we are all girls on the internet: constructing girlhood online
Eine Kooperation des Peter Weibel Instituts für digitale Kulturen und der Abteilung KunstgeschichteRegister here
for the workshop.
We kindly invite you to dive into the cyberspace of ‘The Girl Online’, dissecting identity constructions
in digital cultures where the ‘girl’ transcends conventional gender boundaries. We encounter discourse on the girl online
on the daily: From bimbo feminism, a movement subverting intersectional feminism with the female stereotype of the ‘dumb blonde’,
to the playful depictions of girlhood in Greta Gerwig’s film Barbie (2023) to the revealing narratives of TikTok trends such
as Girl Dinner, we want to analyze ‘The Girl Online’s’ ironic facade challenging gender social norms through ironic naivete,
hyperfemininity, and self-determined sexuality. Critics frame The Girl
Online as a helpless consumerist lacking any form of agency and warn about bimbo feminism’s reinforcement of Eurocentric and
patriarchal structures. However, the intersection with queerness, nonconforming gender identities, critiques of Capitalism,
and embracing of sex work adds many more layers to the feminist discourse. Instead of walking right into the trap of underestimating
The Girl Online, we want to challenge assumptions about identity construction online within late capitalist relations, unraveling
the complexities of ‘girl pessimism’ by moving beyond the stereotype of a ‘dumb consumerist’ girl. We welcome you to discuss
the increasing presence of The Girl Online and speculate on its possibility to break free from restrictive categorizations
of identity.
By Sophie Publig (Peter Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures) & Charlotte Reuß (Department
for Art History)
#weareallgirlsonline
Follow us on Instagram:
@weareallgirlsonline
@publig.enemy
@_chrltt.reuss”
