What does it mean when we say “like a girl”? It’s just a joke phrase, isn’t it, a stereotype used around the world to tease a boy: “You run like a girl!” Or perhaps a way to dismiss an unhappy young woman: “Don’t cry like a girl!” Those three words suggest someone who’s useless, weak, laughable perhaps. We’ve become accustomed to using the description of a young female as a derogatory, throwaway remark, an insult.
And yet, suddenly, the world is re-claiming those words, and changing their meaning to show that doing something “like a girl” cannot be categorised or defined in any way. This movement goes back just seven weeks, to when, in May, I directed a short video – a kind of social experiment – commissioned by Always, the sanitary towel company, to explore the meaning of the words “like a girl”
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