“I'm Just A Girl”
In the vast landscape of social media trends, one recurring phrase has captured the attention of many: “I’m Just a Girl”— a seemingly harmless statement used when “Gen Z” girls encounter tasks or expectations they wish to evade. However, dismissing responsibility with the excuse of being “just a girl” detrimentally impacts decades of hard-fought battles against gender stereotypes.
And, beneath its casual and seemingly humorous appeal lies a deeply troubling reality—one that contradicts the very essence of the strides we have made as a society in the ongoing fight for gender equality.
“I'm just a girl”—four simple words that serve as a subtle dismissal of responsibility, a shrug in the face of capability, and a nod to outdated gender norms dangerously remain a trend among Gen Zs. In an age when feminism has become a rallying cry for empowerment and equality, how can such a trend persist? How can a society seemingly focused on achieving equality and dismantling gender-based stereotypes allow itself to indulge in a phrase that so blatantly undermines our progress?
We claim that we are so open-minded, that nobody should be discriminated against, and that we can do it all, but how come we so easily fall for social media trends like this? We, as a society, tend to delve into dissecting every piece of information in the news, focusing on the who, the why, and the when of everything, yet we are certainly missing the big picture when it comes to this trend which obviously discredits women.
We have our first American female vice president, but there are still things “us girls” can’t do? We can vote. We can hold CEO positions.
We can run for office. But we can’t be expected to have financial intelligence, because “I’m just a girl” suddenly becomes an excuse for evading responsibility? We need to wake up as a society and not credit such movements. Otherwise, we are doing ourselves a disservice by discrediting our forward-thinking culture, consequently making our arguments no longer cohesive. We prompt rallies and movements to fight for our rights to be leaders, we ask of men to treat us as equals, we want to be financially independent, yet when the going gets hard we simply say “I can’t do it, I’m just a girl.” This tremendously impacts today’s culture by setting us back in history, and if we can’t stay cohesive, if we can’t decide what we want, if we are only semi-capable, then how can we expect to be respected when clearly we are “Just girls?”
Consider this: according to a study conducted by Status of Women Data, women now comprise nearly half (46.8%) of the U.S. labor force. Yet, despite these advancements, trends like “I'm just a girl” continue to thrive. As we delve deeper into such a senseless statement, it becomes increasingly evident that its implications extend beyond the confines of social media banter.
For every "I'm just a girl," there is a subtle reinforcement of gender stereotypes—a perpetuation of the notion that women are less capable, less competent, and less deserving of agency. In a world where the legacies of trailblazers like Susan B. Anthony and Ruth Bader Ginsburg loom large, how can we justify going back into the very stereotypes they fought so tirelessly to dismantle? The very issues these women fought against are being undone by the “I’m just a girl” narrative of women belittling themselves and their capabilities. Ginsburg fought for women's rights in landmark discrimination cases while Anthony argued tirelessly for women's suffrage, asserting that women possess the same mental capabilities and unalienable rights as men. By lowering ourselves to the stereotypes of the “I’m just a girl” craze, we ultimately discredit Ginsburg and Anthony who advocated for change and challenged the status quo to rid women of the notion that they are somehow less than.
The major issue that contributes to dismantling the legacy of trailblazers like Ginsburg and Anthony is that “I’m just a girl” is predominantly being used by women themselves, which may seem to some as a reason for its acceptability. However, this actually strengthens the argument for its harm. While the trend has surfaced on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, it is widely used on TikTok —the cradle for videos to the sound of “I’m just a girl.” TikTokers use different variations of the trend like “Putting on mascara just to snap him back,” “Online shopping during class,” “Spending $10 on a cup of Starbucks coffee,” and “Having five pairs of the same leggings,” ending all of these with “because I’m just a girl” as if that would exempt them from making bad choices.
Saying we do things “just because we’re girls” belittles our actions and undermines our capabilities. Does being “just a girl” mean we have to devalue our education by online shopping during class? By engaging in such behavior, we are working towards self-deprecation and reinforcing outdated stereotypes.
In essence, this “funny” and apparently harmless trend undermines women's confidence in their capabilities and reinforces gender-based discrimination. It shouldn’t be okay to excuse any behavior by hiding behind “I’m just a girl” because it perpetuates the notion that there is a difference between being a man and a woman when it comes to our capabilities. While the trend may elicit laughter, we must be cautious and mindful of trends that can lead to a slippery slope.
We need to ensure that phrases like “don’t expect me to be able to do that because I’m just a girl” don’t become commonplace. We are better than that, stronger than that and capable of anything we want to achieve. Let us not allow it to be acceptable to discredit ourselves, especially by our own words. It's high time that we combated the notion that women are somehow less than and strive to be a society where no woman feels compelled to diminish her worth with four simple, undermining words. We are creating our own inequalities, and it must stop.
Research
- https://msmagazine.com/2020/12/29/ms-top-feminists-2020/
- https://statusofwomendata.org/earnings-and-the-gender-wage-gap/womens-labor-force-participation/
- https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02690/full
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9871900/
- https://www.hercampus.com/school/bristol/im-just-a-girl-should-we-be-worried-about-this-tik-tok-trend/
