does society say that it's okay to be disproportionate. Even if it was okay to be a bit on the plump side at a certain point in history, those women were still in perfect proportion with their more generous hips and rear end, possessing womanly voluptuous curves. And then those small-breasted girls in the '90s were stick skinny everywhere else, to form that highly coveted "willowy" body type. And then, worst of all, there was the "sexy supermodel", in the form of Gisele Bundchen and Cindy Crawford and so on. They just smashed every single girls' ego into disrepair, into dust, essentially, from young to old, all across the board.

Then there's the whole biological clock thing, which is completely unfair. Males never, at any point, have to worry about being too old to reproduce; their sperm will always wiggle away happily to reach the egg (unless they have low mobility, in which case, blame your genetics, maybe?). Females, in sharp contrast, are under constant pressure to settle down and get on with marriage, then get those kids marching out like some sort of clown car. We might live in a modern era where stay-at-home dads are not all that uncommon, and we may have near-obliterated the image of the "barefoot in the kitchen" domestic wife, but we can't play God and change the course of biology. Facts are facts. Women have to get moving fast if they want to have healthy children. 

Being a girl sucks sometimes. It sucks balls. Sometimes literally. 

Gross.

The Insecurity Complex

"Wow, you're so smart! I bet you're going to go to Yale."
"What?! No way, I'm such a failure; are you kidding me?"
..Seriously, what is that? Looking at those words on the page, it looks idiotic. But truly, we seem incapable of accepting compliments. What is so hard about saying a simple "thank you" with a gracious smile?
It's been ingrained in us since youth that we cannot be braggarts and must be humble. And, of course, the overachiever has become the average human being in this day and age (2% acceptance rate to Harvard, anyone?); so, we outdo each other in a game of insecurity and humbleness.
But false modesty has become as irksome as pretentiousness, perhaps even more so. Why?
I believe that we cling to our little safety zone of insecurity and modesty because we're afraid to put ourselves out there. Perhaps, we think that if we say "thank you" and accept the compliments, we now have expectations put on us. We now have the responsibility of continuing to live up to those compliments. Insecurity is something we need, despite how much we outwardly wrinkle our noses at it. We're constantly comparing ourselves to other people in an attempt to keep up our belittling facade, instead of simply being who we are. Self-consciousness is practically a staple quality in every person these days–even in males.
Humans are strange creatures, huh?
I think the lesson at the end of the day is that it is what it is. You have to know what you are, who you are, and accept that. Be honest with people, as much as possible (believe it or not, honesty is not always the best policy...). And sometimes, those lessons drilled into us from toddlerhood can be as deprecating as those not taught to us.

Moderation is key–moderation in all things, including moderation.

(And hi there! Nice to meet you!)