I recently spent a three day weekend in Maine with one of my best friends and her closest friends. There were six of us that weekend and we got along the entire time. Someone I told about this was amazed. Six women getting along? Like it was impossible. We came up with a term "banana" that we would use whenever one of us was getting pushy, snippy, or just domineering. It always made the woman being called out pause, smile and say "you're right!"
A few years ago, we planned our whole semester around women supporting each other. Recently, a graduate who experienced that semester found this list on Tumblr called "How to Be Friends With Women." It's kind of sad that someone has to write about this, but much in here was so honest, I thought it would be a nice post. Here is the original link http://roxanegay.tumblr.com/post/28510427080/how-to-be-friends-with-another-woman
I particularly like many of the statements in number 6.
1. Abandon the cultural myth that all female friendships
must be toxic, bitchy or competitive. This myth is like heels and purses—pretty
but designed to SLOW women down.
1A. This is not to say women aren’t
bitches or toxic or competitive sometimes but rather to say that these are not
defining characteristics of female friendship, especially as you get older.
2. A lot of ink is given over to mythologizing female
friendships as curious, fragile relationships that are always intensely
fraught. Stop reading writing that encourages this mythology.
2A: The female friendship in Sheila
Heti’s How Should a Person Be? is actually awesome and powerful. If you read it
as otherwise, ask yourself why.
3. If you find that you are feeling competitive, toxic, or
bitchy toward the women who are supposed to be your closest friends, look at
why and figure out how to fix it and/or find someone who can help you fix it.
4. If you are the kind of woman who says, “I’m mostly
friends with guys,” and act like you’re proud of that, like that makes you
closer to being a man or something, and less of a woman as if a woman is a bad
thing, see Item 3. It’s okay if most of your friends are guys but if you champion
this as a commentary on the nature of female friendships, well, soul search a
little.
4A. If you feel like it’s hard to
be friends with women consider that maybe women aren’t the problem. Maybe it’s
just you.
4B. I used to be this kind of
woman. I’m sorry.
5. Sometimes, your friends will date people you cannot
stand. You can either be honest about your feelings or you can lie. There are
good reasons for both. Sometimes you will be the person dating someone your
friends cannot stand. If your man or woman is a scrub, just own it so you and
your friends can talk about more interesting things. My go to explanation is,
“I am dating an asshole because I’m lazy.” You are welcome to borrow it.
6. Want nothing but the best for your friends because when
your friends are happy and successful, it’s probably going to be easier for you
to be happy.
6A. If you’re having a rough go of
it and a friend is having the best year ever and you need to think some dark
thoughts about that, do it alone, with your therapist, or in your diary so that
when you actually see your friend, you can avoid the myth discussed in Item 1.
6B. If you and your friend(s) are
in the same field and you can collaborate or help each other, do this, without
shame. It’s not your fault your friends are awesome. Men invented nepotism and
practically live by it. It’s okay for women to do it too.
6C: Don’t tear other women down
because even if they’re not your friends, they are other women and well, this
is just important. This is not to say you cannot criticize other women but
understand the difference between criticizing constructively and tearing down
cruelly.
6D: Everybody gossips so if you are
going to gossip about your friends, at least make it fun and interesting. As a
corollary, never say, I never lie or I never gossip because you are lying.
6E: Love your friends’ kids even if
you don’t want or like children.
Just do it.
7. Tell your friends the hard truths they need to hear. They
might get pissed about it but it’s probably for their own good. The other day
my best friend told me to get it together about my love life and demanded an
action plan and well, it was irritating but also useful.
7A: Don’t be totally rude about
truth telling and consider how much truth is actually needed to get the job done.
Finesse goes a long way.
7B: These conversations are more
fun when preceded by an
emphatic, “GIRL.”
8. Surround yourself with women you can get sloppy drunk
with who won’t draw stupid things on your face if you pass out, and who will
help you puke, if you over celebrate and who will also tell you if you get
sloppy drunk too much or behave badly when you are sloppy drunk.
9. Don’t flirt (too much), have sex, or engage in an
emotional affair with your friends’ significant others. This shouldn’t need to
be said but it needs to be said. That significant other is an asshole and you
don’t want to be involved with an asshole that’s used goods. If you want to be
with an asshole, get a fresh asshole of your very own. They are abundant.
10. Don’t let your friends buy ugly outfits or accessories
you don’t want to look at when you hang out. This is just common sense.
11. When something is wrong and you need to talk to your
friends and they ask you how you are, don’t say, “Fine.” They know you’re lying
and it irritates them and a lot of time is wasted with the back and forth of
“Are you sure?” and “Yes?” and “Really?” and “I AM FINE.” Tell your lady
friends the truth so you can talk it out and either sulk companionably or move
on to other topics.
12. If four people are dining, split the check evenly four
ways. We are adults now. We don’t need to add up what each person had anymore.
If you’re high rolling, just treat everyone and rotate who treats. If you’re
still in the broke stage, do what you have to do.
13.If a friend sends a crazy e-mail needing reassurance
about love, life, family, or work, respond accordingly and in a timely manner
even if it is just to say, GIRL, I hear you. If a friend sends you like thirty
crazy e-mails needing reassurance about the same damn shit, be patient because
one day that’s going to be you tearing up GMAIL with your drama.
14. My mother’s favorite saying is “qui se ressemble
s’assemble.” Whenever she didn’t approve of who I was spending time with she’d
say this ominously. It means, essentially, you are who you surround yourself
with.
I would look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter. I know I have always been nervous around women who say they never want to have girls because girls are so difficult. Or that they would rather be friends with guys because women are bitchy, emotional, you fill in the word here. My life is fuller and richer because I have some of the most amazing women in it: Heather, Kristen, Melissa, Lisa, Kim, Nicole, Stephanie, Cynthia, Hannah, Maureen, Susan, Cullen, Susan . . . .
And that amazing weekend in Maine, while those women weren't all MY closest friends, I can guarantee, as we parted on Sunday, we WERE close friends, even the newbie, Amy!
BANANA!!!
