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During another doomscroll on social media, I’ve noticed an increasingly patterned
trend: the categorisation of women into sub-aesthetics. Digital culture feeds into a
wider cultural obsession with the commodification of femininity through the recycling of
‘girl’ trends online. This begs the question: is this a harmful engagement with identity or
a subtle regression of feminism?
From ‘clean girl’ to ‘brat summer’, digital spaces reshape and regurgitate micro-trends
for viewers to mindlessly consume. Such trends are characterised by particular
aesthetics, often contingent on appearances grounded in hyper-femininity.
Each sub-aesthetic is entangled with overconsumption, ranging from skincare to
lifestyles. This endless pursuit of outer transformation seems futile as a new trend
materialises to replace the old, making it impossible to keep up.
On the surface, trends like ‘hot girls can’t __’ seem to be playful engagement with irony
yet is dependent on self-internalised misogyny. This trend is contingent on appearance,
whereby worth is measured against an incapacity to do something. This doesn’t seem
exactly progressive, so it calls into question: is active participation in rebranding
ourselves considered anti-feminist?
This is unfortunately not a new trend. Every generation witnesses the arrival of feminine
ideals, repackaged in a new digital language. We can see how femininity is a
performance, with boundaries and expectations. With contemporary digital culture,
subcategories are seemingly created, promoted and consumed by women themselves.
I have to admit, I too have fallen victim to the phrase ‘I’m just a girl’. It has become
engrained into our language: an ironic colloquialism used a punchline - yet it is not
without implications. It subtly reinforces the idea of a certain fragility, which echoes the
way in which the digital sphere produces micro-trends which define, limit and prescribe
womanhood. This potentially reduces the complexity of womanhood to a singular
‘girlhood’, contingent on overconsumption to conform.
As we scroll endlessly, it is important to remain critical whilst consuming the new
identities circulating social media. The illusion of ‘girlhood’ within these trends
disguises their restrictive nature. Trends are quickly consumed and discarded,
positioning women to be in a state of self-reinvention, like the ‘girl boss’. So, as digital
spaces repackage existing societal constraints in palatable ways, it is essential to
recognise the limitations of self-categorisation.
Words by Amy Wood, she/her