Why Women Compete with Each Other
Emily V. Gordon in her article “Why women compete with each other” describes her life story of becoming a woman. In this story she describes the problem of women’s competition and aggression. She offers three theories that can explain women’s aggressive behavior.
The first theory is connected with evolutionary psychology that explains women’s indirect aggression with the necessity of protection from physical harm. It says that aggression keeps women safe “while lowering the stock of other women”. The second theory explains that women start to compete with each other to demonstrate their individuality in men’s presence and to win their attention. However such struggle can bring ladies to unexpected consequences.
It happens to the main character of our article. When she comes to new school and becomes an outsider her aggression wins in a struggle with a self-promotion. She makes a decision to become ugly in her own way (to wear old male pants, combat boots and ripped clothes). But in spite of this, her feminine overpowers. When her friend and she meet boys they start to push each other under the bus to flirt with them. To justify herself she starts to pity herself and to shift the aggression to her sister and other good-looking women. The third theory that author offers is that women do not compete with each other, they compete with themselves. When the woman sees the other good-looking woman, she does not perceive her generally, she finds a version of herself “that is better, prettier and smarter”.
So, making a conclusion, the author says that our life is a fun-house mirror that reflects our wrong copies. We should not compete with each other, we should improve ourselves.
Gordon, E. (2015). Log In - The New York Times. …