We are all familiar with the phrases, “you run like a girl” and “you’re acting like such a girl.” However, when did doing something like a girl become such a bad thing? When did being like a girl become an insult rather than a compliment? The feminine care product, Always, has begun the #LikeAGirl campaign to transform what it means to do something like a girl.
The #LikeAGirl campaign was launched in June 2014, when Always posted a video on YouTube that showed how a girl’s interpretation of the phrase “like a girl” drastically changes once girls hit puberty. The clip, which went viral as soon as it was posted on YouTube, reappeared in an edited 60-second 2015 Super Bowl commercial. Since airing during the big game #LikeAGirl was immediately trending on Twitter, and people all across the country have not stopped talking about the campaign.
The video begins with male and female teenagers demonstrating what they believe it means to run, throw, and act like a girl. Unfortunately, their answers are not shocking. They flail their limbs when they pretend to run and make wimpy, high-pitched noises as they pretend to throw showing how the phrase “like a girl” has a negative connotation. Each person made it seem like acting like a girl meant that you had to seem weak and dainty. Girls who have yet to enter puberty though, ages 10 and younger, were asked the same questions. Their answers could not have been more different. Their answers demonstrate more of what we females would hope doing something like a girl would mean: strong and powerful.
Puberty was not particularly pleasant for anyone. While we collegiettes happily tuck puberty away as just a distant, and extremely embarrassing, memory, it’s now our job to help younger generations work through some of the tough issues the rite of passage brings. While puberty brought with it some fun, new experiences, like first crushes and first kisses, it also brought a new heightened sense of awareness, which unfortunately came with a whole new level of insecurity girls never experienced before. Studies have proven that girls reach some of their lowest levels of confidence during the time between entering puberty and leading up to their first period. This is why ads like Always’ commercial airing during the Super Bowl are completely groundbreaking. Millions of people – men, women, teenagers, young boys and girls – watched the 2015 Super Bowl. That’s millions of people who have now seen the #LikeAGirl ad campaign, and millions of people who now realize how problematic it is for the phrase “like a girl” to be used as an insult in our society.
This may be the 21st century, but us women still have a long way to go in breaking down the barrier that still exists between men and women. We are still only earning 77 percent of what men are making in the same jobs. While the presence of women in typically male dominated fields is on the rise, we still have ways to go. But with the help of Always’ campaign, women are redefining what it means to be “like a girl”. The #LikeAGirl campaign is definitely a major step in the right direction. The Always campaign shows how important it is for girls to grow up without ever doubting the fact that being a girl is nothing to be ashamed of. At the end of the video, Always asks the most important question of all, “Why can’t run like a girl also mean to win the race?”
Watch the campaign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
Start using #LikeAGirl and join the movement
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