If you have been on social media in the past six months, you’ve most definitely heard one of the following: ‘girlboss, ‘girl math,’ ‘girl dinner,’ amongst many others. This trend format almost always starts as a joke by women and for women. For instance, ‘girl math’ began as a way for women to joke about the illogical ways that they perceive as “saving money,” such as buying something you would never buy at market price while it’s on sale, seeing it as a real cash saver. Oftentimes, these trendy phrases are nothing but a self-deprecating joke. However, the impact of these trends are not always funny.
When discussing these trends, it’s important to take a closer look at the implications of our gendered language. Though the birth of what we now call “girlboss feminism” began as a way to empower women by encouraging their success in traditionally male-dominated spheres, when considering the implications behind the name itself, you may not feel quite as empowered as the initial intention. When we limit women to terms like “girlboss,” what are we really saying about our capabilities? Does this imply only non-women can be plain, simple bosses? Does differentiating women in the workplace from their male counterparts really liberate us?
Similarly, can a woman only be beneficial to the feminist cause if she is serving some corporate job? By implying that a girlboss is only some cut-throat CEO dominating a generally male workspace, we commodify feminism, implying that you need to be a part of the economy in a high-earning, white collar position in order to be a true feminist, or girlboss.
This same lens should be adopted when scrolling on TikTok and seeing trends like “girl math.” By making jokes about women’s lack of ability to comprehend things like sales prices in stores, even if just a silly joke, we only submit ourselves to the ideas that have been perpetuated by generations of patriarchal society: women are not “capable” of certain skills that men complete in day to day life. Up until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, women in the US were not even allowed to open a credit card on their own. They needed a co-signer. Thus, does joking about women lacking the capability to spend their own money reasonably really do any justice to the people who devoted their lives to fighting for financial independence for women? While it’s clear that this trend did not begin with intentions to fuel the misogynistic fire that supports the idea that women are lesser than men, the popularization of this trend has led to far more damage than good.
Finally, this brings us to “girl dinner.” A girl dinner is best defined as a meal made up of a strange array of snacks and small dishes, rather than one cohesive meal. Following the usual formula of these strange, gendered trends, this joke was created by a woman as a simple joke. However, upon gaining popularity, the joke quickly spiraled into silent competitions of how little each girl could eat, classifying their “girl dinners” as 2 grapes and an iced coffee. This trend quickly shifted into a huge proponent of eating disorder culture:inspiring girls around the world to share with the internet how little they eat, hidden behind the subtle guise of a silly TikTok trend.
Gendered trends–though often created by women, to be consumed by women–can lead to the perpetuation of many sexist tropes. In a world still dominated by the patriarchy, it is pertinent to think critically about the media we consume daily. How are these trends impacting the way we think about ourselves and other women? More importantly, how are these trends impacting the men who see them? Though many would argue trends like “girl math” are simply “not that deep,” it’s important to deconstruct patriarchal ideas wherever they appear, even if that be a fifteen second clip on TikTok.