All summer, I’ve been seeing broadcast on Instagram and TikTok, the phrase, ‘Girl Dinner.’ Baffled by the nature of it, I decided to do a bit of a ‘deep dive’ into where it originated from, what it means and, as the title of this post suggests, whether it is ‘problematic.’
‘Girl Dinner’, this summer’s latest TikTok trend which sees women, most notably teenage girls/young adults, posting child portion sized meals (well, snacks) under the caption of ‘#girldinner.’ As is the case with all trends, it started off as one woman posting a photo of her tiny, snack size ‘dinner’, and snowballed from there…
With over 1.6 billion views, now, upon searching for the hashtag ‘Girl Dinner’ on TikTok, you will see hundreds of thousands of results coming up, the majority of which are, essentially, some variation of what I ate when I was in the depths of Anorexia (i.e., very little)… Bits of carrot and cucumber sliced and arranged in such a way to make it look like I had a plate full of food…
It baffles me how, and why, we are being encouraged to depict literal eating disorders on social media, under the guise of it being a ‘trend’ (and, a wholly ridiculous ‘trend’, at that)…
So, where did ‘Girl Dinner’ originate?
The term and concept of ‘Girl Dinner’ was coined by 28-year-old Los Angeles-based TikTok user, Olivia Maher, in a video posted in May of this year (2023). In the video, Maher filmed her meal, one slice of bread, butter, a few grapes, cheese, and wine, which she referred to as a ‘Girl Dinner.’
Like the similarly problematic term, ‘depression meal’, the phrase ‘girl dinner’ is yet another example of how we are taking a very real mental illness, in this case, arguably eating disorders, and packaging it up as a ‘trend.’
Now, it is the use of the word ‘girl’ as the focus of the phrase which concerns me more than anything…
In referring to the trend of posting our (mostly nutritionally incomplete) meals as ‘Girl Dinner‘, we are, subconsciously, preserving the stereotype that girls/women eat very little, an evidently harmful stereotype, and one that upholds diet culture, only serving to reaffirm the narrative that to be a girl/woman is to survive on consuming the least amount of calories as is humanely possible…
In interacting with, laughing at, and applauding this so called ‘trend’, then, are we really not just promoting disordered eating? Feeding into (pardon the pun) the narrative that girls/women don’t eat/eat very little. Maybe this is me being pessimistic, but, as someone who spent their teenage years being controlled by Anorexia, and their early adulthood in recovery, any trend which sees the unhealthy promotion of food in a way that can quite quickly spiral into an eating disorder, it does get me worried…
A ‘Breeding Ground For Eating Disorders?’
For young girls who are already insecure, such a ‘trend’ can be the catalyst to them developing a full blown eating disorder. In fact, I would argue that trends such as these are breeding grounds for eating disorders.
With people from as young as 13 frequenting TikTok, and TikTok’s demographic being very ‘female centric’, I hate the thought of a young girl going on TikTok and being made to feel like what she eats is ‘too much.’
What with the competitive nature of eating disorders which thrive off comparison, seeing TikTok video after TikTok video of people essentially showing off how little they can eat (triggering), like 2021’s ‘what I eat in a day’ trend, well, I don’t think it needs me to tell you the harm that could have on, already very vulnerable, young minds…
Personally, I am of the opinion that any ‘trend’ that encourages women to comment on each others eating habits, is just not worth it. It’s not worth potentially destroying your relationship with food over…
And, this trend is certainly one that does have the potential to do just that (destroy your relationship with food). It has the potential to normalise disordered eating/to make young girls and women think that to eat in a disordered way is ‘normal’, and that, ‘it’s just what girls do…’ But, I’m here to tell you that it isn’t normal. Having an eating disorder is not a ‘rite of passage’ into womanhood. Don’t let diet culture, and trends such as this one, convince you otherwise.
By all means, get on board with TikTok trends and have fun with them, that’s what TikTok is all about after all (I’m not the fun police!!) but, don’t sacrifice your mental health in doing so. And, if you’ve got a history of disordered eating, then please stay as far away as you possibly can from any food related trends such as this one. It might not trigger you to compare and restrict, but, it might and, in my opinion, it just isn’t worth the risk. No amount of likes or followers is worth sacrificing your relationship with food over, ever.
So, be accountable for the content you engage with. Whilst yes, TikTok has some responsibility in terms of restricting content which glorifies eating disorders, for example, ultimately the buck stops with you to ensure that the content you are engaging with does not harm your mental health. Like I said in the previous paragraph, TikTok should be fun, that’s the whole point of it, so, make sure that it is [fun] something which, believe me, an eating disorder is most definitely not!
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