Disclaimer: this isn't supposed to be a feminist rant but as i wrote it i realised it kind of came out that way and screw it, that's the way it's staying. that's not to say i'm not a feminist in real life, just that i try (and probably fail) to keep politics out of this blog and it wasn't intentionally a feminist piece.
Being an aggressive female means you hold a special place in the minds of anyone taught women should be sweet, kind and submissive (so everyone)- that is, the place of a psychotic overly-emotional bitch. Men are taught being angry makes them strong, women are taught it makes them weak. So what's a girl to do?
True, there's a difference between being assertive and being aggressive. There's a difference between standing up for yourself and trampling over others. But the hard and fast of it is that when you're taught to stay down your whole life it makes it really damn hard to stand up.
It depends how you're brought up probably. A and J were raised in families of feminists and brought up to believe they could do whatever the hell they wanted. They were brought up with parents who heaped pressure on them to be successful but also supported a 'girls will be girls' agenda when they made mistakes. It's probably why they became so independent and why they have no trouble standing up for themselves. Well it is perhaps true that A falls into the category of psychotic bitch no matter which way you put it but that's neither here nor there.
K has never had trouble standing up for herself either, in stark contrast to her twin sister. They were raised in a typical Asian family where the girls were quiet and the men made the money. B has always had self esteem issues because of it and has always had to have someone else to fight her battles. It's always K making complaints so B can have an extension on her assignment or ensure she gets paid right. Then again, when it comes to men K has no idea. Her whole 'relationship' with end-of-the-train-line proved that. She's so desperate to please she can't man up.
So what's the point to all this?
Courage.
L has never really had much courage. She let her mother fight most of her fights when she was growing up and her over-protective mother was all to happy to make sure L was treated the way she should have been. The result being of course that L could never stand up to her own mother and still can't disagree with her on anything. It also means she's pretty much destroyed ehr friendship with A and J, because she won't stand up to K and the rumours she's been spreading. It's pretty much stuffed her friendship with H as well becasue she doesn't have the guts to fight for their friendship and call her out on the mistakes she's made.
And now L has been fired from a job for something she didn't do, because someone saw her weakness and decided to blame her, knowing that she wouldn't point the finger back. Now she has a permanent black mark against her name that may never fade.
How does someone who's stood down their whole life stand up?
