The “Girlification” of Social Media

The Underlining Gender Stereotypes Against Women

by Victoria Nikolaeva

If you have been up to date with trends in social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter (now known as X), or YouTube, have you noticed a pattern with our new slang terms and memes? A lot of the trends have been very gender-specific, particularly towards women and young girls. The main three that come to mind are 'girl boss', 'girl dinner', and the most recent, 'girl math'. All of these terms have been coined by the Internet to describe particular feelings or trains of thought that are often played as humorous and relatable memes. However, while I agree with most of the relatability and even use many of these terms myself during the heights of these girly trends, there is room for criticism within these trends. In reality, there is an argument to be made that these memes can instill negative stereotypes about women.

‘Girl boss’ has been coined by the Internet for almost a decade at this point. Originally originating around 2014 during a particular feminist movement, according to The Guardian, it was a term used to describe, in a similar sense, how men would use “to hustle." In more recent times, most use the term as a way to describe a form of achievement, success, desire, and confidence; however, it’s still mainly directed towards a woman’s achievement and pursuit. When looking at face value or straight on, this term has a very good type of connotation, often being used to support and uplift women. One can argue that ‘girl boss’ is a similar term to the heavily praised ‘queen’ lingo that many women and members of the LBGT community use.

But if we were to peel the layer back, one could argue that the term 'girl boss', does more harm than good. The biggest point, actually leading us back to the origins, describes a womanized or a 'girlification of a “men’s aspect”. This can lead to women thinking that they have to adopt masculine traits or behaviors to become successful or get into leadership roles, thus supporting negative stereotypes of women. The term, in one of its forms, now has another connotation. When looking at the phrase ” Gatekeep, Gaslight, Girlboss," according to The Women Network, “break this down a little further. ‘Gatekeep’... refers to when a person tries to take it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access to or rights to a community or identity. ‘Gaslighting’ is a form of manipulation... ‘girl boss’ is about the mocking of the intended definition of a 'girl boss'.” This describes the new satirical connotation that the term has and the continuous downfall that can lead to hurting women who have become successful, especially when people expect those women not to fight for themselves because that would hurt their “motherly nature.”.

Another term, ‘girl dinner’, was coined in much more recent times around the spring of 2023 on TikTok. This trend or term, when it was popular, was often shown as short videos of girls’ plates that were “of raw vegetables, handfuls of trail mix, and bread with butter were posted” (Medium) and these videos were to express the relatable struggle of having to prepare whole meals for yourself every day. This trend was an overall funny way to poke at yourself. I know that I have done it, and so have you. When I didn't want to go to my college’s dining hall, I would eat a snack or two and call it a day. It’s all in good fun, right?

Well, there is a reason that can be said why this particular trend was geared toward women; one can say that this connects back to the intense culture of dieting and dangerous eating habits. According to the New York Times and Medium, “...women have long been programmed to see food as the enemy, but the girl dinner trend is about embracing the simple joy of snacks as meals." This is a pleasant perspective, but yet it can be deemed as it capitalizes on the gendered burdens placed by patriarchy. With ‘women need to be in the kitchen’ stereotypes, it can create expectations and judgments when women deviate from those roles, such as by embracing simpler or non-traditional meal options such as ‘girl dinner’. Another point is to talk about the dieting culture that overtook the scene as the original ‘girl dinner’ meals get replaced with ice cubes or naps. This type of dieting, especially on social media, can cause harm to younger viewers and promote bad standards of beauty on top impressionable girls. As America Ferrera put it in Greta Gerwig’s film, Barbie, women are expected “to be thin, but not too thin. And can never say want to be thin….”. Overall, these food trends, like "girl dinners," can be empowering by challenging traditional roles and promoting self-care, but they still risk perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Lastly, ‘girl math’ was introduced in July 2023 by Tik Toker, Samantha Jane, who describes the terminology of how this train of thought works through examples. As she explains, “anything under $5 feels free,” and when you return an item worth $50 and end up spending $100, it feels like you only spent a total of $50. At this point, since the introduction, it started to include things like timing out your hair-washing days or re-wearing an outfit because nobody saw it, so it doesn’t count. It is meant to be a relatable meme that many can relate to. A funny joke about using simply bad math to justify purchases and spending habits that everyone falls victim to. One of my favorite parts of this new type of thinking is that if you use cash to purchase an item, then it is free because nothing moves inside your bank account. So if it is so relatable, what is the problem?

‘Girl math’ may be seen as humorous and relatable to one side of the world of social media platforms, but when looking at the other side, you can see how people start using this as an opportunity to validate gender stereotypes that women are bad at math and can’t have the ability to manage money or know how to budget. These harmful stereotypes can hurt a developing mind, to the point that women may be pushed away from math-related or STEM careers because of these trends. One may think this is an exaggeration; however, a 2008 study published in Science describes an array of tests with two given groups, one male group, and one woman group, and many of those results showed, “The fact that women not only tend to underestimate their own math skills when they are job candidates but also underestimate the ability of other women when they are in a hiring position reveals what," according to Banaji, a psychologist at Harvard University. This reveal of prejudice against women for a perceived lack of math skills could one day be traced back to something as simple as a joke. So it is important to remember that ‘girl math’ is only a humorous joke and not reality.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that even though social media has been embracing this more feminine terminology and jokes, like ‘girl boss’, ‘girl dinner’, and ‘girl math’, no matter how popular they are, they can have a potential impact on reinforcing unrealistic gender norms and standards for women. All of these terms have started as a source of fun and relatability but also all can lead to a path of stereotypes that women need to be maley to work in the workplace, women are lazy for not cooking full meals, or that they need to be consistently diet, or the women are bad at math. Altogether, one should have some critical lens on the jokes that can be made on the Wild West of the Internet.