“Sometimes we’re quick to dismiss things that women and girls care about and that’s part of living in a patriarchal society,” said Dr. Emily Contois with the University of Tulsa.
TikTok videos are building a sense of community for women. We spoke with experts and university students about what’s behind trends like ‘girl dinner’ and ‘girl math’ and what they’re saying about the world we live in.
First, what is “girl dinner?”
“Girl dinner was really fun, because it’s women talking about what they eat when they’re alone,” said Dr. Emily Contois with the University of Tulsa. “When they don’t have to feed somebody else, whether it’s their family, their children, or they’re not thinking what the expectations people have for what they should be eating.”
Dr. Emily Contois is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa and a published author.
She looks at the connections between food, the body, health and identities in the media and pop culture.
She says there’s more to these trending videos.
“There’s always a reason there’s something more deep going on, but sometimes we’re quick to dismiss things that women and girls care about and that’s part of living in a patriarchal society,” Dr. Contois said.
Dr. Contois said overall, girl dinner was fun and built a sense of community, but some young women aren’t here for the trend.
“It’s like saying that we shouldn’t eat full meals,” said Mary Rocco, finance major.
“I have never seen videos like that about boys, it’s only been about girls, I find that interesting,” said Georgee David, business and law major. “Guys, I feel like, do tend to eat full meals, though. Girls tend to only drink iced coffee and find that as a meal sometimes”
Another trend? Girl math.
“When I have a target gift card, I’m like, it’s basically free,” Georgee said.
“If I buy something and I return it, that’s like free money,” said Hadyn Anderson, nursing major.
“Girl math is sort of celebrating some of the lightness in a positive way that can be a part of performing femininity,” Dr. Contois said.
Dr. Contois says trends like “hot girl walks” started out positive, about moving your body and feeling good, but later became too much about what you were wearing.
“It was like, ‘these are the leggings you can buy for your hot girl walk, these are the sneakers, this is the cute arm band, when really, exercising through walking is one of the things all of us can do and it doesn’t cost anything,’” Dr. Contois said.
One student says another trend is to say, ‘I’m just a girl.’
“Let’s say you run over a curb, or you make a little mistake, you go, ‘I’m just a girl,’ and it’s just basically saying, ‘well it just happens,’” said Hadyn Anderson, nursing major.
Hadyn said it’s a positive message.
“If your friend is embarrassed about something, you go, ‘oh, you’re just a girl,” she said.
“It’s very different for you and I to call each other girl than for a man for example to refer to a professional women’s sports star as a girl,” Dr. Contois said. “This is a very different use of girl that’s empowered and is meant to be used between women.”
Dr. Contois said TikTok trends are pushing back against heavy work culture, too.
“This idea that we’re expected to give everything to our jobs and always go above and beyond and always work extra hours and do whatever is needed and go more, more, more, that’s something that this younger generation is really resisting,” she said. “We should have jobs that expect a fair amount from us and then we should get to go home and have good lives with our family and friends and be part of our communities.”
Dr. Contois said “lazy girl jobs” is a way for women to express the kind of job they want that doesn’t expect extra work.
“They’re never just silly trends, we can always analyze the media and pop culture in our lives for deeper stories about who we are and who we want to be,” she said.
Dr. Contois’ work can be found in Time Magazine, where she wrote about a recent trend – Stanley cups.
文章来源：FOX23
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