LesbianThis is one of the most depressing manifestos from a teenage butch lesbian I've read... it's the way young butch girls are taught to hate themselves. Also peek the cis gay commenter who can relate. Hell, I relate and I'm not even butch.

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[–]Destresse🇨🇵 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I also relate. I realised I was a lesbian around 22, but before that my life was just one big effort trying not to be who I am. At 26 I still have trouble being who I am. When I was a teenager I used to feel like I was a fraud and no one knew the real me.

Back in 2005 however, people on the internet used to say "teenage years are rough, that's normal, don't worry it gets better" Back in 2005, teenagers on the internet vented to each other and insulted their favourite hated classmates. They posted threads on forums and weren't told their body was wrong. Teenage magazines would always have a "I hate my body" letter from a female reader and they would answer with "the first step of accepting your body is to get used to it, spend some time looking at yourself in the mirror without judgement."

Now all those things have fallen out of style and it's all about twitter/instagram and whatever else they use where it's all about how many followers you have, how popular you are. Society has completely failed teenagers while pretending to "do better" with its endless talks of anti-bullying and acceptance. All a smoke screen.

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh god yes! I remember this too. I hated female puberty. I hated the growing breasts, I hated the bra shopping, I hated the periods and using tampons and pads. I didn't want to be a woman. I looked at my older brother and felt nothing but envy. I felt like a passenger in my own body.

Thankfully, I had a very supportive mother who I could talk to about this, and she always reassured me these feelings are normal. She felt the same way growing up. Puberty is an awkward and unpleasant experience for everyone, I just had to live through it, and it would get better.

And what do you know, she was right. I'm well into adulthood and while I still have issues with my female body sometimes, it's nowhere near as debilitating. And I know that the issues I do have are due to the insane body image expectations imposed on girls and women.

Teenagers, especially girls, are really bearing the brunt of this as you said. So many are going to have decades of trauma because of this.