It’s spraaang break, baby! Let’s get crunk and go to a wet t-shirt contest! Maybe afterwards we’ll watch smokin’ hot babes shimmy under a limbo stick! Yeah, shots! Anyone up for getting featured on Girls Gone Wild? Topless beaches, woop! Who’s in?!
Not me. I’m not in. Because listen up, boys and Chads: Spring break is for the girls this year.
I’m not one to crap on the sunshine-soaked beaches of your favorite spring break vacation spot. I like kegs as much as the next girl, and there’s something about dancing at a beachside bar that just feels better than your college bar or hometown house party. However, I can’t ignore the innate ickiness of spring break.
It’s not women that make spring break a little grodi. It’s the male gaze of it all. How am I supposed to have fun in the sun when I’m being oppressed by the patriarchy?
Let’s dive into some spring break history, shall we? While hedonistic celebrations of spring have been around since ancient Greece, spring break really began to take off in the late 1950s, where college students would migrate to the sunny beaches of Florida. Glendon Swarthout, a professor at Michigan State University, went with a group of students (ew?) and subsequently crafted his novel, Where the Boys Are, based on their experience in Fort Lauderdale. From there, the novel was made into a film in 1960, and (the male-centric) spring break was born.
Since its conception, we’ve seen pop culture phenomena like MTV Spring Break, Girls Gone Wild, and Spring Breakers sprout from the ground to inspire those wild spring break parties we’ve grown to know. And while these television shows are core memories of our middle school years and our first introduction to party culture, there’s no denying that their portrayal of spring break — and how the women in this media are objectified — is, well, gross.
In 1997, late-night infomercial screens across the world were graced with the presence of Girls Gone Wild, a franchise in which a camera crew would film young women at party locations (typically during spring break) as they exposed themselves while intoxicated. These videos were compiled and sold, and resulted in an empire.
“It’s not like we’re creating this,” an employee of the Girls Gone WIld franchise told Slate reporter Ariel Levy in a 2004 interview. “This is happening whether we’re here or not. Our founder was just smart enough to capitalize on it.”
However, less than 10 years later, this statement aged like milk when Linsdey Boyd — who appeared topless on the cover of a Girls Gone Wild DVD at just 14 — sued the company for filming her without permission. Boyd was unable to consent as an adult, which should be reason enough to move forward with the case. However, Boyd lost. At the time, Georgia had no laws in place that prohibited the use of non-consensual video for profit.
Girls Gone Wild was sold to Bang Bros, a porn production company, in 2014, but their website still remains on the internet today, titled “The Best Ametuer Sluts Website.” Not only that, but those videos from the ’90s and 2000s, and their impact, remain online well into 2022.
While spring break can be a relaxing and fun time to hang out with your girlies, I’d say we let the boys sit this one out. Why would I want to be sprayed with water in a white t-shirt when I can dance with my friends in a cute (and dry) outfit? Why would I want to be encouraged to be “wild” when I’m trying to let loose responsibly? And, most of all, why should I have to worry about someone filming me and posting my bits on the internet?
I say we take the male gaze, and the men that see through it, out of our spring break vision. Sure, boys will still be roaming around the beaches, but that doesn’t mean they’re invited into your spring break! Spend time hanging with your girlfriends, and maybe use this trip as an opportunity to bond with your besties like never before. Try making new memories with the girls, and the girls only. After all, what do these men offer us anyway? Bad dancing on a crowded dance floor? Let’s go, girls!