By Staff Writer: Cyrena Nielson
The media has portrayed female friendships as being catty or non-supportive. How they can be jealous of their friend’s life accomplishments. Movies and books can create a toxic stereotype such as Betty and Veronica in the Archie comics. Both girls are best friends yet are constantly fighting over the attention from Archie. It’s important we leave these stereotypes in the past and hold our best friends close while supporting them. Facebook groups like “Women Supporting Women Is My Kink” and books like “Text Me When You Get Home” by Kayleen Schaefer are evidence of the evolution of female friendship.
Why is it so important to tend to these relationships and be there for one another? Women can achieve and contribute so much to society when we work together. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera worked together to bring awareness to the LGBTQ community, for example. The Edinburgh Seven was a group of Scottish women who worked together to gain an education in medicine during a time that was unheard of.
Female friendship is powerful because we “get” each other. We understand the prejudice we endure each day, in our personal and professional lives. We are able to harness our feminine energy in a world that seems to be entirely run by men. My best friends push me to be a better person and push me to go after what I feel I don’t deserve when I lack confidence. We encourage growth and offer a place to land when one of us falls on our ass.
“My people push me to do better. They listen, but not in a quiet, passive way. They’re always on point for correcting me when I put myself down or fall into a trap of thinking things are my fault when they aren’t. My friends are brilliant, funny, fearless, wise, and generous. We
champion each other in e-mails, in texts, in congratulatory flowers, or simply by saying how much we trust each other.”
-Kayleen Schaefer, Text Me When You Get Home; The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship