Dear Self-Respect,
You're pretty great and stuff, but I feel like some people just don't get you. Merriam-Webster defines you as "proper respect for yourself as a human being", which would lead one to believe that you are concerned solely with the individual person...in other words, my self-respect is about my opinion of me, not someone else's opinion of me. Same goes for anyone else who has you (and goodness knows, everyone should!)
That being said, I don't understand why so many people feel the need to question others' self-respect. One of the most common instances I can cite is that of a woman criticizing another woman's choice of clothing, actions, etc. by saying that this woman "must have no self-respect". Am I the only one who finds this kind of silly? Clearly the first woman in this scenario has little or no respect for the woman that she is condemning, but what exactly led her to assume that this other woman (who the first woman probably doesn't even know very well, if at all) must lack the proper respect of herself as a human being?
Simply put, a person's self-respect is relative to how that person feels about themselves; it has nothing to do with how outsiders judge them based on the way they dress, act, speak, or dance (yes, I'm talking to you, Jae Tracie!).
You keep doing you, Self-Respect, and I'll always respect you for it!
Love,
Kenz
