By Nour Tormos – Staff Writer
“Explaining war to you…. Girl edition!” “Explaining quantum physics for the girlies!” And the explanation would be a complete dumbing down of the idea through extreme simplifications or analogies used with kids. The “girl-ification” of everything around us is simply a step backwards: it reinforces stereotypes that women are too stupid to comprehend science or politics and it contradicts beauty and brains. “Girl dinner” is usually a low carb “meal” (or scraps of food) that promote unhealthy eating habits, “girl rotting” is used to describe depression as girly and edgy and sometimes ignore the deeper underlying issues…
All these trends are usually accompanied by excessive femininity: a lot of pink, ribbons, makeup… It seems like the use of the trend has helped some older women heal their inner child and find some peace in being “just a girl”. And although there is this very understandable comfort in doing things you were not able to do as a child or in removing the baggage that comes with the words “woman” and “adult”, this does not erase the fact that the terms can be infantilizing.
In actively infantilizing yourself, not only are you surrendering your own agency, but you are also ignoring how infantilization is politically used to strip a person’s autonomy and maintain a certain social structure. As Elliot Sang mentions in his video “Infantilization: A Gen Z Crisis”, society chooses specific people to infantilize. For example, to allow people to empathize with them and not hold them accountable, white shooters are infantilized unlike black shooters. Autistic people are also infantilized and painted as stupid or heavily dependent to perpetuate an ableist narrative.
This infantilization has led to another, heavier conclusion: “I am just a girl, I do not want to work” and even some comments like “I do not mind just being a housewife to cook and look pretty”. How can some people on social media become so absorbed with the absolute consumerism of this trend (the insane amounts of popular expensive makeup, pouches, clothes…) and not see how harmful it can be? You are equating femininity with splurging and having an empty head, which is so counterproductive when we are constantly working against gender stereotypes stating that men are innately smarter, more serious, or more disciplined to be in the workplace or in leadership positions.
All of this is rooted in a deeper issue: these trends are simply a manifestation of choice feminism and thus of white supremacy and privilege. We rarely see black girls as faces of these “girl” trends, but the very few that surrender to it or are victims of attempting to reach the “clean girl aesthetic”, might do so to distance themselves from negative stereotypes and gain respectability from the oppressor. As an example, black women have always been associated with a “ghetto, unclean, not classy” style which has a lot of racist roots, and their “black” hair (4A-4B-4C, afros…) is never the face of these trends.
On another note, this attachment to youth might be more concerning. Salem says in her article: “Women have accepted that their youth has far more social capital in a world where men have made youth synonymous with beauty”. The attachment to youth, resulting in a delayed adulting, might be a result of social coercion and fear of ageism in a superficial world. This leads to a huge identity crisis and to filling the void through buying unnecessary items.
Although this trend is a propaganda of patriarchy and privilege as not all women can prioritize “self-care”, it is not surprising that women find this a safe alternative to the harsh realities of capitalism. It is not surprising that women are maybe using this trend (despite many being harmful) to just try and relive a carefree youth and feel empowered and self-aware through re-writing their own version of “girlhood”. I also do think they create a sense of collectiveness between girls through solidarity, but it still excludes a lot of women, especially lower class women who are unable to spend money on all the fancy products that are painted as essential to the “girl experience”.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ymJv4QDpOE
https://junkee.com/girl-dinner-gender-girlification-tiktok/353931