“Just a girlboss building her empire,” reads my least favourite type of Instagram caption in the world. We know enough about history in 2022 to come to a pretty conclusive answer about this one: imperialism is bad, people! And while we’re at is, can we leave girlboss feminism in 2014, where it belongs?
Because the end of the girlboss era is here, and it’s been happening for quite some time.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the demise of the girlboss has been well documented: from the OG girlboss, Sophia Amoruso, to The Wing’s Audrey Gelman, Thinx’s Miki Agrawal, influencer Rachel Hollis and so many in between, positioning yourself as an empowered (and empowering) feminist while going against what feminism stands for in the first place is out. It should have never been in, really, but oh well ––we live and we learn.
There’s been some attempt at rebranding #girlboss-ism as “just a girl trying to make it in a man’s world,” which is fair enough in theory, but not so much in practice. For The Guardian, Marth Gill writes: “Is it really hypocritical or immoral to be a member of an oppressed group and care only about your own success? Follow the logic and the only group with no obligations at all is the one with no experience of oppression – rich white men.”
She continues to say that “surely success for even one woman should be counted as a (very small) feminist victory,” which sounds reasonable, of course, but here’s where I object: rich white men in power do contribute to the success of other rich white men. For the most part, men in power benefit, promote, support, and help other men succeed. That’s the patriarchy for you, baby!
If women can’t do the same, and do it in a way that aligns with the principles of intersectional feminism (taking into account the many different ways each woman experiences discrimination) then who the hell is going to do it for us?
To inspire you to build less of an empire, and more of an empowering community, here’s a list of 10 common traits of girlbosses and She-E-Os, aka… what not to do!
