by Stella Ho ‘22

The thing is, the cool girl I admire is a character. More often than not, she’s a character defined by men, whether they’re the writers that created her or the male characters that love her. This worshipful gaze turns her into the idealized version of woman that I saw onscreen and took as a representation of reality. Struck by her glamour, I applied that same male gaze to judge myself and all the girls I met.