E: Are women more critical of ourselves and other women or are we being forced to foster this rivalry?
EC: They do not force us to promote it, on the contrary, we would like to stop it, but we have so internalized the male gaze that we judge other women from it and managing to stop this attitude will be what allows us to get out of this vicious circle.
E: Socially, it seems that there is an obsession with women fighting among themselves. Is this due to this male gaze?
EC: I pose the question: who benefits from crime? The idea is that if we don’t talk about it, we will perpetuate that rivalry. If the origin is patriarchy, it is women who are perpetuating it. So we analyzed the topic and decided to talk about it, in order to strengthen sorority, something that can only be done by letting go of that male gaze. The answer is to analyze and understand it to break the cycle.
AdM: As long as women judge with the same criteria that men dictate, see body, age, appearance, motherhood… we will waste a lot of mental energy criticizing ourselves instead of using that potential to reflect on ourselves, analyze what we want to do in life. life. We waste a lot of time and energy being rivals based on criteria that please men and this weakens us.
E: Energy that we can use to conquer the world?
EC: Absolutely.
AdM: It’s good to come together to move things forward.
E: In the workplace, would this end with more diversity and inclusion policies in companies, with more women in leadership positions?
EC: That is one of the clues to be able to end this issue. Representation is very important. The more women there are in leadership positions, the more we can imagine ourselves there, especially from a younger age.
AdM: The previous generation fought to bring women into positions of power and the queen bee syndrome comes to mind, where women integrate many masculine behaviors and treat their female employees more harshly. Fortunately, this is something that has been changing. There are many women who still behave like this, but there is also more inclusion and diversity.
I: Do you think that this phenomenon is also encouraged by men so that their position of power is not threatened?
AdM: I don’t know if it is encouraged, but it is certainly not reported. It is something that is part of the status quo for men.
EC: While we cannot share power, we can think that it threatens them in some way, because that status quo is something that is very comfortable for them.
E: Anyway, how to end female rivalry?
EC: The first thing is to stop comparing ourselves and stop judging ourselves from the male gaze, stop judging ourselves about our body, our physique, move less from envy and more from the admiration of women. And stop pleasing men.
AdM: Learn to know yourself well, accept that we have emotions, such as envy or competition, that are perfectly human. The only thing we need to change is the way we manage them.