A feeling of wanting what someone else has, often mixed with annoyance or sadness that you don’t have it. It can also be used as a verb, meaning to feel this way toward someone.
From Old French *envie*, from Latin *invidia*, meaning 'envy, jealousy, ill will'. The Latin root *invidere* means 'to look against' or 'to look at with hostility'.
Envy is one of the few emotions people almost never admit to, even though nearly everyone feels it. The word’s roots in 'hostile looking' show how envy quietly turns admiration into a kind of private attack. Noticing envy in yourself can actually flip it into inspiration instead.
Like “envious,” “envy” has been gendered in cultural narratives, with women’s envy often sensationalized in stories about appearance and relationships, while men’s envy may be reframed as competitiveness. This can reinforce stereotypes about women’s relationships with one another.
Discuss envy as a human emotion without assigning it more to one gender, and avoid tropes that pit women against each other primarily through envy. Where useful, connect envy to structural inequalities rather than treating it as a gendered flaw.
["resentment about inequality","wish to have similar opportunities","jealousy (if appropriate)"]
Women authors and scholars have critiqued narratives that center women’s envy of one another, instead highlighting solidarity and shared struggle.
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