The Cut released an article titled “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl.” The subheading for the article states “A new generation has transformed the neighborhood — and reshaped the fantasy of New York City living.”

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Online response to this piece has varied between people agreeing with it, complaining about said West Village girls, and others claiming these kinds of articles are sexist. As a New York transplant who has been here for the last 11 years, I have a lot to say on the matter of this piece and none of my thoughts are kind to the girls in the West Village.

It isn’t an issue rooted in sexism but instead it is an issue that many New Yorkers have with this new kind of transplant. The “West Village girl” described in the piece are here to find themselves and have no real personality traits of their own. Levis, white shirts, Chelsea boots, and pilates do not make a New Yorker. But worse than the lack of originality is the idea that the West Village is a place for people like this.

The West Village and Greenwich Village are two areas of Manhattan that used to bring creatives to the city. Poets, musicians, and artists thrived in the few blocks of lower Manhattan. Now, it is only the rich and privileged who can thrive there. I’d love to live among creatives, be a part of the West Village as artists I’d admired were. But I am not wealthy and I do not have my parents footing my bill.