Girl Dinner. Simple. Nostalgic. Pleasant.
On its surface, the recent TikTok trend is a harmless and fun trend that allows you to show off your culinary lethargy. It is a liberating departure from the often ornate nature of TikTok cooking, showing that simple, low-effort meals can be rewarding. Girl Dinner displays elements of childhood, often featuring foods such as Mac n’ Cheese, Scooby Snacks, or Dino Nuggets. Yet, there remains a growing problem with the trend that has to do with its fundamental premise: simplicity.
While many Girl Dinner videos are relatively harmless, a growing number of them seem to be relishing in a lack of food rather than their childlike nature. Some videos feature only a handful of grapes and a few nuts; others display nothing more than a box of crackers. Far from a complete ‘dinner,’ these videos are quickly becoming a part of a larger issue: diet culture.
Diet culture is a set of beliefs that seek to obtain and impose a picture of health that is often unachievable and detrimental to the long-term health of the individual. One example can be found with the company Brandy Melville, which initially began as a trendy and affordable brand but did not make large enough efforts to combat the social effect of its clothing. As a result, it created an ‘in group’ of girls who could shop there. The fashion industry may be the head of the snake, but the body is reflected in the ‘diet’ part of diet culture. In fact, according to the Polaris Teen Center, “50% of teenage girls and 30% of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors.”
When smaller bodies are idolized, so are smaller portions, meaning that these paltry girl dinners are the result of a negative feedback loop of always needing to slim down. Girl Dinner may not be a cause of these issues, but instead a symptom of larger societal implications. Unfortunately, however, it’s just one trend in a string of many that promotes unhealthy eating behaviors.