the part they don’t tell or prepare you for is that almost every social gathering you will have as an adult woman w/ other adult women will at some point consist predominantly of discussions on weight, aging, cosmetic procedure aspirations and general malaise with how one looks.

all distractions.

And while, in my experiences, it crosses cultural, racial, religious, class lines... it is much worse with “professional” women, probably because of how much of our worth in the professional & career space is made to be reliant on how we look.

I personally find this more with women I meet now vs women I’ve known for years.