One whole pickle. A single cup of mac & cheese. Two Trader Joe’s soup dumplings. Half a glass of pink Gatorade. This delectable assortment of questionably healthy foods would be an average presentation under the trend “girl dinner.”
There have been many trends that have developed over the years that are specific to women, but the positive community-building aspect of these trends is often lost as the trends instead become an efficient way to casually harm and belittle women, as silly as the aforementioned spread may seem.
The “girl dinner” trend began on TikTok in 2023 and quickly became a popular way for women to showcase their mismatched meals, especially women beginning college who were learning to care for themselves independently. Eventually, people began using this trend as a way to normalize unhealthily small portions of food, and using this trend to represent feminine eating habits while normalizing small food portions has reinforced a widely unspoken expectation that girls are and should be eating less and less.
This trend, celebrating new independence and convenient food prep, has devolved into a way to normalize unhealthy eating habits for women, continuing the larger trend of harming women.
In addition to “girl dinner,” “girl math” was a recent trend used to justify nonsensical financial decisions. For example, if you were shopping during a sale, you could credit “girl math” for your overspending. The idea of this trend was harmless and silly, but the name of the trend itself–“girl math”–negatively associates both manic shopping and poor math skills with women exclusively.
With an overwhelming variety of online sources using trends about femininity to create and further harmful stereotypes, the importance of genuine connection and understanding between women cannot be understated. Eat your pickles, mac & cheese, soup dumplings and Gatorade. Find community without belittlement, and enjoy your “girl dinner.”