Dr. Kerry White Brown, an esteemed Orthodontist with nearly 20 years’ experience, talks to women about letting your hidden “mean girl” out every now and again.
Columbia, South Carolina — May 5, 2017 — Carolina Orthodontist Kerry Brown White recently published a new article, “It’s OK to Be a Mean Girl… Every Now and Then.”
As Dr. White Brown says, “All our lives – as women – we are taught to be “nice.” We are instructed to be kind, cordial, and accommodating. We should say, “Yes,” far more often than, “No.” And we must never, ever, create conflict.”
Coming from these ideas, she explains, we often go to extremes to maintain the status quo. That’s why we believe we can never talk back or contradict others—whether this be our friends, partner, or especially, parents, authority figures, and bosses.
If we do not obey these ideas, Dr. White Brown goes on to say, “You are most certainly not a “nice girl.” In fact, you are almost guaranteed to be labeled the very opposite—a “mean girl.”
Yet, she asks, is a mean girl really “mean” or is the average mean girl just standing up for herself?
Sure, she concedes, there are real mean girls. These are those who simply have no manners, no real empathy, and no gauge of when to back up, back off, or switch their mean switch off either.
However, Dr. White Brown explains, most mean girls may just be confident girls who don’t subscribe to the standard ideas of what it means to be “nice.” It is these girls, she says, we might envy more than anything else. As she explains, it usually these girls who get the things that they (and we!) want—perhaps just because they ask for it and don’t always accept just what they are given or allowed.
She even goes so far as to explain how this relates to our busyness and lack of balance in our lives. She states, “Often, much of our busyness – our lack of time for ourselves and lack of time for doing the things we love, with the ones we love, that nurture our soul and make us happy – is due to our fear of being called a “mean girl.” Or rather, our fear of not being viewed as the “nice girl” we’ve been told again and again, that we should be. We sacrifice ourselves, sacrifice our balance, and sacrifice our happiness, simply because we don’t want others to see us as (or think we are) selfish.
But, she asks, “Is it selfish to love and respect yourself and your needs?”
The full article can be found here: https://www.whitebrownsmiles.com/its-ok-to-be-a-mean-girl-every-now-and-then/
**********
Dr. Kerry White Brown has been setting the standards for delivering high quality orthodontic care since 1998. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Benedict College she attended Howard University College of Dentistry, where she received her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree and completed her orthodontic specialty training.
She is a member of the American Dental Association, American Association of Orthodontists, Southern Association of Orthodontists, South Carolina Association of Orthodontists and the North Carolina/South Carolina Damon® Study Club. Dr. White Brown is a native of Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina. She and her husband have two sons.
English
Spanish