As I say all the time, it’s really hard being a girl.
I frequently get messages from mothers who say to me, “I don’t know what to do with this society.” You’ve got 13-year-olds that are injecting their lips and thinking that they need to alter their bodies to be accepted. It wasn’t like this just a short time ago. A short time ago, kids were able to grow up at a healthy, natural pace. And a short time ago, a performance like the one that landed on the Grammys with Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion would have been roundly condemned by everybody.
The people that are really getting lost at this time are young women, who are left not knowing what to do and with too few people willing to take a stand to protect them.
When I was a kid, I was allowed to be awkward, have braces — to just be a young girl figuring it all out. I’m totally dating myself here, but we didn’t have social media when I was a kid. We didn’t have Twitter or Facebook, and so we were not constantly being bombarded with images of women with their breasts out and always looking for attention on the internet. Not so anymore. Now, you cannot escape that toxic messaging.
The difficult truth is that our culture has drastically changed, and so I think it’s incumbent upon women — women who care about young women — to speak up and to speak out against this damaging messaging and to make sure that we are being leaders in this society. So I’d like to give three pieces of advice to young women who are struggling with this new culture.
The first piece of advice would be to remind young women that thoughts become things.
You might think it means nothing when you put on a dirty song on your iPad or on your phone. “Well, it’s just music,” you say. It’s not just music. What you put in your ear informs your thoughts and informs your ideas about what you think the world should look like — including what freedom is. It is not freedom to wear less clothes. In fact, I would say that’s a form of slavery. If the only time you feel like you can be seen and heard is when you are stripping down, you are selling your dignity and your self-respect. And for what? A little bit of attention. In my opinion, that’s not a very good exchange.
My second piece of advice: morality is hard, but it’s more rewarding.
I say this as someone who took a very liberal route to conservatism. You’re young, you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s to be expected. But young girls also need to know that it’s important to pick morality. It’s hard in school when you’re feeling all of the peer pressure, and especially when you have people on Instagram telling you that it’s normal at 15, 16, to be getting Botox and lip injections. If you choose morality, in the end, you will be rewarded for that. I can guarantee you that.
The last piece of advice is that modern feminism leads to unhappiness.
I want you to take a look at all of the women right now that we hold up as idols in this society, that the media tells us are so great, the celebrities we’re told to worship. I want you to ask yourself a very simple question: Do you think that those women are happy? Look at their lives. Do you think that the women screaming into the Twitter-verse are happy? Are they fulfilled? When you look around at them, does it seem like they have what you would want? Are they fulfilled in their relationships? Are they fulfilled in their families? Or are they looking for that sort of attention precisely because they are unfulfilled?
I cannot think of a single person today who says, “I’m a feminist,” who I would want to exchange lives with. That’s why I have dumped feminism. The truth is feminism is no longer about equality, it is the opposite. In many ways, it brings us back to old, antiquated ideas of what it means to be a woman that actually — and quite ironically — favors the patriarchy rather than tearing it down.
If you’re looking for actual freedom and true happiness, protect your mind, pursue morality and reject the false message of feminism. And take heart in knowing that there are those of us who will fight the good fight, who want the best for you and will have your back.
Candace Owens is an American writer, producer, conservative commentator and the host of “Candace.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.