While it was Twitter that sent the format stratospheric, the manifesto originated from Tumblr. Reality, a wilful misinterpretation of a concept that proved to be not all that it seemed.
The girlboss meme has become a dark, feminine take on Expectation vs. Her Pinterest-ready inspirational quotes are now ironic meme fodder, shared while she’s hunched over her laptop in a messy room deluding herself that she’s “building her empire.” She has even gone spiritual, morphing into one of the seven reimagined chakras right alongside lactose intolerance and acid reflux. Not only was the idea flawed, but it was also cringe.Īll this has made the girlboss a target of online counterculture for some time. What’s more, its entrance into the popular vernacular demoted it from aspirational to basic, more a rallying cry for your high school acquaintance turned pyramid seller than a role model.
Many felt it was epitomized by cynical attempts to win over female voters in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign - an election where, famously, 52 percent of white women were believed to have voted for Trump. To radical left-wingers, the term became synonymous with fake progressivism only concerned with holding up the harmful institutions it made lip service towards improving. Over time, a string of fashionable, female-led businesses and publications profiting off a #girlboss mindset became mired in scandals to do with racism, bullying and unhappy working environments. In practice, girlbossing often appeared to be shallow and mean. It wasn’t to last, and the neologism lost much of its appeal as the decade progressed. While it was denounced for its infantilized approach (couldn’t she be a boss without the prefix?), its vision of empowered success remained seductive to a generation of young female professionals. It didn’t hurt that it promoted her autobiography too. It was designed as a descriptor for entrepreneurial women everywhere who wanted to be a part of feminism’s aesthetic, individualized rebrand.
Popularized in 2014 by Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, the term was stylized with a hashtag. The format reflects how in its short lifespan, the Girlboss has managed to take on some very unfavorable meanings. Weaponizing the cringey positivity of "Live Laugh Love", Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss is the product of years of distilled internet philosophy. To the uninitiated, these may sound like a combination of meaningless buzzwords - and that’s exactly the point. "Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss" is a statement of intent as toxic as it is catchy, and it makes a great wall decal.
GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS PROFESSIONAL
Twitter is home to some of the most unabashed professional clout chasers on social media, and it delighted last month when it found a way to roast some of them. There’s only one catch: you’ve got to be a woman. However, this does make it the ideal topic to ridicule, and now there’s even a snappy new mantra with which to do so. Worst of all, it usually takes itself seriously in a world where irony is the order of the day.
It’s too driven to support the fantasy of organically produced viral content, and its sense of purpose sits too close to the mainstream societal expectations that memes offer an escape from. There’s something about ambition that doesn’t sit comfortably with memeing.
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