Oppressive Social Constructs: 'High Maintenance'

Asked the question 'are you a feminist?' I would be the first person to jump up and down waving my arms around manically shouting YES, like I'm positive is the case for most men and women these days. So today, when I was referred to as 'high maintenance', a label that I had always considered reserved for dramatization in movies. This particular persons reasoning for declaring me to be a raging bitch and difficult to 'manage' was the fact that I am allergic to fish and therefore choose not to eat meat in an effort to avoid this becoming an issue. Because obviously I CHOOSE to become unbearably ill when I eat one of those little suckers. I decided to do some digging. Obviously I did a little Google search and I found this: 'Doesn't equate to money or material possessions alone but may be needy in emotional attention and affection;picky, bratty, likes things her way, takes pride in her appearance, finicky.' 

In my outrage I dug a little deeper only to come across a cacophony of articles directed towards men stating 'Are high maintenance women worth it?', 'Ten signs your girlfriend is high maintenance!' and most disturbingly 'How to avoid being labeled as high maintenance' which I discovered was targeted towards pre-teen girls. Now I consider myself a relatively easy-going person, so when I came across a webpage with a 'What level of maintenance are you?' test I decided to give it a go to find out what kind of questions they would ask in an attempt to force another label upon me. I pushed through my irritation at the questions to see what this atrocity had to say about me based on a few short answers that I gave. I was informed that I am 'low maintenance' and this is what followed:
'You are the type that everyone is looking for. One in a million, especially in America. You need to make sure you are setting your standards high, and not taking crap from anyone. Keep on keeping your maintenance levels low (but at the same time don’t let people trample on your emotions), and you’ll continue to be happy. Don’t settle for too little, you’re a diamond in the rough!' Isn't this however the exact definition of high maintenance? Being strong willed? Not settling? Aiming high? 

The term 'high maintenance' is nearly always a critical one when applied to women. Being referred to as high maintenance seems to cancel out all other parts of your personality, because of course if you enjoy going to a spa for a massage every once in a while or showing off your cleavage you cant be intelligent, well educated or easy to get on with. As one of my favorite blogs The Vagenda so eloquently put it "‘High-maintenance’ doesn't translate as ‘She really takes care of herself, she’s always impeccably dressed and presented’, it has way too much baggage. It translates as ‘She takes forever to get ready, she’s such hard work’. It’s ammunition used against women. It’s a reference to her being a glossy haired tyrant who insists on really expensive presents or special attention. And then there’s the ‘low-maintenance’ crowd, like myself, who can sometimes end up feeling a bit smug and self-satisfied, as though we’re different to the ‘high-maintenance’ women." 

And I will just end on this note: