For hundreds of years, women have been struggling to gain the recognition and respect they deserve. People are constantly degrading and shaming women, to the point where some of them contemplate suicide. Why is it okay to praise a man when he posts a picture of himself naked, or with barely any clothes on, but when a woman does it she gets called names, and is attacked by other women? For instance, Kim Kardashian posted a naked picture of herself on Twitter. The hate was unbelievable: she was getting called names, and people were calling her a “terrible mother.” Another star, Chloe Grace Moretz attacked Kim on Twitter saying that naked pictures aren’t setting good examples for girls of younger generations, that she is just doing it for attention. Yes, we all know that the Kardashians are all family drama, but there is a message behind her post: if Kim is comfortable in her own body she should be able to show it off however she wants and pleases.

Not only are women being degraded for loving themselves and being comfortable in their bodies, but they are also being made fun of for their natural bodies. Every girl has had a day where something is going good, but then someone ruins it and calls them fat. Okay, yeah, I have some meat on my bones, but I’m healthy. Women have struggled for a long time with issues about body weight, stretch marks, body hair, and acne. I’m not saying that men don’t struggle with this at all, because they do, but women are judged most for it. It is really upsetting that after a woman has a child she is scared to wear a bikini out on the beach because of her stretch marks, and she is scared that someone might think of her as fat. What is wrong with that? “Fat” is used as a negative term to describe someone who has more body weight than others. Everybody comes in all shapes and sizes, no matter how big or small. Everybody should feel loved and unafraid to love themselves.

Twitter causes a lot of havoc when it comes to feminism and equality. Why is that when a girl posts a picture of herself, guys will comment some nasty things and think it is okay? Boys on Twitter will take a picture of a girl with no makeup and a different picture of a girl with makeup on and caption it with things like, “This is why you need to take her swimming on the first date.” Makeup makes a girl feel good about herself, and girls love wearing it. Men are always saying things like, “If she wears makeup she can’t be trusted,” or, “Your natural skin is disgusting; cover that up.” Why should I have to? I’m not wearing makeup for your cause, I’m wearing it because it makes me happy. These types of posts and comments need to stop. Degrading women is not okay, it is not a joke, and it makes people feel bad about themselves.

No matter what you say or do, these types of problems will not stop unless women all around the world take a stand and come together to make it stop. When boys hear girls call another girl ugly or fat, they think it is okay to do it themselves when it is totally not okay. We girls need to stand up for ourselves and each other to make the problem go away. Instead of calling a girl you don’t like ugly, tell her that she looks nice that day, or you love her jacket. If boys start hearing girls compliment each other, and not bringing each other down, they will get the hint and finally respect girls, the way they should be, not degrade them.

So the next time you see a girl being called fat, or ugly, step in and tell her that she looks amazing and not to listento them because she is so much more than what she is being labeled.