These 48 comments to women and girls show that sexism knows no age.

A new video from Huffington Post shows how pervasive and lifelong sexism is for women.

It covers everything from "you look so pretty" to "you must have been beautiful when you were younger," to show that whether you're 8 or 80, if you're a woman, you just can't escape sexist comments.


All images via Huffington Post/YouTube.

In two minutes, the video shows the progression of what women hear from society as we age. Apparently, the only thing that doesn't change as we get older is how stereotypical, patronizing, and demeaning these comments are.

Here are some "highlights" from the video that will have women young and old shaking their heads in recognition.

As a young girl, you're already being evaluated for your sexual appeal later on.

Not only do girls start hearing comments about their appeal to (and effect on) boys and men at an absurdly young age, but these comments also imply that a young girl's sexuality is the domain of her dad and, later, of other men in her life.

The video shows how these comments progress as girls get older: "Don't wait after school, you're going to distract the boys," which becomes, "Don't be a slut," which becomes, "No guy wants to have sex with a virgin," which becomes, "How much did you have to drink that night?" and finally, "What were you wearing that night?"

This is rape culture in a nutshell.

As a teenage girl, people assume your interests based on how appealing they are to prospective (male) partners.

Young girls may start out thinking they can excel at or be interested in anything: math, music, sports, art, video games, you name it. As girls get older, though, they're often discouraged from taking part in stereotypically masculine interests.

It's not necessarily that woman and girls are told this outright. Most people aren't that direct; they aren't going to say: "Don't play video games. Video games are for boys." They discourage those behaviors in more subtle ways — by expressing surprise that a woman or girl likes a stereotypically masculine thing like whiskey or football (two other examples in the video) and then imply they must only be interested in it because it is appealing to boys or men.

As though women can't just like things because we like them.

Apparently, men dictate not only women's sexuality, but also our interests and hobbies. Assuming that to be true ... why, that's sexism, my friend.

As adult women, we're told not to draw too much attention to ourselves. In a rather crude way.

This is a heartbreaking bookend to the first girl who appears in the video saying, "Don't be so bossy!" a common refrain girls hear growing up.

Women are taught at a young age not to be assertive, not to lead, and to let others take the lead, which is why so many women say sorry so much and don't feel confident negotiating for equal pay at work.

Even prominent feminists like Sheryl Sandberg, in trying to promote women in leadership positions, inadvertently stigmatize a "bossy" woman.

As married women, we hear assumptions about the role we play in our relationship.

At this point, the video starts getting into tired debates about gender roles between husband and wife, with judgmental questions like "You're not taking your husband's last name?" to "Does your husband mind that you make more money than him?"

And if your husband, the person who is ostensibly equal to you in your relationship, does something stereotypically feminine like cooking dinner, you just know you're going to get this in response:


Ugh.

Because of sexism, society is still surprised to learn that, in heterosexual relationships, women CAN be the primary breadwinner, and that men can share in domestic chores. It's 2015, but many women still face questions about their relationships that are right out of the 1950s.

And these assumptions hurt both women and men.

As an elderly woman, you're way more likely to hear that you were beautiful than that you still are.

More than women's intelligence, humor, empathy, or any other non-superficial qualities or accomplishments we have, at the end of our lives, we're still valued for our looks. When (or if) our looks "fade with age," we receive pity.

Most heartbreaking of all is when you compare what an elderly woman hears to what young girls are told so often:

We've come full circle, haven't we?

That's sexism. It's pervasive, it's subtle. We often don't realize we're reinforcing these behaviors. But now that we know and can see them laid out like this, don't you think it's time we break the pattern?

Watch the entire video below:

Courtesy of CeraVe
True

"I love being a nurse because I have the honor of connecting with my patients during some of their best and some of their worst days and making a difference in their lives is among the most rewarding things that I can do in my own life" - Tenesia Richards, RN

From ushering new life into the world to holding the hand of a patient as they take their last breath, nurses are everyday heroes that deserve our respect and appreciation.

To give back to this community that is always giving so selflessly to others, CeraVe® put out a call to nurses to share their stories for a chance to be featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series shining a light on nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to patients and their communities.

First up: Tenesia Richards, a labor and delivery nurse working in New York City who, in addition to her regular job, started a community outreach program in a homeless shelter that houses expectant mothers for up to one year postpartum.

Tenesia | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com

Upon learning at a conference that black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health, Richards decided to take further action to help her community. She, along with a handful of fellow nurses, volunteered to provide antepartum, childbirth and postpartum education to the women living at the shelter. Additionally, they looked for other ways to boost the spirits of the residents, like throwing baby showers and bringing in guest speakers. When COVID-19 hit and in-person gatherings were no longer possible, Richards and her team found creative workarounds and created holiday care packages for the mothers instead.

Keep Reading Show less
via David Lavaux / Facebook and Google

A farmer in Belgium has caused an international incident by inadvertently redrawing the border between Belgium and France. The farmer moved a border stone that stood on the grounds for over 200 years because it was blocking his tractor.

The two countries share a 390-mile border that was established under a treaty signed in 1820.

The stone, marked 1819, was put in place four years after the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Nearly 50,000 soldiers died in the battle that would determine the border.

Keep Reading Show less
Courtesy of CeraVe
True

"I love being a nurse because I have the honor of connecting with my patients during some of their best and some of their worst days and making a difference in their lives is among the most rewarding things that I can do in my own life" - Tenesia Richards, RN

From ushering new life into the world to holding the hand of a patient as they take their last breath, nurses are everyday heroes that deserve our respect and appreciation.

To give back to this community that is always giving so selflessly to others, CeraVe® put out a call to nurses to share their stories for a chance to be featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series shining a light on nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to patients and their communities.

First up: Tenesia Richards, a labor and delivery nurse working in New York City who, in addition to her regular job, started a community outreach program in a homeless shelter that houses expectant mothers for up to one year postpartum.

Tenesia | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com

Upon learning at a conference that black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health, Richards decided to take further action to help her community. She, along with a handful of fellow nurses, volunteered to provide antepartum, childbirth and postpartum education to the women living at the shelter. Additionally, they looked for other ways to boost the spirits of the residents, like throwing baby showers and bringing in guest speakers. When COVID-19 hit and in-person gatherings were no longer possible, Richards and her team found creative workarounds and created holiday care packages for the mothers instead.

Keep Reading Show less