With a fan base of nearly 170k followers, the account depicts daily situations women can relate to in a lighthearted way. As of now, it has shared over 2000 posts, covering everything from partner-related drama to misfortunes when it comes to makeup, and everything in between.
Back in 2021, nearly half (49.58%) of the world’s population was female, which equals to roughly 3.905 billion people. In addition to the somewhat entertaining daily mishaps they face, women all over the world encounter problems of a larger extent as well. For instance, inequality-related issues, sexism, or lack of females in high-ranking positions, as pointed out in Politico.
Pew Research Center revealed that as much as four in ten people believe that men generally have more opportunities than their female counterparts. That might be the reason why the latter feel less optimistic about gender equality. However, according to the Pew Research Center, 75% of people believe that such equality will eventually be reached in their country.
In order to achieve it, gender equality has been included among the 17 Global Goals (also called Sustainable Development Goals), discussed by world leaders back in 2015. This item on the list entails targets, such as ensuring women’s full and effective participation at different levels of decision making, as well as eliminating harmful practices affecting them, among other things.
Some of the obstacles women face encourage them to start movements that help eliminate them. One of the most significant ones is feminism, which arguably dates back to the junction of the 18th and the 19th centuries. The first wave was followed by the second one in the 1960s, the third from the early 1990s to the 2010s, and developed into what is now known as fourth-wave feminism, dating from 2012 to the present moment.
Nowadays, the situation regarding certain obstacles women face seems to be getting better. UN Women pointed out that in the year 2021 alone, there were numerous significant moments, illustrating movement in the right direction. For example, during that time, eight countries have elected or sworn in women as Heads of State or Government for the first time ever.
In addition to that, female artists, scientists, and athletes received more recognition. UN Women revealed that in the Tokyo 2020 games, held in 2021 due to Covid, nearly 49% of participants were women, which made it the most gender-balanced games in the history of Olympics.
One field that is far from being gender-balanced, though, is stand up comedy. According to Zippia’s 2021 data, only 11.3% of such entertainers were female. However, similarly to ‘Messy Women’, they managed to depict what it’s like to be a woman in a humorous way.
Despite being humorous, some of the jokes on the ‘Messy Women’ Instagram account are not baseless. The memes covering spilling the beans to your best friend, for instance. According to the author of ‘You're the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women's Friendships’, Deborah Tannen, some girls or women form connections based on sharing personal information and other details; they often consider it a sign of closeness.
Another recurring joke on ‘Messy Women’ was treating yourself to things you might not actually need. Even though neither of the sexes is immune to such a misdemeanor, some women—myself included—do tend to spend money in a rather imprudent way, at times.
This, and several other reasons, encouraged one of them, a London-based financial journalist Michelle McGagh, to stop spending money on things that weren’t necessities for one year. In a TEDxManchester talk, she discussed her no-spend policy, which allowed her to save £22,000.
Another struggle covered by the Instagram account and stand-up comedy artists likewise is the subtleties of makeup and getting ready in general. Researchers actually did the math to see how much time we spend enhancing our appearance, and according to their 2022 data, we allocate nearly one-sixth of our lives to such a goal.