I Know I Don’t Have The Societal Qualifications Of A ‘Good Girl,’ But Do You?

From childhood, we are taught to walk on the path to being a ‘good girl.’ But what if we choose to walk a different path?

A good girl should be quiet, not too talkative, obedient, and only focus on studies while behaving according to the societal rules. Our society expects us to be good girls all the time. However, no matter how hard we try, if they find out about something we’ve done that they disapprove of, all the efforts of portraying the image of a good girl go in vain. Even something as small as having an opinion and putting them forth makes society uncomfortable. 

As someone who had a good academic record for a long time, my family never expected me to do anything beyond the familial framework. And I saw the truth of it recently when one of my relatives found out about my relationship. Trust me, the reaction to the disclosure was such that it managed to make feel guilty for even the most innocent acts! Then, to top it up, the preconceived notions and judgements started flooding in like an endless storm!

There should be room for acceptance

I believe there should always be some room for acceptance rather than judgements. While I’ve always believed that education widens our perspective, I realised it is used only as per people’s convenience. And honestly, that is a little disturbing at times.

I feel like all of us should be given a chance. In fact, why just one? All decisions that majorly impact our lives should be taken by us with the support of our family. We shouldn’t always be asked to walk on the roadmap for girls created by the societal norms of being a ‘Good Girl.’

Picture credits: Still from the Netflix movie Guilty

Shivani

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