The Problem with "Girl Dinner" and What I Eat in a Day Videos
A new trend is sweeping social media: “girl dinner” videos, where women post their food with amusing, satirical audio. However, this trend is not as innocent as it may seem.
By: Korie Born
This video trend intends to show what women see as viable meal options that require little to no effort. But like many videos that portray what one person eats on a given day, these videos can cause more harm than good.
Intuitive versus Harmful
One argument for “girl dinner” videos is that they represent an intuitive take on dinner. Sometimes, a traditional meal does not sound good or isn’t what you’re hungry for. In that case, the “meals” presented in these videos would be intuitive: random bits and pieces of foods and snacks cobbled together to satisfy your hunger, similar to a snack plate or charcuterie board. However, often this nuance is completely lacking in “girl dinner” videos. They leave the viewer guessing whether the video creator made a conscious choice to satisfy their hunger in the moment intuitively or if the creator thinks small, arbitrary amounts of food are an adequate meal.
Harmful Gender Stereotyping
Another critique of “girl dinner” is the gendered stereotype that says women should or do eat less than other genders. These videos often show female-identifying creators eating minimal food and calling it a meal – sometimes, the “dinner” is only a soda or a coffee. These videos feed into the stereotype that women should eat less. While there has been an uptick in “boy dinner” or “nonbinary dinner” videos, it is harmful to associate any gender expression with any certain kind or amount of food.
“What I Eat in a Day” Video Trend
Overall, “girl dinner” videos are a perfect example of why videos showing what a particular person eats can be harmful. When taken out of context and without a nuanced explanation, these videos can perpetuate a disordered mindset around food and promote restriction or foster harmful comparisons between people and their relationship with food. It is essential to be mindful that these videos are not the whole picture - they do not show all of a person’s food intake or health circumstances. It is important to consume this content through a critical lens because these videos should not serve as advice or a roadmap for anyone.
If you are looking for support in healing your relationship with food and your body, BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™ offers personalized treatment that can help. Our 12-Day Back to School Program is a great option for anyone looking to start this school year on the right foot and with a more peaceful relationship with food. Contact our admissions staff here to set up a free consultation call to see what BALANCE can do to support your healing journey.
This post was written by BALANCE Intuitive Eating | HAES Content Creator, Korie Born (she/her).
Korie Born is an educator turned Intuitive Eating Counselor with passion for eating disorder treatment and recovery. She earned an undergraduate degree in French at Sonoma State University, then after several years teaching middle school French and English, pursued a Master’s Degree in Education specializing in the overlap between eating disorders and education. Korie has worked to ensure that students and her Intuitive Eating Counseling clients feel supported in making diet culture and disordered eating a thing of the past. As an educator, she honed her content creation skills to share about Intuitive Eating with students in different settings, and through curriculum development for multiple anti-diet and self-esteem boosting curricula for nonprofits in the field. Korie is thrilled to be a part of the BALANCE team to continue to put her content creation, passion, and belief in true healing into action.
References
“Self-Esteem.” Oxford Languages, https://languages.oup.com/.
“What Is Self-Esteem, and How Can I Improve Mine?” Therapist.com, 15 Dec. 2022, https://therapist.com/self-development/what-is-self-esteem/.