In an inclusive and intersectional feminist movement, access to paid leave, affordable child care, wage gaps, underpaid care work, misogyny, and more factors are addressed to help women across demographics rise. But that tactic really only supports women in positions of privilege, and therefore lands more white women in leadership and management positions-keeping that social hierarchy intact. In the girlboss narrative, for instance, women are encouraged to work harder, to hustle, to advance by their own merit. White women are often gatekeepers at work, centering feminism around their experiences without taking diverse experiences into account. It’s done by women to other women as well. Gatekeeping often reinforces the “lesser” status of members belonging to an already marginalized community.
#GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS PROFESSIONAL#
Say a woman mentions to her male coworker that she loves football, and he responds with, "Oh yeah? Name four professional teams.” That’s a blatant example of sexist gatekeeping being used as a tool to cast doubt on someone and instill feelings of inferiority. Like most forms of microaggressions, gatekeeping is most commonly targeted at women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups. It’s seen in a variety of settings such as health care, academia, and business, and it prevents folks from accessing the next level, the next layer, the upper echelon.” “ those who are ‘worthy’ are given the knowledge, tools, and greenlight to pass ‘go’ and enter through those gates. Megan Peedin, a clinical social worker, describes gatekeeping as a way to solidify social hierarchy for people in privileged positions. Gatekeeping refers to a dynamic where people in power limit other people’s access to social currency.
Read more: The Origins of Sexism & Why It’s Just as Toxic as Ever What it means to ‘gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss’: breaking down the termsįirst, let’s cover each individual term of the phrase, how these types of manipulation seep into the workplace, and what the terms mean collectively. Let’s discuss what it means to “gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss” and how the joke can become a source of empowerment. While the wall art and mugs are funny, the impetus behind the meme-worthy content has propelled the systemic barriers that affect women in the workplace to the limelight, allowing us to witness widespread awareness and destigmatization in real time. It pokes fun at the toxic aspects of women’s empowerment and white feminism while also laying bare the covert ways those practices uphold the patriarchy. And while procrastinating studying for exams, one girl has started photoshopping the word “gaslight” (and other terms) onto Rae Dunn mugs, those cutesy household items that usually say things like “pour” and “tea.” She eventually made them into real mugs and started leaving them in HomeGoods stores.īut the trend is more than just a social media-and housewares-joke. In a TikTok, a user has overlayed “gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss” audio with the Avatar the Last Airbender theme song. One meme depicts wall art reading, “Gaslight every moment, Gatekeep every day, Girlboss beyond words” in a flourishing Script font and framed by flowers and butterflies. “Gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss,” the parody of the phrase “live, laugh, love,” has taken social media by storm over the past year.
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