The #GirlBoss Generation: Why Your Self-Care Routine is a Neoliberal Buy-In

Illustrated by Kimi Moana Whiting

A Girl Boss is a woman “whose success is defined in opposition to the masculine business world in which she swims upstream" – as defined by Wikipedia.  

The Girl Boss trend rippled to the surface of our consciousness when white women everywhere began breaking the glass ceiling and taking their seat at the table. It was representative of a shift in gender dynamics, in which women had a firm place within the entrepreneurial world. 

Through a barrage of Pinterest boards and a multitude of Target homeware releases, this was continuously shown through a range of products that remind you to ACTIVATE YOUR INNER GIRL BOSS in every setting. It emphasises to us that women can have it all - that we could all reach our wildest dreams if only we worked hard enough!  

What is crucial to understand here are the ways in which the Girl Boss trend simply perpetuates capitalism and the neoliberal value of personal responsibility. This trend exhibits to us that the free market enables everybody to reach immense success and riches, and that it is therefore our own shortcomings that are preventing us from reaching this.  

This is a dangerous ideology that pushes those in situations of disadvantage further to the margins. It creates feelings of low self-esteem and self-worth, where we blame ourselves for not achieving our goals despite uncontrollable barriers that impact on individual’s in a multitude of ways.   

Kim Kardashian has been the subject of memes recently due to a Variety interview where she gave controversial business advice. The video opens with Kim saying, “I have the best advice for women in business, get your fucking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” 

Molly-Mae Hague, British social media influencer, has also received similar heat. In a recent interview she commented that, “Beyoncé has the same 24 hours in the day that we do and I just think, like, you’re given one life and it’s up to you what you do with it, you can literally go in any direction.” 

These are two great examples of the Girl Boss trend where women have the mentality pushed upon us that if we work hard enough, we can break any glass ceiling we want. For those of us consuming these types of messages, it lays the blame on us, for not working hard enough, for not activating our inner Girl Boss, if we fail to meet these expectations.  

Lana Lopesi, a New Zealand-based writer and critic, wrote about this trend in her book, Bloody Woman.  

“This kind of populist feminism believes that gender equality can be achieved through a motivational-quote-like, go-getting, positive attitude, and with that attitude might come the material success of a book deal, a Netflix series or a clothing line. Feminist economist Nancy Folbre describes this as neo-liberal feminism, which she says takes ‘all structures of collective power as a given and urges women to try harder to climb to the top’.” 

In this type of world, the ability to succeed in a capitalist economy is positioned as something that anyone and everyone can achieve. In this world, Beyoncé is just an everyday woman, whose life is obtainable for any one of us.  

What is not acknowledged here are the structural inequalities and barriers that women of colour experience within society. This prevents many from reaching the same level of success that Kim Kardashian or Molly-Mae have reached, who have both grown up with privilege and wealth.   

These celebrities are peddling a capitalistic scam that says success is open to everybody, while we are living in a time in which too many are living in poverty, homelessness, are incarcerated or suffering from mental health issues. Becoming rich and successful is not as simple as working hard, if it was we would not see such an intense wealth disparity between the rich and the poor.  

As we’ve seen neoliberalism sweep the western world, switching us to an ideology of personal responsibility and minimal state intervention, we are continuing to see its effects reflected across society. Neoliberalism is still dominant, and even our feminism is becoming tainted with a capitalistic agenda. 

While the Girl Boss trend is now fading away in a circulation of Kim Kardashian internet memes, her ideology remains strong in the psyche of modern society. While the trends change, they still maintain the same capitalistic mechanisms that compound the Girl Boss herself.  

Becoming ‘that girl’ 

If you’re a consumer of TikTok or YouTube lifestyle vloggers you may be familiar with the trend ‘that girl,’ which has recycled many of the same features of the Girl Boss. ‘That girl’ is someone who lives a very self-disciplined, healthy life dictated by habitual routines and a productive work ethic, all captured within aesthetically pleasing video clips and images.  

These videos normally consists of daily vlogs, ‘what I do in a day’ videos, ‘what I eat in a day’ videos, you get the gist. For viewers, these videos essentially give us inspiration to live our own lives in productive ways and find comfort in the routine of the lives of the creators themselves.  

Emma Chamberlain, Claudia Sulewski, Cartia Mallan and Margot Lee are just a few influencers that jump to mind when I think of ‘that girl’.  

The videos normally start by the influencer waking up before 7am, opening their curtains to a picturesque view and then proceeding to make coffee in an aesthetically pleasing white tiled kitchen that definitely costs more than any of their viewers can afford.   

Alice Cappelle spoke about this trend in a YouTube video where she broke down the trend from a sociological perspective.  

She explains how ‘that girl’ gives us comfort because she seems to have it all figured out. These videos combine different elements, such as a sense of order, repetition and a recurring pastel aesthetic. ‘That girl’ knows how to find balance between social life, work, creative outlets and fitness – she is your ideal self.  

This is achieved through strict schedules and routines. Cappelle states that within these videos, the notion of time is important and can never be wasted. To ensure this doesn’t occur, activities are scheduled to specific time frames.  

This is appealing to viewers as it feels achievable to become ‘that girl,’ in the sense that they are just completing a series of tasks on a to-do list throughout their day.  

We are also enticed by the repetition these videos give us. When we constantly consume the same content, with the same viewpoints, we will begin to think that this is the way to be. We can get trapped in an echo chamber and feel as if these are the only ways to achieve success.  

What we are actually seeing is a new brand of capitalism that we are unwittingly being trapped within. ‘That girl’ is doing exactly what society wants them to do – be fit, healthy, productive, work hard, be ‘woke’ but not too radical. Cappelle therefore argues that they are the embodiment of what is now called ‘ethical capitalism,’ a type of capitalism that defines itself by the rejection of ‘dirty money capitalism’. 

Realistically though, there are no good or bad capitalists, they are all pushing the same agenda. Cappelle states that at its core, capitalism is all about performance and the mechanisms in ethical capitalism are the same as any other strand. ‘That girl’ is all about  performance, it simply uses a pastel filter to gloss over how corrupt the system actually is.  

Now, I’m not trying to say that living a healthy and productive lifestyle is bad or something we shouldn’t strive towards. The premise behind this trend is maintaining a balanced and productive life, which is something that everybody would benefit from. 

The issue is that this trend pushes capitalistic expectations onto viewers, that we need to constantly be living productive, fulfilling and meaningful lives. ‘That girl’ has it all figured out, and proves to us that it is really that ‘easy’! This is all shown to us on a silver platter that causes us to feel bad when we have off days or weeks. We blame ourselves for not being able to find the same routine or balance that they so easily seem to find.  

Lana Lopesi, also writes in her book, Bloody Woman, 

“Neo-liberal feminism sits alongside the self-care industry, selling new types of ‘care’ technologies, which means access to self-care, which is tethered to capitalist success, is dependent on what you can pay. The self-care industry similarly avoids discussion of the structural, ‘thereby losing sight of the social, economic and political forces that shape the conditions under which you broach the challenges you feel you face’, and instead blame the individual for their ‘attitudes, routines, habits and outlooks on life’.” 

Through removing the structural inequalities that impact individual’s access to success from the conversation, the self-care industry and its promoters are ignorant to the real barriers that face everyday people trying to make ends meet.  

 All of these videos are inundated with products that the creator uses throughout their day to be their best self. These products are expensive, and which the creators usually receive for free from sponsorships or promotion.  

 Through the constant advertisement of products, whether subtle or overt, we start to believe that if we consume these same products, we may become closer to leading fulfilling lives.   

This is just a neoliberal buy-in. 

We are being sucked into a hole of consumer culture where we think we will gain meaning or growth from materialistic objects.  

This does not show us the realness or hardship of people’s lives and it leads us to feelings of low self-worth and low self-esteem when we feel like we are not leading ‘meaningful’ lives.  

Don’t let these YouTube girls convince you that you’re not working hard enough. We’re all just trying to make it through our days and while this content can be amusing, it is not beneficial to our mental health in large amounts.  

Take a break from the screen, and remember that we are watching a tilted version of reality that the creator chooses to show us.