Goodbye Girlboss Feminism

WHAT IT IS, WHY IT’S BAD AND HOW WE CAN BREAK AWAY FROM IT By Kora Quinn, Culture Staff Writer Photographed by Annika Ide, Photography Director Modeled by Sam Starks, Creative Director

So-called “girlboss feminism” is a trope that flourished in the self-help genre and motivated millennial women entering the workforce for years. It was an aspiration, an image that depicted confident, independent women thriving in a corporate environment and taking on powerful positions that have long been held by men. But for all the supposed good it has done for empowering women to take on leadership positions, girlboss feminism is also extremely problematic. The term “girlboss” was first coined in 2014 by selfmade businesswoman Sophia Amoruso, but the mindset behind girlboss feminism had been around for years. It showed up in all forms of media, from the protagonist of the film “Baby Boom” (1987), the conviving characters of “Working Girl” (1988), our favorite Editor-inChief in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) and finally in Amoruso’s book, “#Girlboss.”

Goodbye Girlboss Feminism

Throughout the book, Amoruso places herself on a pedestal and talks down to readers as she lays out her unconventional path to success. As someone without a formal education, she said it wasn’t luck, but her “positive thinking” that led her to defy the odds and found a multimillion dollar fashion company. It must have also been Amoruso’s “positive thinking” that motivated reviewers to comment on her lack of basic empathy when she described parents bringing their children to interviews as a “turn-off.” The synopsis for “#Girlboss” further describes Amoruso as never being a typical CEO, radiating the “I’m not like other girls” energy that is actually internalized misogyny that tends to lift oneself up by putting others down.1

Girlboss feminism, as portrayed in Amoruso’s book and in reality, is rooted in capitalism and misogyny. It subscribes to the belief that a woman’s idea of success in America is to be ruthless, overworked and consistently climbing the hierarchical ladder pre-determined by the men who worked those positions before them. Amoruso’s own life and alleged unethical business practices revealed the skeletons in the closet of a mindset masquerading as feminism. While she claimed to be the poster-child for women overcoming the oppression of the patriarchy, Amoruso’s company, Nasty Gal, was involved in a lawsuit for allegedly firing four pregnant women and a man requesting paternity leave.2 Amanda Mull shared in The Atlantic that, “Making women the new men within corporations was never going to be enough to address systematic racism and sexism, the erosion of labor rights, or the accumulation of wealth in just a few of the country’s

1 Sophia Amoruso, “#Girlboss,” Goodreads, May 2014. 2 Anna Merlan, “Lawsuit: Nasty Gal’s #GIRLBOSS Fired Employees For Getting Pregnant,” Jezebel, June 2015. millions of hands—the broad abuses of power that afflict the daily lives of most people.”3 This all still holds true today. The gender pay gap, although narrowing, still persists.4 Gendered discrimination in the workplace still persists.5 Racebased discrimination in the workplace, particularly in the STEM field, still persists.6 Income and wealth inequality still persists and is even growing.7 That is not to say that girlboss feminism is at fault for these inequalities that endure today, but it does show that it isn’t a viable solution to these problems. In a society where women are more worried about being labeled a male-hating radical than advocating for their own rights, it is time to move away from the white-centric, self-centered girlboss feminism and usher in a new wave.

Part of redefining modern feminism requires leaving the myth that women need to be independent to be accomplished in the past. This applies to more than just progress in gender equality, but progress as a culture as well. From childhood, we are spoon-fed the idea that relying on others means you are weak, that needing government assistance means you aren’t working hard enough and that universal healthcare is not a right but a privilege for being successful independently. Mia Mingus, writer and advocate for disability justice, debunked the myth of independence in a speech by highlighting

3 Amanda Mull, “The ‘Girlboss’ and the Myth of Corporate Female Empowerment,” The Atlantic, June 2020. 4 Nikki Graf, Anna Brown, Eileen Patten, “Gender pay gap has narrowed, but changed little in past decade,” Pew Research Center, March 2019. 5 Kim Parker, “Gender discrimination more common for women in mostly male workplaces,” Pew Reserach Center, March 2018. 6 Cary Funk, Kim Parker, “Racial diversity and discrimination in the U.S. STEM workforce,” Pew Research Center, January 2018. 7 Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Ruth Igielnik, Rakesh Kochhar, “Trend in U.S. income and wealth inequality,” Pew Research Center, January 2020. how it is a privileged, ableist, heteronormative, racist and classist delusion.8

Rejecting the culture of independence and embracing interdependency in feminism is a crucial step in moving forward. As advocates for women’s rights, we can’t deny that all modern social movements intersect in major ways. You can’t fight gender inequality without also fighting poverty. You can’t fight poverty without also fighting racial discrimination. Interdependency, not independence, aids these causes by encouraging community and intersectionality and defying the us versus them mentality. Girlboss feminism thrived on the myth of independence, where one woman’s success was another’s failure. And the driving force behind both was the profit motive, or the idea that a desire for profit and wealth is what motivates someone to work.9 It’s true that money motivates, but that’s also the reason inequality in America and around the world remains an oppressive force in many lives. As women working toward degrees and getting ready to enter the professional world, we need to reject the profit motive. Don’t buy into the same pre-established models girlboss feminism fell into. Hold companies that only value wealth and mistreat their employees responsible and let go of the pressure to put fiscal success above personal wellbeing. The premise that being an empowered woman consists primarily of working toward the next bonus, raise or promotion neglects to appreciate the everyday successes that don’t have a numeric value. In order to truly gain empowerment as equals in society, we must become independent from the girlboss feminism that confines our success to a predetermined mold. ■

8 Mia Mingus, “Interdependency (excerpts from several talks),” Leaving Evidence, January 2010. 9 Julia Kagan, “Profit Motive,” Investopedia, November 2020.