Have you heard the term “I’m just a girl” going around recently? Well, the term has become quite popular in the past few months. Many are saying that this is the equivalent of the male version of the term, “boys will be boys.” These terms are used to describe or justify the actions of a person just because they are a boy or girl. Now, why is this significant, and why should we talk about it? Let me explain.
What does this term mean?
This is a term used to justify an action or belief of a girl. It has not only been in songs but has been printed on shirts and used on many social media platforms. An example of this is a person, more specifically a girl, making a video saying something crazy/ridiculous she has done and at the end of the video she will say this term to justify her actions/thoughts. Many times the girl will include text on her video and/or use audio. The text might say “I baked 20 cookies last night because I was waiting on his response to a text, because I’m just a girl”. Under her video, the caption may include the hashtags: #coping #baker, or something along those lines. These explain that this is just what she felt like doing.
Why should we talk about it?
Remember when I mentioned the male version of this term – “boys will be boys”? Many people in the older generations may say that when a boy is mean to you, that means he likes you. Some believe the term “I’m just a girl” is not something that should be normalized or represented in a positive light. The term “boys will be boys” has been used for a significant amount of time to justify an action of a boy doing whatever he wants to do, just because he’s a boy. However, although these two terms sound very familiar to each other, there’s a differentiating factor, that being the pronoun used in both of these terms. The female version of this term uses “I am” which means a girl would say this about herself to justify her thoughts or actions. However, the male version of this term does not have the “I” pronoun. Instead, it uses no pronoun, which means the boy is not justifying his actions – it’s somebody else justifying his actions, just because he’s a boy.
Why is this significant?
There is a much deeper meaning to these terms, and they have quite different histories. The male version of this term has been used to justify horrible and disgusting actions. You would never really see the term “I’m just a girl” used to justify a disgusting/horrible action. Of course, these two terms have a lot in common, but the way they are used is very different. So now I will leave it up to you, the reader, to decide how similar these phrases are. Are these terms used to justify very different actions, and should the female version of this term be so popularized? Should it be so used by younger generations? Should this term be printed on t-shirts or should they be used in songs?
