This summer’s viral trend of “girl dinners” and “hot girl walks” felt like collective entertainment. For weeks, posts featuring women doing everyday activities — tagged with #girl — took over TikTok and Instagram.
“Girl,” to a second-wave feminist, may have infantilizing connotations. But for many younger millennial and Gen Z women, including Opinion editor Anna Marks, channeling girlhood can be liberating — a return to a time that felt free from societal expectations.
As delightful as the trend was, though, Marks argues there’s an opportunity to turn this playful show of solidarity among women into something more: a political movement.