Skirts for Juliet. And Romeo.

Hi I am Jeahan and I am in love with being a girl.

But what does “being a girl” mean anyway? The society’s most conventional answer could be:  doing household chores, being overly emotional, and wearing skirts. Lots and lots of skirts.  

Of course in my circle of friends, I am the one most likely to wear a skirt (or a dress, for that matter) for three months straight. 

And when I look at my whole collection of skirts, all folded neatly in one side of my closet, arranged on top of each other by color and/or print, I can’t help but thank the Lord for making me a girl of this century. Sometimes for the shallow reason that I can wear all these skirts and still opt to wear a pair of jeans when I feel like it. Somehow over the years it has finally been deemed acceptable for girls to wear what had used to be accustomed for guys only. We’ve seen in magazine editorials and various runways these clothes that are inspired by masculinity. Somehow wearing guys’ clothes is now totally chic.  

But the same is still not true for guys. While we could fairly imagine Angelina Jolie in a classy tuxedo, to see Brad Pitt in a skirt—no matter which famous designer made it—is just ridiculous.

And for a moment I’d think: Why.

To see a guy in a skirt is funny, especially if you’ve never heard of Scotland. Whenever one boy’s mom decides to dress her son up as a Scottish man—complete with the whole kilt ensemble—for the United Nations celebration at school, this boy suddenly becomes the joke of his classmates for the silly plaid skirt he is wearing. 

All smiles now. Lucky kid, if he was not in Scotland he will probably end up being slushied by the big kids at school.

But again the question. Why, society, is this funny? How has wearing a skirt become funny when wearing pantsuits is totally okay? How has doing household chores become degrading? How has being overly emotional become pathetic? 

I’ve had other questions too. How can blue be okay to be a five-year-old girl’s favorite color but when pink is the favorite color of a five-year-old boy his parents start worrying, thinking that something is not right with their child? How is it that if a girl likes watching DC and Marvel movies she’s cool but when a guy confesses to knowing all the winners of past cycles in America’s Next Top Model he’s instantly laughed at? 

And because the society can’t seem to answer me, I had come up with my own pretty obvious answer: Skirts, the household, emotions, the color pink, these are things associated with femininity. And being feminine is the last thing a guys’ guy would ever want to be. Also,  sad reality check, these guys’ guys still rule the world (sorry to tell you, Beyonce) and whatever they say is unaccepted shall remain unaccepted. 

                                                                                                        Sadly.

We girls think that because we now have the liberty to wear our boyfriend’s or brother’s or dad’s clothes, or the right to do carpentry or join the army or become the president of a country we are already empowered. Of course we are. But make these guys wear our clothes, make them do cross stitches of puppy patterns  or join in our tea parties, and when they refuse (“I don’t want the boys to know that I’ve been doing something as sissy as that, hun.”), we know we still have a problem. 

We may be quite respected in many areas now. But alas, we have a long way to go to be fully accepted. Femininity is still coming second to its counterpart. I can almost hear men shouting “We are number one!!!” like they do when they watch their favorite team win another world cup. 

And the even more heartbreaking thing is some of the members of this universal sisterhood have turned their backs on us. 

Do you really need to ask?

To them being a girly-girl has become somewhat embarrassing. Wearing a dress? With their face cringing, they’d be like, what’s the occasion? As if you need a special occasion to feel pretty in a dress. Crying over a Meg Ryan movie? Still with their cringed faces, they’d be like, what is so touchy about that. They just met in the Empire State Building, that’s all. As if crying in public is not a sign of quiet bravery, a sign that while others chose to hold their tears to avoid embarrassment, she fearlessly decided to let her tears free-flow because she is self-secured like that. And besides, that really was a touchy scene, you stone cold woman!  

This also makes me remember a friend. She once declared that she wants to spend the rest of her life taking care of a home. Someone (unfortunately, also a girl) overheard her and laughed loudly. “WHYYYY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT??? AFTER EVERYTHING YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED IN COLLEGE, THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO DOOOO???” As if being a wife and a mom staying at home is undignified. What is wrong with choosing to take care of a family in contrast to competing with corporate men in the workplace?

Femininity should never be associated with weakness. Femininity should not have an off-putting connotation. Indeed, it has advantages far more than what we’ve been led to believe. For one, having a soft side balances a way of life.

What, with a generation that is losing its value for romanticism; a generation that now has Woodstock festivals and Shakespeare sonnets as nothing more than topics studied for history and literature class long exams. A generation that now has become more proud to have the latest MacBook Air than the fact that they have a collection of hard bound Charles Dickens novels handed down by their own great grandfathers. 

A generation with sentiments no longer fully expressed by spoken words and cheesy gestures (especially giving handwritten notes, sigh), and instead expressed through instant messages, likes of profile pictures and mentions in tweets. What, with a generation like this, the everyday giddiness of a girly-girl indeed becomes a breath of fresh air. 

Admit it, wouldn’t it be great to meet a real-life Giselle from Enchanted? And then let this person change your life instead of laughing at her claims that another world does exist someplace else. Who knows, maybe she’s right (and why are you being so close-minded anyway???)

Some people see feminism as just proving that they can do what men can. Funny, because that is also like proving that what men do is the ultimate goal of everyone. What we, as members of this universal sisterhood, should do is to make them believe that being good at the things we girls do are also worth being the ultimate goal of someone.

We don’t necessarily have to try to lift weights or eat 50 pieces of Buffalo wings to prove ourselves. We only become posers for doing that.  Letting all the world see how hard and fun and honorable and serious being a woman is, that’s enough.

And who knows, maybe someday a world where both men and women wear skirts is not as ridiculous-sounding as it is now could be possible. 

                                                                                                      Imagine that.