For this theory to be possible, women would have to be inherently “good”, or better than men if nothing else. This quickly falls at the seams as you take a closer look. Girlboss theory is essentially built on the idea that women in power, empower other women, never exploiting them or hurting them, slowly but surely creating a world of complete gender equality. So, what’s the problem then? How has this term, created with the intentions of helping women, become so tightly tied to words like “gaslight” and “gatekeep”? The unfortunate truth of the matter is, girlboss feminism is at best unhelpful, and at worst seriously harmful. For example, when someone says that if you haven’t listened to every album a band’s ever released, you aren’t a “real fan” – that’s gatekeeping. In online spaces, the word gatekeep is usually used to describe someone who takes it upon themselves to decide who is a “real member” of a community. The term “gatekeep” refers to the act of blocking or restraining someone’s access to something. In the 1960s, the term “gaslight” began being used as a term to describe emotional abuse that aims to make the victim doubt themselves, their memories, and their sanity. When she discusses this with him, he tells her that she’s imagining them. Namely, he begins to dim the gaslights in the house. The term “gaslight” originated in the 1930s in a play called “Gas Light”, in which a murderous husband tries to convince his wife that she’s gone insane through small changes in the environment. Recently, people on Twitter have begun using this term ironically, turning it into a meme through the phrase “girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep”. It also allows for the empowerment of younger women, giving them the tools they need to lift themselves up. To Amoruso, this form of “girlboss feminism” has the potential to help everyone, with female wealth being a ‘positive’ in its own right. The term was popularized in 2014 in the feminist business memoir of entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso #Girlboss, who transformed her eBay account into a mini fashion empire known as Nasty Gal. She was a CEO, a lawyer, a working mom, a Multi-Level Marketing(MLM) super seller, but most importantly of all, she did it all unapologetically. Instead of dismantling the system that gave men power for so long, the girlboss just takes what she wants. A few years ago, there was a boom in the popularity of “girlboss” feminism which, in theory, empowered women to succeed despite the opposition mounted against them.
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