Which girl are you? That’s what the internet is currently asking every woman between 14 and 65 every day: a Vanilla Girl or a Lazy Girl, Tomato Girl or Sad Autmn Girl? A Soft Girl or a Healing Girl?
In viral trends, tons of girl identities are being designed to choose from. For every character there is a suitable “girl” – a template for the way of life with which you identify most strongly. Are you more gentle or sassy, cozy or ambitious, introverted or bubbly? Do you prefer light beige order or hippie chaos at home? Do you really turn it up at parties, or do you prefer to read “Harry Potter” alone at home on Saturday evenings? Do you like strawberry lip gloss or glitter eyeshadow? There are nuances that decide which girl category you place yourself in. But actually it’s about something completely different anyway – namely the fact that only girls serve as relatability anchors.
Welcome to the “Girl Era,” as one might say based on Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.” At the age of 34, the singer has finally become the patron saint of all girls – with a voice as clear as a bell, the courage to play kitsch and colorful friendship bracelets at her concerts. Her message: We girls stick together, at least in the bubblegum-colorful world we create for ourselves! And in this world no one grows up, there are only girls who all belt out the same songs (“Shake it off!”) and who look at their lives with dramatic exaggeration and girlish, cheerful carelessness at the same time, as one would actually do from the age of 13 -year-old knows: Today I’m this girl and tomorrow I’m a completely different one, no problem, girls just want to have fun.
Girliedom dominates current pop culture with such a sweet penetration that you almost get cavities just by watching it. It all started with the “Barbie” film, which was released in cinemas in the summer of 2023. Greta Gerwig’s feminist-tinged reality check for the doll, which, according to the advertising promise, can be anything she wants, brought an overdose of pink on fashion runways and in Instagram feeds – and the more or less subtle request to take life a little easier take. Discover the inner Barbie girl who zips through the modern world on neon-colored roller skates and effortlessly avoids all obstacles.
In the summer you could give this attitude a happy high-five. But in 2024 it must be asked how much girlie escapism is still tolerable. Because the strange obsession with all things girly isn’t going away. On the contrary.
There has been a discussion for weeks about whether “Girl Math” calculations on TikTok are smart or stupid (“I didn’t buy the dress, so I saved 200 euros”). The new social media platform Threads is particularly noticeable because influencers write to their followers with “You sweeties”. In fashion, labels such as MiuMiu, Simone Rocha and New York newcomer Sandy Liang are shaping the “coquette girl style”, which is said to be particularly in vogue this year and which includes patent leather shoes, pleated skirts, hair bows and white stockings as accessories for adult women with a budget for a designer wardrobe. And in the cinema, Sofia Coppola once again focuses on her favorite subject – the lost girl. In her new film “Priscilla” you watch a teenager as she stumbles into a marriage with the biggest star of her time, Elvis Presley. At the end there is at least the implied emancipation of a woman, but until then Coppola, decorated with lots of bows, ruffles and a lot of make-up, stages the fickle, insecure, unpredictable, sometimes cocky nature of her main character – the girlishness.
It’s clear: the stereotypical bittersweetness of girlhood, somewhere between pigtails and despair at the world, is perfect as a universal illustration of everything that people associate with adolescent highs and lows, lightness and hardness. So it’s no wonder that pop culture works on girlie moments again and again – or makes them the center of creativity. Just like the countless TikTokers who produce videos about girls and their peculiarities like on an assembly line (the typical “girl dinner”: a few crackers, a little cheese and a glass of wine). Like Gen-Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo, who loves to sing about “Teenage Dreams” and “Homeschooled Girls.” Like the Spice Girls, the ultimate girlie band, who are reportedly planning a reunion performance for the band’s 30th anniversary. Or like comedian Tina Fey, who recently released a remake of the teen film “Girls Club” – like in 2004, 20 years later it’s still about finding the balance between cute conformity and character-maturing rebellion as a teenage girl.
Likeability is the highest currency among and for girls. If you look closely, being liked and accepted is what every girl motif is about, whether in a TikTok video, in fashion or in the cinema. And if you falter along the way, it’s no big deal! You’re just a girl. The idea of harmless irresponsibility accompanies every bow you tie in your hair.
Nothing against bows, nothing against more silliness in adult life, nothing against pink as a contrasting color to patriarchal behavior. But whether the girl logic of dressing up all of life’s challenges as a teasing gag works so well in real life remains to be seen. At least the boomer boss will probably be irritated if you demand a four-day week on the grounds that you are currently in the lazy girl phase. The sugar-coating that makes the girl motif so appealing to pop culture is exactly what pushes the concept to its limits in real life. “I’m just a girl in the world, that’s all you’ll let me be,” Gwen Stefani sang back in 1995 about the discrepancy between girlish carefreeness and the feeling of running into a dead end because of being too girly -Attitude makes it difficult to be more than just that.
