The Girlboss Transformed
Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss. The joke, which exploded on the internet in 2021, is described by Urban Dictionary as an ironic phrase tied to femininity and success (RedRedRainbow, 2021). The first two words aren’t new, but what’s a Girlboss? The term functions as a “site of struggle” between forces of incorporation and resistance (Storey, 2009, p.11): it began as part of a subversive feminist movement, became a capitalistic slogan, then was transformed into a form of comedic resistance.
In 2014, Sophia Amoruso, founder of clothing retail site NastyGal, wrote the New York Times best selling memoir #Girlboss. A Washington Post piece describes it as a “candid guide for starting a business” for misfits (McGregor, 2014). In the article, Amoruso explains how to assume a “healthy sense of entitlement” as a woman in the business world. The Girlboss is a feminist figure who seizes agency through her high-powered career and supposedly resists traditional notions of what she should be. The Girlboss liberates herself from the stifling “male gaze,” a mechanism by which the patriarchy presents women in media as “objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable” (Zeisler, 2008, p.9). In Feminism and Pop Culture, Andi Zeisler writes that the portrayal of women in media informs their self image (p.10). Amoruso popularized the Girlboss as a new portrait of the modern woman; one who deftly navigates a society marked by gender inequity.
Despite the vision of empowerment behind #Girlboss, the idea is inherently capitalistic and was smoothly coopted into the culture industry. The Girlboss only gains liberation as long as she invests in the relentless CEO mentality, conforming to a hierarchical system. She operates under the guise of female empowerment but is driven by problematic economic incentives. Nasty Gal was bankrupted when Amoruso allegedly discriminated against pregnant workers (Shaefer, 2017). This is the conceit of the culture industry, as explained by Adorno and Horkheimer: “Anyone who resists can only survive by fitting in” (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944, p.5). Amoruso, transformed into an instrument of the business world, no longer prioritized the welfare of those on the margins. She aligned herself with the unifying force of patriarchal hegemony rather than rebelling against it.
The Girlboss is also tied to exclusive versions of womanhood—Amuroso is white, straight, and cisgender. As such, her ability to navigate privileged spaces is tied to her identity. The image of her Girlboss is coded as unthreatening to what scholar Moya Bailey refers to the “white patriarchy,” which is built upon a semiotic system of 2021, p.1). It’s an mirage that distracts the public from real, pressing issues that impact women in the workforce, like the wage gap. According to the Pew Research Center, women “earned 84% of what men earned” in 2020 (Barroso and Brown, 2021).
The Girlboss fails because it is not nearly disruptive enough. It’s a glitter-covered infantilization of female authority that makes a spectacle of the select women who succeed in gaining status (Spratt, 2020). Contrary to Amoruso’s rhetoric, the male gaze is still actively fixed upon the Girlboss. Viewers are made hyperaware of her femininity—why isn’t she just a Boss? She is paraded as an exception to a rule, not an active force who can improve the circumstances faced by other women. The concept of the Girlboss is aestheticized and consumeristic. I’ve seen it emblazoned on pink mugs and tote bags. The tendency of advertisers to adopt “the language of liberation” is a manipulative tactic that drives profit (Zeisler, 2008, p.17). The use of the Girlboss as a branding tool further calcifies its position as a fixture of capitalism.
The public has steadily rejected the Girlboss as a caricature of hustle culture and a tool of sexist messaging. In 2020, an advertisement that read, “You do the girl boss thing. We’ll do the SEO thing” was criticized on Twitter for its patronizing tone (Jones, 2020). The combative response to the company contradicts Adorno and Horkheimer’s idea of a passive consumer who is unable to resist the machinery of the culture industry (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944, p.12). In this case, public outrage was effective and led to the alteration of the company’s advertisement.
Disillusionment with the Girlboss culminated in 2021’s “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” (Greig, 2021). The phrase originated on Twitter, a platform with a low barrier to entry. Bailey identifies Twitter as a democratizing space where “digital alchemy” can take place, a practice through which Black femme individuals transform how they are represented (Bailey, 2021, p.24). The emergence of “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” was achieved through a similar process. It’s a parody of “Live, Laugh, Love,” a motivational adage commonly found on sparkly signs at Home Goods or the bathrooms of fifty-year-old white women (Greig, 2021). By coding the slogan as adjacent to a well-known—and often mocked— symbol of the older generation’s insincerity, Gen Z resists a paradigm of upper middle class whiteness.
“Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” is now part of the youth vernacular and operates with the understanding that all three words are shallow and negative. We may ask friends, “are you Gaslight, Gatekeep, or Girlboss?” or call someone a Girlboss when they achieve an impressive feat. Gen Z has reclaimed the term and infused it with irony. It’s funny because of the tension between its capitalistic connotations and its new, more flexible nature. Amoruso’s Girlboss sat on a pedestal, but now anyone can be one, regardless of their gender identity or ethnicity. The Girlboss goes for what they want, and sometimes they might be a little over the top. But isn’t everyone sometimes? I think we all have a little Girlboss in us.
Works Cited
Adorno, T. and Horkheimer, M. (1944). Dialectic of Enlightenment.
Bailey, M. (2021). Misogynoir transformed. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Barro and Brown (2021, May 25). Gender pay gap in U.S. held steady in 2020. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Newbery Park, CA: Sage.
Greig, J. (2021, December 12). Unpacking What it Means to ‘Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.’ Vice. https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/88nvjg/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss
Jones, L. (2020, January 8). 'Girl boss' advert banned for gender stereotyping. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51032631
McGregor, J. (2014, May 14). From anti-capitalist to CEO: How Nasty Gal’s Sophia Amoruso made it big. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on- leadership/wp/2014/05/14/from-anti-capitalist-to-ceo-how-nasty-gals-sophia-amoruso-made-it- big/
RedRedRainbow (2021, May 6). Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss. Urban Dictionary. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gaslight%20gatekeep%20girlboss
Schaefer, K. (2017, April 26). What Comes After Scandal and Scathing Reviews? Sophia Amoruso Is Finding Out. Vanity Fair.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/04/sophia-amoruso-girlboss-netflix-nasty-gal
Spratt, V. (2020, January 20). Let 2020 Be The Year We Get Rid Of Girlboss Culture For Good. Refinery 29.
https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2020/01/9044921/girlboss-culture-women-work Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY: Seal Press.
Commentor : Mia Schoolman
ReplyDeleteSarah, your piece on the Girlboss Transformed and its relationship to the readings from Module 1 are incredibly engaging. I would have never realized the problematic narrative that Girlboss coined until after reading this blog post. I was mainly interested in the discussion of the term Girlboss through the lens of the culture industry by Adorno and Horkheimer. While Girlboss was created to counteract the “male gaze” and redefine the modern women, it simultaneously fed into the traditional ideals of the capitalistic system. Explained by “one can only survive by fitting in” (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944), Girlboss means to break boundaries but fits in by fitting into the idealized women - a white, straight and cisgendered one. Through looking at the term girlboss through this lens, it fits back into the culture industry in a variety of ways.
Looking at the way Live, Laugh, Love has been used as a basis for Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss reminded me of the discussion of remixing in memes explained by Shifman’s book Memes in Digital Culture (2013). First, your blog post made me analyze the beginnings of the slogan Live, Laugh, Love as a meme. At first, it was a popular house decor targeted towards middle aged women. Now, this meme has been created by being spread as satire from person to person, and then gradually scaled to become a social phenomenon (Shifman, 2013). Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss involves the remaking of the Live, Laugh, Love to a newer one. The similar use of satire to create the mantra Live, Laugh, Love is replicated in Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, a more relevant version of the original. The idea that memes must stay current to retain popularity brings us back to Adorno and Horkheimer’s discussion of the culture industry. After Live, Laugh, Love was turned into a meme, it was a venue for Gen Z to mock the older generation. However, since the variation Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss has been created, it further perpetuates the idea that one can only survive by fitting in. Instead of Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss being a mocking of the older generation, it has turned into a mocking our ours.
Sarah, I really enjoyed your reflection and analytical approach to the #Girlbossing movement that seems both innocent and prevalent in digital culture, especially for young women. This phrase has definitely resonated with millions of girls across the world, including myself. However, I had never considered how it only reinforced hierarchical systems of capitalism and patriarchy. Although the creator and popularizer of #Girlboss Sophia Amoruso likely created the phrase and ideology to be resistant to mainstream business forces, it inadvertently became subsumed by these exact mainstream forces. This sequence of events, especially considering the cycle of excorporation and incorporation, led me to consider how this story of the Girlboss movement illustrates the coolhunting phenomenon described by Devon Powers. There’s no doubt that there’s a connection between Girlbossing and the idea of being cool because Cool girls can girlboss. There’s a lot of power in the word “cool–a word that described not only the edgiest of trends but also a trajectory of influence predicated upon quick change, flattening social hierarchies, and the ongoing transfer of subcultural capital into economic capital” (Powers 49). While Amuroso may paint herself as a maverick who operates at the fringes of the business world, she is still overwhelmingly mainstream for all the reasons that Sarah delineates. The entire concept of Coolhunting does not necessarily apply perfectly to the story of Girlboss, but there are helpful connections. I think discussing the connection between Coolhunting, which folds perhaps once edgy or subversive trends and ideologies into the mainstream, and Girlbossing, which poses corporate women as 'edgy' even though they still play into the capitalist hegemony. - Allison Santa-Cruz
DeleteConor Smith:
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I enjoyed how you demonstrated how the "girlboss" has cooperated into the mainstream and items with the phrase are now being sold for profit. Along with the readings you chose, I feel the “Memes in Digital Culture” reading by Limor Shifman also corresponds to “the girlboss” as well. The phrase itself is a meme as it adheres to the various definitions Shifman offers. The phrase “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” spread digitally by multiple users, and the instances built upon each other. (Shiffman). This phrase, although not an image, is a meme. It can be likened to the “the three drinks later” meme due to its format. “Three drinks later” and the “girlboss” would be considered remix meme formats. Any image can be paired with the phrase in a comedic way.
Memes, like the “girlboss” figure can have real world effects. Shifman explains, “although they spread on a micro basis, their impact is on the macro level: memes shape the mindsets, forms of behavior, and actions of social groups” (Shiffman). In your essay, you challenge the idea of passive audiences in perceiving the “girlboss”. I think this is a fascinating assessment of the audience reaction to this figure. I agree with this point in your essay and I think Shifman’s argument adds another dimension to it. Meme culture around the figure has led to anti-capitalist sentiment among Gen Z youth. Although this sentiment is clouded in humor and irony, there is underlying resent for the mainstream culture’s push of capitalist feminism.
Commenter : Carola Agostini
ReplyDeleteI feel like your analysis of this ongoing joke is great, I would only add two things to make your argument even stronger. Along with Ziesler’s comments on the male gaze and the representation of women as a whole, there is also a very important part of Ziesler’s article that ties well with this situation. At the end of her article she argues that having more women in positions of power does not mean that things will change for the better. “Getting one or two seats for women at the proverbial table won’t guarantee that the face of pop culture becomes one that’s friendlier to women; it’s simply one part of a larger push for women to be more proactive, more unapologetic, and more determined to make spaces in pop culture that represent all the dimensions of women’s lives” (Ziesler A. 2008) What makes “Gaslight Gatekeeper, Girlboss” the joke it is today is precisely this truth. Women in power created “Girlboss” to empower women whilst simultaneously putting them down. Thus, it's not only about breaking into the so-called “proverbial table”, it's also about changing the landscape for other women, something that the “Girlboss'' failed to do.
Additionally, alongside Bailey’s concept of digital alchemy, we should also recognize the rebellion and power of the joke itself. Apryl Williams in her article about black memes suggests the following.. “Scholarship on activist and political memes varies across definitions of activism and politics yet there is agreement that memes are “a medium through which people may agitate for political change or more deeply ingrained reactionary attitudes'' (Frazer & Carlson, 2017, p. 1).” (Williams A. 2020) By re-categorizing the “Girlboss” as a political meme we establish it as a form of resistance in which women call out the irony of the Girlboss. Additionally, the use of humor could also be a very interesting point of analysis. As Williams also mentions humor is used in these political memes as a way to start difficult conversations, so it could be argued that “Girlboss” is part of a larger dialogue, through the means of comedy, about feminism and how sometimes it fails women.
Hi Sarah!!
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was awesome and I really enjoyed reading your critical analysis of this concept of a Girlboss. Although they cover different topics around women in society, your post reminded me a lot of Emily Nussbaum’s piece in the New York Times, “TV’s Reckoning with #MeToo” (2019). Nussbaum explained the drawbacks of #MeToo going so viral primarily as losing control of the message. When the movement became so popular, people lost sight of the original intent of the call-to-action and community building that the organization meant to provide. The context of the community healing, specifically for brown and black survivors of sexual violence, dropped out and it just became a frenzy of stories, which in itself has different positive implications but for the original purpose of #MeToo, was not the goal. Additionally, the movement was appropriated when actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, ‘#MeToo’ in 2017 and received a lot of the credit for the movement. This concept of something intended to be so powerful being lost to the mainstream resonated in your argument of the capitalistic slogan, Girlboss. In the same way that #MeToo became almost a popular fad, the idea of a Girlboss has become something of social importance. It is tied to products and also part of the mainstream vocabulary in the same way that MeToo gained popularity so quickly. Additionally, Nussbaum speaks of the “double edged sword of visibility” (2019) and how it is good that sexual violence is on one hand being shown on television and is gaining traction but on the other hand is being portrayed as only affecting young, attractive, white women. The idea of a Girlboss on one hand is good because it is introducing powerful women into the professional world as respectable actors, but it is also only introducing a specific type of woman. It promotes the continuation of misogyny not only in the workplace but also in society in general.
- Isabel Sweeney