Last week, Cosmopolitan.com writer and Fordham University student, Felicia Czochanski, published an essay entitled “People Judge Me Because I’m Pretty.” In the essay, she expresses how she wants to be appreciated for more than the way she looks and be respected for who she really is.
The 20-year-old aspiring magazine editor describes herself as a girly girl who’s 5 foot 5 with blonde hair, hazel eyes, 34DDs, and toned calves. She claims that “coming to terms with being perceived as beautiful wasn’t easy.” In reality, Felicia feels quite self-conscious about the way that she looks all the time when constantly gets catcalled or when she has a lot of people staring all the time. She explained,
Imagine how it feels to have heads turn and all eyes on you when you are simply trying to get to where you need to be. It doesn’t make me feel beautiful or sexy. It makes me feel like there’s something wrong with me. The scrutiny is never ending. The immediate thoughts of whether my skirt is too short or my shirt is too low cause me to doubt the professional outfit that I put on in the morning. I wonder if there’s something stuck to my shoe, if I forgot to put on some item of clothing, anything that could be wrong with me that would cause people to stare. But it’s typically just because I’m “pretty,” and sometimes, it seems like that’s all society will perceive me to be.
At a young age, she tried to deal with it by diverting people’s attention by talking more about her academic achievements or trying to blend herself in with the crowd, by dulling her appearance and personality, so people would recognize her for who she really was on the inside.
Nowadays, Felicia has combated things like catcalling by simply ignoring the creepy pervs she comes encounter with throughout her day to day life. She stated,
I have come to realize that I hold the power in these situations. By not responding to this behavior, I’m discouraging these people from doing it again to someone else. With my lack of response comes a wave of rejection to the pursuer or the stranger on the street. It also shows that I demand to be respected, both my body and my mind, because believe it or not, there’s more to me than just my looks.
However, people aren’t feeling too bad for Felicia and her “problem” of being too pretty. Comments on the piece include, “This embarrassing nonsense might be more appropriate as a satirical piece in The Onion,” and “Did anyone else feel a very Gretchen Wieners “I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me, but I can’t help it if I’m popular” vibe?” Not to mention that Czochanski has a beauty blog and the piece ends with “Follow Felicia on Instagram” with a link to her page.
What are your reactions to Felicia’s article?
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