Trigger Warning Sexual Harassment/Abuse
While watching The Diary of a Teenage Girl, I was constantly reminded of Thirteen,
another film with similar themes and scenes. In both movies we are subject to terrifying images
of child neglect, abuse of every kind, mental health struggles, and growing up too fast. The
Diary of a Teenage Girl portrays these ideas with the naïveté and awe of a child, an extremely
honest view into the mind of any child who feels older than they are, and the repercussions
society's double standards have on our minds and bodies.
In films such as The Virgin Suicides, Thirteen, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and Black
Swan, we see how women and girls' bildungsromans are typically tragedies. Tales laced with
abuse of power, sexual double standards, and sometimes even death. Men almost always play
the villainous role, but instead of receiving justice and dealing with the repercussions of their
actions, they get off scot-free, leaving the women they hurt behind, to deal with their trauma
themselves, to be shunned by society for being a slut, an idiot, a victim.
With the advent of social media, especially Tik Tok, more and more teenage girls are
being pressured into growing up too fast, myself included. We see all these beautiful women,
people at least over the age of 18, getting attention from men because of their sexuality (e.g.
dressing "scandalously", being in a public relationship), and jealousy from other women
because of their beauty. We see this as children and believe that the only way to receive the
attention we want is to be sexual beings, to be beautiful and sensual, just like the grown women
society has taught us to idolize. Young girls feeling the need to grow up faster and faster has led
to more and more criticism and unwanted sexual attention towards them. People on social
media will make fun of you if you are childish, not quite fitting with the beauty standards, but if
you do what they say and become too grown up, they'll just turn their backs on you again,
saying you're a whore, and criticize the way you’ve changed. This double standard has led
many girls to push themselves to a breaking point, eating themselves alive from the inside out,
just so they can receive society’s validation.
This war on femininity and girlhood is depicted in countless films, books, and tv shows,
yet women and girls are still under attack from every direction, the media, men, and our peers.
Why are our stories being pushed aside? Why do I have to live in fear?
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