I just had the same conversation again
a woman friend will tell me, why do you think you know so much more than other people, why do you think you're so superior? and I'll ask them, what did I say that makes you think I believe i'm better than other people?
and we'll go back through the conversation, and it'll just boil down to, I stated my opinion on something. Or I described something I saw, and said what I thought it meant.
it always comes down to: unabashedly sharing knowledge while in possession of a vagina
because i'm a woman, i'm not allowed to have an authoritative opinion or knowledge unless I have, like a degree in the field, in which case women will defer, but men won't
anyways, this time the friend was able to see that I in fact had done nothing other than state an opinion, and that I don't in fact see myself as being better than other people
but see, that's the patriarchal conditioning: women who say things like they know they're true think they're better than you! be careful of her from now on! she might tear you down!
and just. ugh. it's so fucking insidious. and so good at keeping women from coming together
so the next time you feel worried that you don't know something well enough to express it, when you actually do! this unconscious worry that other women will stop trusting you because they think that you think you're better than them, might be what's holding you back.
