Over the years, feminism has developed some pretty negative connotations. It has become associated with man-hating, bra-burning lesbians (speaking stereotypically of course), and ugly, hairy-legged rebels who don’t know how to put an outfit together.
This is, of course, untrue.
Third Wave feminists attempted to combat these stereotypes by battling against the beauty standards set by the Barbie doll while telling women that it’s okay to embrace their femininity. You can be feminine and a feminist.
This is when “girlie culture” began to become abundant. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards define girlie culture as a phenomenon of female self-empowerment that emerged in the 1990s with movies like Buffy the Vampire Slyer, activist groups like Riot Grrrl, and books like Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Bitch. Furthermore, “Girlie says we’re not broken, and our desires aren’t simply booby traps set by the patriarchy. Girlie encompasses the tabooed symbols of women’s feminine enculturation—Barbie dolls, make-up, fashion magazines, high heels—and says using them isn’t shorthand for ‘we’ve been duped.’” The girlie culture takes the mass media image of feminism and turns it on its ear as a style of femininity that connotes maturity and rebellion while calling to mind all-pink bedrooms with frilly curtains.
Other defining aspects of girlie culture include:
• Madonna’s 1984 album Like a Virgin
• Sassy, a magazine of 1988, which, according to Jennifer Baumgardner, “managed to put on makeup and fashion without prescribing it and created a camp aesthetic for girls. It took the pressure off beauty and fashion by turning away from Go from So-So to Sexy! and toward wardrobes donned simply because they were pleasurable”
• Riot Grrrls, such as the band Bikini Kill, who told girls to “get their own guitars, that it’s okay to be a lesbian, and it’s okay not to go to prom”
• Naomi Wolf’s book The Beauty Myth
• Ani Difranco
• Zines such as Bitch and Bust
• The Spice Girls, Queen Latifah, and the Indigo Girls
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena
• Wonder Woman comic book
• The WNBA (I know all you lesbians or bisexual ladies out there secretly have a thing for superstar Diana Taurasi or Lisa Leslie…)
• Hello Kitty, “Girls Rule” logos, black lipstick and nail polish
What do you think about girlie culture?
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