I've been on a bit of a hiatus w/r/t blogging but on the way out of the gym this morning, it suddenly hit me: I know what I can write about next! In fact, I actually witnessed an example of today's topic in real time and was so moved by it, I knew I had to write about it immediately.
(More importantly, this morning's revelation made me feel like I'm starting to sense a theme to my writing: a little bit pop culture, a little bit human behavior, a little bit minty . . . ok so maybe these things don't really form a cohesive whole but whatevs. Maybe it's the randomness of my writing w/r/t topics that makes it so endearing to my 10 followers? . . . either way, I'm back baby!)
What did I see on my way out of the gym? I am coming down the hallway and see a woman who appears to be peering down the hall in my direction. As I get closer, I see a second woman approaching from the left who is essentially crossing in front of the first woman . . . and as my eyes move back to the first woman, I see her giving the second woman a prolonged, up and down visual review, with a look on her face that was a combination of "wow", "ugh", and "FYL" . . .
Now I have no idea what this first woman was thinking and why she gave the look she did. Maybe she was having a bad day and was just glaring at everyone she saw. Maybe the first woman's former husband had cheated on her with the second woman. Maybe the second woman was wearing Sex Panther for women. However, regardless of the specific reason(s) behind the dirty look, this is just one small example of a behavior I've witnessed an infinite number of times among the ladies. Based on my high degree of knowledge around this particular phenomenon, my high understanding of women in general (insert any and all jokes here), and my discussions with several women over the years about this behavior, here are some of my suggested and/or probable reasons for why woman A is glaring at and/or giving woman B a negative look:
1) Woman B is dressed like a whore, tramp, slut, and/or morally casual individual
2) Woman B is dressed in a way that Woman A wishes she could dress like (such as a whore, tramp, slut, and/or morally casual individual), but just can't and/or won't pull it off for any number of reasons (her figure, she's married, she has kids, her morals, etc.)
3) Woman B is acting like she's having a blast and Woman A just thinks she's too outgoing and/or loud (in this case, Woman A is usually having a bad time)
4) Woman B is younger than Woman A and Woman A feels old looking at her
5) Woman B has guys surrounding her and Woman A can't understand why
6) Woman B has guys surrounding her and Woman A doesn't
7) Woman B has a great body and Woman A thinks she doesn't
8) Woman B has a great body and Woman A doesn't
9) Woman B is making out with a guy and Woman A isn't
10) Woman B is making out with a guy that Woman A wants to make out with
11) Woman B is making out with a guy and this offends Woman A because she thinks it's a little bit much but in reality, Woman A just wants to make out with the guy
12) Woman B has done something specific to offend Woman A such as saying something rude or giving Woman A a dirty look . . . for the record, I think this reason fits maybe . . . 0.00000004% of the time
13) Woman B is drunk and Woman A isn't (or Woman A isn't drunk enough to ignore her)
14) Woman B is sober and Woman A is shattered
15) Any combination of the above reasons (which is the case more often than not)
There could obviously be 400,000 other reasons and I'd love to hear from you on what you think other ones might be . . . for example, in this picture, I'm pretty sure the dirty look isn't rooted in any of the reasons above:
I know that women tend to size other women up because it's a natural behavior intertwined with our DNA and evolutionary history (think women competing for men, etc. and you'll get the drift) but I also know things like pop culture, the focus on beauty and material possessions in the media, and feelings of insecurity and/or a lack of confidence must also play a role. In particular, I wonder if in today's world, women are feeling more self-conscious and/or disconcerted with themselves or other women, and are therefore tossing around more dirty looks than they were 20 years ago . . .
Now I'm not going to pretend like guys don't engage in this behavior too and that it isn't rooted in reasons similar to those above; guys definitely check one another out (in both minty and non-minty fashion) and will give one another dirty looks from time to time (or maybe all the time) but I figured I'd call out the behavior as observed among women given . . . well, I like women, haha. Also, I thought it was about time I tried writing about a topic that might generate a few haters as I've heard that having people dislike you is one of the keys to becoming big in the media world . . . which should obviously be my number one goal given my dream of becoming a J.Crew model :)
Hope to hear from you on this phenomenon/behavior and in particular, would love to know if you think it's more prevalent among women than in men!
