The reality of trauma caused by absent fathers

Constantly, young girls who have experienced inconsistent, unhealthy and distant relationships with their fathers are presented in a disturbingly sexual and internally unstable light. The phrase is used as a poor excuse to form a link between someone's psychological agony and tendencies in their sex life. From a personal perspective, this is having a detrimental impact on the minds of teenage girls. A rise of awareness for the harsh reality of truama is desperately necessary, and here is why:

Essentially, the misuse of the phrase is setting women up for more toxic interactions with men. Media emphasies the false supposition that women who suffer with daddy issues seek abusive relationships, validation, and mistreatment from men- especially older males to 'replace' the father figure, they assume they were not worthy of in their earlier years. Unfortunately, this results in these women appearing as obvious, vulnerable targets for predators who may use them for sexual purposes, or exploit their supposedly emotionally desperate and therefore naive traits. Not only are these women already facing internal difficulties, the media is degrading and labelling them and in turn putting them at risk, which I find horrifyingly alarming. 

Additionally, women are subconsciously being desensitized of their trauma. Lacking a father figure as a little girl has serious impacts, for example fears of abandonment, inability to trust, low expectations of men and feelings of insecurity, influencing other relationships as the female grows up. Severe attachemnt issues are associated with the absence of a male role model too. Therefore, this is not a topic to be used as a romanticized trend or an insensitive joke in the media. It seems the younger generation views daddy issues as something sexually intruiging and thrilling to possess, making the feelings of women seem minimal. The media suggests that it is common for women to experience negative relationships with their fathers and that it is not a significant issue, indicating that it is normalised and their feelings for being damaged are invalid, or even exaggerated, so are completely dismissed and used in the media as a trend instead. In turn, women will accept that their psychological problems are not relevant and so will not cope with them healthily, as their damage is "normal." Not only is this destructive for the minds of women, it also reinforces toxic masculinity, as it seems this behaviour of men is relentless and ignores that there are some outstanding father figures.

Furthermore, the phrase makes assumptions that every female who did not always have a present father is emotionally unstable, making them feel judged by society and reluctant to reveal the reality of their history, as they will not be heard. 

The vile misuse of this phrase must stop, to help women overcome their battles and feel free of sexualisation and discrimination of ignorant, uneducated social media users.