Alison Berg

@Twitterbabes: Why so insecure?

So. Twitter. More specifically, girls on Twitter. Let’s talk. I find myself super puzzled by this whole, “I’m so insecure” act. Like, you can’t tweet that you’re insecure when your handle is @Sexy(InsertNameHere) or @Queen(YourName). I’m just not buying it.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong, either. I just think it’s interesting. It’s definitely not news that women and girls are insecure. I think the general trend in society would indicate that they definitely are, and have become mostly pretty open about that fact. But it says so much about our culture that a woman can’t be confident in herself. We’re told to embrace our flaws, to be open about our insecurities — and to keep the things we’re confident about to ourselves.

While I’m just as inclined as the next person to admit that I’m generally not into the idea of modeling our cultural mandates on self-confidence after the Kardashians, that idea in itself says so much about how our society dictates women’s behavior. You’re not allowed to be confident in your looks (unless you’re Kim Kardashian).

Regular (as in, not “celebrity”) girls face such a different kind of all-encompassing social pressure. We have this laundry list of qualities we’re supposed to cultivate that could’ve been penned by Goldilocks herself. Smart, but not too smart. Pretty, but not too pretty. Confident, but not conceited. Wear makeup, but not too much (unless you’re Kim Kardashian). Work out, but don’t let your traps get bigger than your boyfriend’s (or any of his roommates’). Speak your mind, but not too loudly.

It’s no wonder women who felt confident enough to make their Twitter handle @Whoever_IsABabe still feel the need to consistently put themselves down. It’s like in creating that handle, they were automatically bound by some unspoken social doctrine dictating they periodically tweet about how insecure they are, just to restore balance to the Twittersphere after projecting some semblance of self-confidence into it.

Girls who feel confident about who they are and want to express that still feel the need to periodically temper that self-confidence with a heavy-handed sprinkling of self-doubt. And I’m here to tell you, @SexyGoddessWhoever, that I love your Twitter handle. And I’m sure I would love you, too.

And maybe we should all try a little harder to show each other some love this week, on Twitter or in real life because — while we may not all agree on how much makeup is appropriate and whether or not it’s kosher to wear yoga pants to meet your boyfriend’s mom — we can all agree that being a girl is hard.

This one goes out to all my ladies who felt the need to say something bad about themselves today because they might have accidentally let slip that they think their hair doesn’t look awful.

— Alyssa Roberts is a news reporter for the Statesman who enjoys (probably much too frequently) indulging her morbid fascination with Facebook political debates. Tweet her @alyssarbrts.

*unless you’re Kim Kardashian

*unless you’re Kim Kardashian

*you get the idea