Who run the world? Don't say "girls."
Mayim Bialik released a video on Facebook and YouTube recently, calling on people to stop calling women "girls," which she says implies that they are "inferior to men" in today's "male-centered culture."
"I'm going to be annoying right now," the Big Bang Theory star and Blossom alum said. "Because I want to talk about something that a lot of people don't want to talk about."
The actress said she recently witnessed two men at a bar talking about a beautiful "girl sitting at the bar."
"When we use words to describe adult women that are typically used to describe children, it changes the way we view women, even unconsciously, so that we don't equate them with adult men," she continued. "In fact, it implies that they are inferior to men."
Bialik noted that people don't typically refer to men as "boys" "because it's demeaning and emasculating."
"And are there women who don't mind being seen as diminutive because they think that men should be in charge and that they should be tender and delicate? Of course. And there are all kinds of men and women and I promise, that's okay," she said. "But to these women I would say the following: There is a thing that happens when we grow up in the kind of male-centered culture that we live in. We start to believe that the way things are is the way they have to be."
"The terms we're using for women are outdated and insensitive and they assume a structure of power where men are on the top and women are on the bottom," she said. "It's up to us to change this narrative. To those of you who call women 'girls,' I say this: I know your intentions are probably good, but I hope you can learn to see the unintended and negative impact your words can have."
Bialik urged women to correct people when they are referred to as "girls."
"Maybe if we start using language that elevates women and doesn't equate them with sweet, small, cuddly, tender things, we'll start treating them as more than that as well," she said.