I work in the publishing industry, and I’ve spent a lot of time in marketing. Both publishing and marketing have a lot of women professionals. In fact, The Guardian says Publishing industry is overwhelmingly white and female, US study finds. (That’s book publishing, which is not my niche, but I think the numbers are similar.)
Despite the strong representation of women, I still see “Girl power!” and “you go girl” and various things to support and encourage women. Which is perfectly fine. I want the women I work with to succeed. (Who wants to work with losers?)
For good or ill, I have a very contrary brain. When someone asserts something, my brain always asks, “how do you know that’s right?” And when someone says something about race or sex or whatever, my contrary brain says “what would happen if the roles were reversed?”
This is so second-nature to me that I’m often astonished that other people don’t do it. The fact that they don’t do it is obvious, because 88.2% of the time, if they had paused a moment to ask themselves “how would people react if I said this the other way around?” they would immediately think, “Gee, that doesn’t sound right. Maybe I shouldn’t say this.”
Candace Owens always does this with statements about race. It’s a very useful mental habit. You should try it.
In any event, I saw someone post “girl power” on a business-related Slack channel today, and I immediately asked, “what if the situation were reversed and I posted ‘boy power’?”
Think about it.
QUOTE: I saw someone post “girl power” on a business-related Slack channel today, and I immediately asked, “what if the situation were reversed and I posted ‘boy power’?”
In a society that had a long-standing norm of equality between the sexes, it’s likely “girl power” or “boy power” could be reversed without issue. In fact, it’s likely that neither expression would be necessary. Yet, since that’s not been the case in our society, when each idiom is used they can mean and communicate very different things. That could account for some of the difference in perception if the terms were reversed.
Well, I can change one word in “Girl Power!” to make everyone go absolutely ape …. bonkers. Change “Girl” to “White”.
That being said, there is a big difference in connotation between Girl Power and White Power. By Girl Power, it’s not exclusionary except maybe when used by the most militant feminists or lesbians. It’s not meant as Girl Supremacy…only that girls can do things men can do… (interesting that the phrase isn’t Woman Power…) OTOH, White Power most definitely has the connotation of White Supremacy, racism, segregation, violence, and some of the most ugly ideas human minds can come up with.
The intention of “Girl Power” is meant to express equality. “White Power” … not so much.
That’s an interesting point. Different connotations come along with different phrases, even when they are parallel.
Generally, the oppressed may be empowered in order to overcome their oppression, whereas the oppressors only become more oppressive through empowerment.