How ‘Girl Dinner’ is an Escape from Mental Overload
Some say the TikTok trend “girl dinner” is a break from excessive stress.
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The popular TikTok trend “girl dinner” may be an escape from current troubles or anxiety.
The trend, which started in May, is about how women will eat anything they have around from cheese plates and wine to leftover takeouts.
It comes from TikTok creator Olivia Maher who jokingly shared a video of her dinner, bread, cheese, grapes and cornichons.
@liviemaher #girldinner #medievaltiktok ♬ original sound – Olivia Maher
Now, some are coming forth saying the trend is to help deal with “a mental load,” like Paige Turner, a mother of four.
“Women have had the mental load of meal planning and meal prepping put on them from a very young age, ” said Turner, a TikTok creator who gives parenting and career advice, in a video. “When a woman is eating on her own, she’s saying ‘I’m done’ … because my brain is shot. I do this everyday.”
Many agreed with Turner’s video, saying they don’t want to deal with the stress of preparing an actual dinner and would like to have a girl dinner once in a while.
“I hear so many women also say that they don’t want to make a meal for just them – it feels like a waste,” said an Instagram user under Turner’s video. “Some days it’s a cup of plain yogurt with cucumbers and another day is a three course meal. Either way, it’s just me.”
As some stress how “girl dinners” aren’t healthy, media studies professor Emily Contois told The Washington Post, that she likes the idea of a girl dinner because it frees the societal expectation placed on women to “nurture and provide for others.”
“Outside the patriarchy, ‘girl’ isn’t diminutive or derisive or condescending — ‘girl’ is complete and wonderful and fulfilled on her own terms,” said Contois, a University of Tulsa professor who studies food and gender. “But we are not in that place, right? Like, we are in a moment where in the United States women have fewer rights over their bodies than they’ve had for a really long time.”
Kailyn Rhone, (she/her) is from Florida, but is an NYC-based journalist covering education, technology and culture. Follow her on X: @onlykailyn.
Edited by Nykeya Woods