Nearly every guy that I have ever dated, or who has at least tried to date me, has paid me the compliment that I am “not like other girls,” and I am just like, “is that a good thing?”

I do not think that any girl is not- not like other girls.

Sure, females that lean into their gender often share traits—like enjoying getting their nails painted or having an intense aversion to dudes in fedoras—but no one woman is exactly like another.

I mean, women are not pretty dolls that a man can pick off a shelf just because he finds her novel in some fashion…

Well, that is not strictly true.

Technically those kinds of women exist, but they just need to be blown up for they can be interacted with.

I may not be exactly like other girls, mostly because there’s a thing called individual differences, but I am pretty damn similar to other girls.

I think I am so offended by that compliment because I would love to be like other girls, or at least what I perceive other girls to be.

Other girls are awesome and majestic creatures that can somehow show up, on time, to an 8:15 a.m. class with hair and makeup on point.

Like, I cannot even show up to a 12:45 p.m. class in something other than yoga pants with my homework done.

And even when I do manage to present myself as something other than a haggard old wench in a fat 21-year-body, I try very hard to look like other girls.

Or maybe my not like other girl-ness goes beyond my superficial appearance and lies within my personality, although I am not so inclined to believe this because my personality is an unsatisfactory mixture of Regina George, the Governor from “The Walking Dead,” and literally every other girl who has ever existed.

I can never tell if the guy, after giving this compliment, wants me to tell him that he is not like other guys.

Even if he does want that said to him, I will not say it because trying to turn me into some special snowflake that is somehow superior to the mass majority of my fellow ladies is, in my experience, exactly like other guys.

I do not think that I am the only person who is constantly bombarded by this compliment because I think that men genuinely think that they are giving this statement as a wanted compliment because it seems that women are either besties forever or in an intense feud with one another.

I am not going to deny that that is normally how things are, but I do not think that ladies should be putting down other ladies as a way to make herself feel good about herself.

Paige Jurgensen / Columnist

Paige Jurgensen can be reached at [email protected]