In the defence of LGs
By Natalie Serafini, Opinions Editor
LGs—or little girls, for those of you behind on their acronym trivia—get a whole lot of undeserved flack.
Even if LG status isn’t desirable, the immense disdain on reserve for them is pretty preposterous. As far as I can tell, everyone’s problem with LGs seems to be that they’re young and immature. Either that, or people must care an awful lot about LG dedication to tanning and duck-facing. Those are non-issues as far as I’m concerned, so I can only assume the abhorrence stems from the bigger picture of juvenility. Granted, being called an LG isn’t something that most aspire to, and if they did, they might be setting their sights a touch too low. Still, LGs are neither so different from the rest of society nor are they deserving of derision.
The reason they’re LGs is because they’re young, usually peaking in LG-dom at around 14-16. While I don’t recall duck-facing my way through high school, I wasn’t a sophisticate either. Even in college, I’m not exactly refined, so I can’t fault LGs for being similarly gauche. Youth is for making mistakes and figuring out who you are. However many mistakes LGs make, and however they find themselves, this is their time to flounder about. Though it may appear that LGs aren’t figuring themselves out upon noting their tendency to follow the crowd, this doesn’t differentiate them from the rest of society. Many people depend on a group for guidance and comfort, or begin to form opinions by pushing outside of the crowd. Perhaps LGs haven’t pushed beyond their group yet, but they’re young and in the process of developing into persons with thought out beliefs.
I suppose the scorn extends to LG superficiality. While I’ll concede that there are more important matters than makeup and tanning, awareness is a process. Most people in college now would say they completely changed over the course of their first year, re-evaluating beliefs and forming new ones. Part of developing opinions is the exposure to new situations and pushing beyond what you’re used to. In the transition from adolescent to adult, LGs will find matters they care about more than appearance.
Before anyone starts to think me too defensive of LGs, I must confess to being less patient with old LGs. LGs don’t have to completely understand themselves or the world because their “littleness” is their free pass. If you have an excuse to be immature, superficial, and perhaps a little mindless in your youth, you lose that Get Out of Jail Free card once you’ve been around the board a few times.
Overall, LGs aren’t so bad and, if we’re completely honest, a lot of us continue to be mindless. We act a certain way, talk a certain way, and dress a certain way so we blend more seamlessly with the crowd. We make mistakes, and don’t always have our priorities straight. Is all of this so bad? Is it really the hallmark of an insufferable LG, or is it maybe just the hallmark of humanity? I’m inclined to say that LGs aren’t as awful as they’re cracked up to be, and we aren’t so bad for vaguely resembling them.
