I feel like trying to acknowledge that women being attractive and smart aren’t mutually exclusive has turned into ‘hot girl reading list’ ‘Rory Gilmore aesthetic’ and the whole vibe of working to be the ‘prettiest AND smartest in the room’- like intelligence is only worth anything if you’re hot too? Similar to aesthetics of spirituality, things just become ways to enhance how attractive you are, a new level to confine yourself to
yes! it is all so draining and it makes me feel crazy, but I think some people are waking up and are tired of the hot girlfication of everything. in a couple of year’s we’re gonna look back and think: wtf was all that?
This!! I've noticed in the tiktok and instagram book world that you would have to be beautiful holding the book, or the book to be beautiful itself in order to gain thousands of likes. I see smaller creators have a curated book recommendation but gets neglected because the post wasn't "aesthetically put" enough
It is exhausting to exist as exclusively a woman and not just a human. I love the comradery of “girlhood” discussion but like you said it can be so creatively limiting. You have to fit this perfect mold of aesthetic or else you are some type of fraud. I just wanna live. Will forever be infuriated that men are not categorized the same way we are.
I feel like the Venn diagram of those of us who took pride in being gifted in school and those of us now struggling to find an identity outside of "being smart" is probably just a GIANT CIRCLE.
Genuinely loved this essay, my thoughts exactly but way better articulated!
It's so tiring seeing a new label and aesthetic women must fit into just be "cool", to have people interact with your work you must be attractive, the fact that appearance is the root of all this just rubs me the wrong way. Sometimes I think with all this girl stuff we seem to be going backwards, it's all so reductive. It's so superficial, yet it also creates this sense of feeling isolated online when you don't adhere to it (as someone else in this comment section mentioned, you almost feel like a fraud). There's this pressure to conform.
It's a bit daunting being a creator lacking any sense of an aesthetic, thus making it harder to be labeled. At times it becomes hard to put yourself out there, knowing that the algorithm won't favor you because you refuse to fit all your traits into a neat box and make only one of those traits your entire personality. It sucks that this is the online environment we're in now, as women. And yet, part of me has hope that'll change however! I'm trying to be less pessimistic (and failing) lol...
I love how you draw the link between girl writers and the connotation that 'girl' implies 'hot' - not something I thought about before. Really interesting read
I started this substack to put my work out in the world but hit a wall with the language to write in and chose, same as you, to write in English rather than my mother tongue. I’ve had a hard time continuing this endeavour. It feels like self-betrayal? But if I wrote in French, it would be like speaking into an abyss lol... so the thoughts stay in my head. The “discourse” is so anglo-centric :( anyway really resonated with what you wrote
I’m glad to know I am not the only one that feels like this. Especially because the platform we are using is made by english speakers we believe is also just made for english speakers. We need to be the ones who change it, even if it feels like speaking to a wall at first.
Hey Luisa, loved this essay! I’ve also always thought it’s a bit weird the way TikTok has turned books into another pastiche-y aesthetic. I think I mostly agree with your conclusion about certain canons of lit satisfying our desire to be admired. But I also wonder if the "literary it girl" springs from something else that's changed in the culture. People have always desired admiration but books and signals of “intelligence” haven’t always been the chosen way to acquire this. I’m curious if you have thoughts (maybe for another essay) on why this kind of old-school cultural cache is springing up now? Especially since the books that literary ‘it girls” read are so homogenous, which would seem to signal a lack of unique intellectual talent on the part of the reader. Is it just a desire to be “in” or has something in the environment changed to prize this specific type of status -seeking?
Such an interesting question, Sara, I don’t know if I have enough to say about the subject to write an essay about it, I do think it as combination of things. First, a lot of people want to be part of a community, and calling themselves “literary it girls” gives them the illusion that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Second, status. Cultural capital gives you an upper hand when you are trying to make connections on an industry, and the publishing industry seems to care about the same authors and stories, so I guess them reading the same books by the same authors and marketing themselves as a “didion girl” or a “sally rooney girl” is them trying to connect with the industry. Is a long discussion, and we could spend hours talking about it. You are more than welcome to write me whenever and we can keep discussing <3
loved this piece. We can't just be human beings, we have to be ~concepts~. I particularly loved the part about girl writers – I feel like not only do we have to be intellectual *and* hot, but we have to fit in the box of the female artist, with the flowery, poetic language, bookish aesthetic, etc.
Such an interesting thought, Luna. Do you feel that being a 'concept' is more of an American movie-driven ideology? Why isn't just being ourselves enough?
I loved reading this so much. I love to follow these types of literary it girls on social media. I laugh and resonated at the term 'thought daughter'. but we're multifacted, complex humans that can strive for more than the commodification of labels for the sake of putting ourselves into digestible social media boxes
Oh my goodness, thank you. What you articulate about not wanting to get lost in trends---you are so perceptive, you grapple with this 'discourse' (even that word alone is now so diluted, useless-seeming) so well.
omg yes! reading this felt like putting on glasses to see my life. i am the contradiction you talked about and also so hyper aware of the images im trying to mimic and fit into whilst realizing they are just images a capitalist society has urged us to create
This is a first text that i read in english without Google translate and i don’t could more happy and proud because i read a text that talk exactly i think and i feel as a woman writer.
« I am even writing this blog in my second language instead of my mother tongue because I want the so-called literary it girls to be able to read my work. « this is so true. i have felt it myself with my own poetry, somehow it worths less if its not in the language i am exceeding …
I feel like trying to acknowledge that women being attractive and smart aren’t mutually exclusive has turned into ‘hot girl reading list’ ‘Rory Gilmore aesthetic’ and the whole vibe of working to be the ‘prettiest AND smartest in the room’- like intelligence is only worth anything if you’re hot too? Similar to aesthetics of spirituality, things just become ways to enhance how attractive you are, a new level to confine yourself to
yes! it is all so draining and it makes me feel crazy, but I think some people are waking up and are tired of the hot girlfication of everything. in a couple of year’s we’re gonna look back and think: wtf was all that?
This!! I've noticed in the tiktok and instagram book world that you would have to be beautiful holding the book, or the book to be beautiful itself in order to gain thousands of likes. I see smaller creators have a curated book recommendation but gets neglected because the post wasn't "aesthetically put" enough
It is exhausting to exist as exclusively a woman and not just a human. I love the comradery of “girlhood” discussion but like you said it can be so creatively limiting. You have to fit this perfect mold of aesthetic or else you are some type of fraud. I just wanna live. Will forever be infuriated that men are not categorized the same way we are.
“I can’t help but wonder if we will ever be free as women, as female artists. I wish we could just exist as humans”
!!! such a great piece
tysm for reading!!
I feel like the Venn diagram of those of us who took pride in being gifted in school and those of us now struggling to find an identity outside of "being smart" is probably just a GIANT CIRCLE.
Genuinely loved this essay, my thoughts exactly but way better articulated!
It's so tiring seeing a new label and aesthetic women must fit into just be "cool", to have people interact with your work you must be attractive, the fact that appearance is the root of all this just rubs me the wrong way. Sometimes I think with all this girl stuff we seem to be going backwards, it's all so reductive. It's so superficial, yet it also creates this sense of feeling isolated online when you don't adhere to it (as someone else in this comment section mentioned, you almost feel like a fraud). There's this pressure to conform.
It's a bit daunting being a creator lacking any sense of an aesthetic, thus making it harder to be labeled. At times it becomes hard to put yourself out there, knowing that the algorithm won't favor you because you refuse to fit all your traits into a neat box and make only one of those traits your entire personality. It sucks that this is the online environment we're in now, as women. And yet, part of me has hope that'll change however! I'm trying to be less pessimistic (and failing) lol...
we can't loose hope, it's all we have
I love how you draw the link between girl writers and the connotation that 'girl' implies 'hot' - not something I thought about before. Really interesting read
I started this substack to put my work out in the world but hit a wall with the language to write in and chose, same as you, to write in English rather than my mother tongue. I’ve had a hard time continuing this endeavour. It feels like self-betrayal? But if I wrote in French, it would be like speaking into an abyss lol... so the thoughts stay in my head. The “discourse” is so anglo-centric :( anyway really resonated with what you wrote
I’m glad to know I am not the only one that feels like this. Especially because the platform we are using is made by english speakers we believe is also just made for english speakers. We need to be the ones who change it, even if it feels like speaking to a wall at first.
Facts... much to think about
Hey Luisa, loved this essay! I’ve also always thought it’s a bit weird the way TikTok has turned books into another pastiche-y aesthetic. I think I mostly agree with your conclusion about certain canons of lit satisfying our desire to be admired. But I also wonder if the "literary it girl" springs from something else that's changed in the culture. People have always desired admiration but books and signals of “intelligence” haven’t always been the chosen way to acquire this. I’m curious if you have thoughts (maybe for another essay) on why this kind of old-school cultural cache is springing up now? Especially since the books that literary ‘it girls” read are so homogenous, which would seem to signal a lack of unique intellectual talent on the part of the reader. Is it just a desire to be “in” or has something in the environment changed to prize this specific type of status -seeking?
Such an interesting question, Sara, I don’t know if I have enough to say about the subject to write an essay about it, I do think it as combination of things. First, a lot of people want to be part of a community, and calling themselves “literary it girls” gives them the illusion that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Second, status. Cultural capital gives you an upper hand when you are trying to make connections on an industry, and the publishing industry seems to care about the same authors and stories, so I guess them reading the same books by the same authors and marketing themselves as a “didion girl” or a “sally rooney girl” is them trying to connect with the industry. Is a long discussion, and we could spend hours talking about it. You are more than welcome to write me whenever and we can keep discussing <3
This makes a lot of sense, thanks for the answer!!
Love this!! I relate so much. Women can be contradictions too & I will stand ten toes down on that!
loved this piece. We can't just be human beings, we have to be ~concepts~. I particularly loved the part about girl writers – I feel like not only do we have to be intellectual *and* hot, but we have to fit in the box of the female artist, with the flowery, poetic language, bookish aesthetic, etc.
Such an interesting thought, Luna. Do you feel that being a 'concept' is more of an American movie-driven ideology? Why isn't just being ourselves enough?
I loved reading this so much. I love to follow these types of literary it girls on social media. I laugh and resonated at the term 'thought daughter'. but we're multifacted, complex humans that can strive for more than the commodification of labels for the sake of putting ourselves into digestible social media boxes
Oh my goodness, thank you. What you articulate about not wanting to get lost in trends---you are so perceptive, you grapple with this 'discourse' (even that word alone is now so diluted, useless-seeming) so well.
omg yes! reading this felt like putting on glasses to see my life. i am the contradiction you talked about and also so hyper aware of the images im trying to mimic and fit into whilst realizing they are just images a capitalist society has urged us to create
This is a first text that i read in english without Google translate and i don’t could more happy and proud because i read a text that talk exactly i think and i feel as a woman writer.
Thank for this!
« I am even writing this blog in my second language instead of my mother tongue because I want the so-called literary it girls to be able to read my work. « this is so true. i have felt it myself with my own poetry, somehow it worths less if its not in the language i am exceeding …
This described it so well !! I love this