The 'I'm Just A Girl' Agenda: Why It Benefits No One.

‘I’m just a girl’, ‘Soft life only’, ‘Feminine energy’, ‘Princess treatment’. These are all terms we know after they came to rise on the Internet last year. On a surface level, they sound harmless, a humorous statement meant to bring women together and be like “girl, same!” I was also taken in by it. But if you look a little bit deeper, the phrases reveal their insidiousness. “Why work? Stay home and live the soft life, while your partner—in his prime masculine energy—does the big boy job.” Big boy job = Taking care of the bills i.e being an adult. Girl please. ‘I'm just a girl’ originates from the song, ‘Just a girl’ by No Doubt. This is crazy to me because if you listen past the point trending on TikTok (or just look at the lyrics), you'll realize that the song is saying the opposite of the viral videos under it. Gwen Stefani sings about how hard it is to be a woman. How she isn't taken seriously and is forced to be smaller and less than what she is. See the irony? You might be wondering: How did the song's meaning get so completely subverted? Or maybe you're not, the Internet has a long history of cases like these. What exposed the problems women faced became used as a joke became the very thing it was trying to avoid, just in a fancier tone. This is not me hating on the women who partake in this trend. In fact, I kind of sympathize with them. I can't blame anyone for trying to avoid dealing with the stressful parts of life, or hoping to find community in the littlest things from your phone dying to vibing with girls in the restroom to shower makeup. I'm guilty of that too. But when I'm told, “Relax and let a man take care of things for you to unlock your feminine energy”, that's where I draw the line. When it starts being marketed as something to emulate or the standard, the phrase becomes malicious towards women. Aren't we just regurgitating past patriarchal statements of old: sit back and let a real man do it for you? And it doesn't only affect women. Being told that a man only unlocks his true value when he starts providing is a sentiment we need to leave behind. I think it is a real shame, since the ‘I'm just a girl' movement was initially used to combat the misogynistic statement, ‘boys will be boys’. But as with everything in mainstream media, it has morphed into something else. After all, it's only patriarchal oppression until you put a soft cute pink bow on it. But that is just my opinion. What do you guys think?

Other insights from Camtoworld

Referral Earning

Points-to-Coupons