TJ

2022 was full of surprises and revelations. However, the lesson I hold closest to my heart was unlearning my internalised misogyny. I realised I looked down upon women I perceived as pick-me girls or not like other girls. While many people who engage in this behaviour enable sexism, it is more helpful to view internalised misogyny as a response or a reaction to patriarchy. As several cultural critics have started pointing out, even the hurling of labels such as pick-me or trad-wife tends to blur the lines between calling out misogyny and reinforcing it....

Who are you? When I was a child, my answer to this question would be aspirational, traits I wanted to be associated with by other people. I am smart. What is smartness but a metric contingent upon a person’s social and cultural capital? I am hardworking. I am not always hardworking. I procrastinate endlessly when I am anxious. I don’t work hard when I don’t see the point in a particular activity, such as assignments....