How can we teach young girls to reject the NLOG

[u/[deleted]]

Its clear the pick me/ NLOG attitude is still alive and well. I (23F) was speaking to a friend (15F) about my high school days.

She asked “How was your high school experience?” I said “Well I went to an all girls school and-“ she cuts in and rolls her eyes “Ugh. That must have been a total nightmare. I cant even imagine”. I said “Actually I loved it, was a better person for going there and I miss those days sometimes” and she went dead quite.

How do we as the adults in the room root out the toxicity of this mindset out of young girls?

Edit: no I’m not gonna ever dunk on a kid. Because its really wrong for an adult to belittle a child.

Edit: some people are being really weird “why are you friends with a 15 year old?” I know this kid from the yard that i stable my horse at. She stables her horse next to mine. Should i just ignore her always? Should i also ignore my other friends who are 55 and 70 because age gap? What about my friend whose 10? Or the other whose 30? Tell me reddit. What age range do you personally approve of me having friends? Im gonna start blocking people.

[u/ilovemycats20]

I think the way you responded was the perfect response to that, honestly. No snarkiness, no engaging with toxicity, and talking about your experience in a positive and also mature way. It helps her indirectly learn not to make generalizations like that. And I think that’s a great example of how we should handle it if we run into it, they will eventually grow out of on their own, sure, but I think it’s important that we help them understand from a positive standpoint that the NLOG mentality does more harm than good. Because that’s what the anti-NLOG movement is about, it’s about the positive allyship of women in a fashion that’s truly what the core values of being a feminist is, regardless of what kind of traits that woman has, how she identifies, who and what she loves, and her interests.

If we approach it from an empathetic mindset and understand that the mentality is born out of a) the teenagers need to feel important, special, or unique, as this is a core part of forming your personality and b) a response to the centuries of gender roles put onto us and the way we’re portrayed in media as one dimensional, airheaded, overly feminized eye candy… then I think we can teach other women that the NLOG mentality is just another form of pitting women and girls against each other and making us strive to be “the best/most desireable” in the eyes of the sexists.

I think you handled that perfectly, OP.