What actually happened to the girlboss?

But I came across this article in Vogue a few months ago, and I wrote down that I really wanted to do a episode on it, because I feel like it's such a...

I don't know.

I feel like the article itself was really well structured, and a really good rundown, and definitely in the area and the realm of things we like to talk about.

But also, that it's just, like, a good thing to know the background of.

And I think a lot of people really steer clear of this topic, because, b- basically, I mean, I don't know why I'm being so vague, but, uh, but the article was about whether the girl boss era was making a comeback.

And I think a lot of women, and I've definitely felt this in the past, like, steer clear of ever talking about this purely because if you are a woman who works, it instantly looks like you are trying to fit the, like, girl boss narrative.

Like, you can't do anything with your life as a woman without trying to be like all girl boss feminism, which is problematic in itself, because it's like, okay, so I have to only do certain things, otherwise I'm perpetuating a harmful narrative despite the fact that, like, every time a man has a job they're not perpetuating man boss narrative.

Um, anyway, a whole rant for another day.

But this article really got me thinking, because I feel like we all lived through this era.

I personally lived through this era when I was [laughs] quite young.

Like, I think I wasn't really able to analyze it, to tap into it to work out, like, what different stories were being sold.

Like, we watched it rise, we watched it fall.

I don't think I'd truly, until I, like, read about it later on, taken the time or space to examine what's behind it.

And I think that was because, A, I was so young.

Like, I think I was in school at the time of the girl boss era kind of being about.

But also, I think we carry so much internalized misogyny for so much of our lives.

And I think that it means that sometimes we kind of buy certain narratives as just the way things are until we maybe examine them later, or until we see other people examining them later.

That's why I always really, really recommend the book Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino.

Oh, honestly, it's just the best nonfiction book I've ever read, and it's really easy to dip into and everything.

But basically, it's really poignant analysis on, like, public affair type things, and, like, reality TV, and the self-optimization of women, and all of this.

And I think that so many of these public things are so easy to be spoon-fed- And to just take in until you maybe see someone else be like, "Oh, this is a bit problematic, and this is why." Anyway, in this episode, I really want to, I guess, use that article to break down the girlboss era in three parts.

First, what was actually going on during the girlboss era.

So like beyond the headlines, what was actually happening.

Then second, why it ended up collapsing, and where that blame of the system that the media kind of built went.

And third, what's replaced it and what that shift says about how we define success now.