Sorry to do this to you guys again, and you don't have to read this if you don't want to, but I just have to say it because it's really been getting to me lately.
Ya'll need to stop with the slut shaming on here. Like seriously, I don't care how bad the girl is. Criticize her on something that's actually bad about her. Call her a jerk. Call her a douchebag. Call her a liar. Call her anything but a slut, fat, ugly, etc. That just reinforces the idea that a girl's value is determined by how she looks and/or who she does and doesn't have sex with. I love wattpad and it's community, but there's so much internalized misogyny in it that really needs to be fixed. Also, people need to stop constantly making the mean girls "mean" simply because they wear a lot of makeup or dress pretty. Those aren't bad things. So what if we want to look nice? It's not hurting anyone.
Some other things that people need to stop putting in their books:
"I'm not/you're not like other girls"
Magically curing mental illnesses/eating disorders by a boy or friend giving a thirty second speech about why they shouldn't be sad or insecure. That's not how those work, and you are just undermining the experiences of actual people with mental illnesses/eating disorders(I'm pretty sure I've been guilty of a lot of this too, and I'm trying really hard to fix that)
The "misogynistic asshole is a dick to all women until he meets 'the right one' and has a heart of gold even though he is only nice to her but it's okay because she's the main character" trope. Being a dick to anyone because of gender, race, or sexual orientation should immediately disqualify them from the "good person" list unless they fix it AND make up for it AND are truly sorry and not just pretending to be.
The "boy bullies/hurts girl because he likes her" trope. ABUSE SHOULD NOT BE ROMANTICIZED.
"Too much makeup," "too little clothing." Stop shaming girls for what they choose to wear. Boys can go around freaking shirtless but god forbid a girl wears a crop top.
Stop making every. Single. Female. Character. The. Ideal. Western. Beauty. Standard. Every body type is beautiful, and while you might not actually say anyone is ugly in your books, a lot of people make the main character stick thin with perfect hair that in real life, you would probably need extensions for, and a perfect natural look that doesn't appear to have makeup, but also God forbid they don't naturally look like they don't have makeup on. Let female main characters be ugly, chubby, have short hair, etc. because they all need representation too. Your main character doesn't have to look like America's next top model in order to be a good female character or a lovable one.
"You throw like a girl"
Not every boy has a six pack. Just like girls, stop making every boy a freaking super model. They don't all need to be sexually attractive to be a lovable character.
"'You deserve to die' I knew they were right." Most of the time, people with depression/suicidal thoughts don't feel that way because they believe what other people say. It's usually their own self-hate that makes them feel bad. Hardly anyone agrees when someone else says something mean to them. You make it seem more like it's just them agreeing with someone else's hate, instead of what it actually is: their own negative feelings draining them of their self confidence and spirit and slowly tearing them apart from the inside.
"Boy changes girl's life forever just by dating her" trope. Like no, getting a boyfriend doesn't make every aspect of her life better, as romantic as you may think it is. Stop making every story solely about girls depending on guys.
This is super trivial compared to most of the other things, but please stop with the "all cheerleaders are out to steal your boyfriend and ruin your life and party every single night" cliche. As a cheerleader, I can assure you we aren't. We barely get any sleep. On a good day, we are able to find maybe two hours to ourselves for homework, eating, social interaction, and maybe even able to treat ourselves to getting a good thirty minutes of sleep. We're too busy having panic attacks over our next competition to flirt with your boyfriends and I can assure you we have better things to do than tape ketchup covered tampons to your locker.
You people need to remember that a lot of young girls read this stuff, and instead of telling them what they should and shouldn't do, what they aren't capable of, what they should look like, how they should dress, and that getting a boyfriend should be their number one priority, we need to teach them that they can be who they want to be as long as they aren't hurting anybody. And I don't just mean reading books and studying math. To all my young readers, if you want to be an astronaut, that's fine. And if you want to be a model, that's also fine. And if you want to wear long pants and a jacket, that's fine. And if you want to where short skirts and a bikini top, go ahead. If you like looking natural, you go girl, because you are beautiful no matter what. And if you want to use your entire bottle of mascara in one day, then get going because makeup is art and there are no wrong answers in art. And if you want a boyfriend, go ahead, and if you don't want a boyfriend then screw that, because you're beautiful and complete on your own. And if you want a girlfriend, hell yeah because girls are freaking awesome! And if you want to BE a boy, freaking do it! It's okay to do anything as long as you don't send people the same snap you put on your story because then you are crossing a line and I will come for you.
