Comedian Amy Poehler has issued a call for women across the world to reclaim the phrase “like a girl” and flip its derogatory meaning on its head.
Through her online community Smart Girls, Poehler has asked women to take to social media and list all the things they have achieved “like a girl” using the #likeagirl hashtag.
The hashtag’s challenge to gender stereotypes is twofold; it simultaneously plays on the common use of “like a man” to invoke courage, leadership or ambition, and also flips the connotation of the phrase “like a girl”, which is most often used to convey the opposite traits: Weakness, cowardice and feebleness.
Poehler’s message is not only that women around the world are making astounding achievements; they are doing it without needing to adhere to male-focused notions of success and leadership. They are doing it #likeagirl.
The hashtag campaign follows an advertising campaign with a similar message that went viral last year.
Proctor and Gamble offshoot brand Always launched a television advertising campaign asking young girls to hit, throw and run “like a girl”. The commercial shows the girls undertaking the tasks with all their strength and energy; the phrase “like a girl” does not seem to have derogatory associations for them. But the commercial then shows older girls being asked to do the same, and their actions betray the impact of entrenched gender stereotypes. For these teenage girls, throwing or running “like a girl” meant displaying weakness, frailty and ineptitude.
The campaign sought to turn “like a girl” into a compliment, rather than a denigration.
As a result, Poehler decided to take this message and spread it to as many corners of the world as possible with the #likeagirl hashtag.
The responses are powerful. The hashtag has thousands of hits, with women tweeting pictures of themselves performing neurosurgery ‘like a girl’, playing sports ‘like a girl’, playing guitar ‘like a girl’ and even travelling through space ‘like a girl’.
Scrolling through the hashtag, the list of achievements is breathtaking.
What have you achieved #likeagirl?
