The Women’s Center held a discussion panel on the social media trend “hot girl summer,” and discussed self-empowerment, gender and sexuality on Oct. 22.
The mediator from the Women’s Center had compiled a list of questions about the topic beforehand. They created a circle of chairs for students who wanted to participate, and they were allowed to join in on the conversation when a question sparked their interest. To kick off the discussion, the first question asked was “what is a hot girl summer?”
The women within the event came to the consensus that having a hot girl summer embraced the ideas of female empowerment, focusing on oneself, having fun with friends and embracing one’s truest self rather than focusing on men. The trend was originally started by Meghan Thee Stallion, a female rapper, singer and songwriter. Stallion encompasses many of these ideas, not only in her son “hot girl summer,” but in her attitude as well.
“Hot girl summer to me is boss bitch season period,” said one female in the circle. “Basically, Megan Thee Stallion created this platform for all women who identify themselves as women to go out and be a boss, get your shit together all around 360, but you can still also have fun because there is this stigma that you can only do one or the other.”
Another audience member said that hot girl summer was about growing as a person.
“I think hot girl summer is just embracing yourself mentally developing and growing as a woman weather that’s partying, working, eating, getting a new hobby, whatever makes you happy,” she said.
A man in the audience brought in a new perspective on the topic, stating that the concept of hot girl summer came with a negative stigma.
“It’s when females wear neon green beach and they go crazy listening to Megan Thee Stallion and they shake their asses and they go on snapchat and be smoking hookah,” he said.
This negative aspect of hot girl summer prompted the question of how it was portrayed in the media and pop culture. This was especially due to the fact that the mediator informed audience members that when Megan Thee Stallion asked what hot girl summer meant to her, she said that being a hot girl is being unapologetically you, having fun, being confident and living your truth.
“Hot girl summer was an opportunity to get ourselves out of that box that men continuously put us in and the whole double standard situation,” said one audience member. “[Hot girl summer] was constantly portrayed as a bad thing and I feel like that is because men see us taking control and writing our own narratives instead of having it written for us as threatening.”
Another female in the audience stated that she thought the concept of hot girl summer was portrayed negatively through pop culture and social media due to the double standard between men and women.
“It pretty much just shifted this whole culture where women took control of not only hip hop at the time but everything, so things that men were known for doing women started doing it and when we started doing it, it was a problem and that’s when the hatred and all these different types of labels and name calling came from,” she said. “When you told guys that you were a hot girl it was negative…it’s kind of retaking something as our own which they don’t understand.”
The concept of female sexual liberation and diminishing the negative stigma against women being sexually active was also an aspect of hot girl summer that began a passionate discussion.
“Women are not allowed to be sexually liberated the way men that are and this summer, sexual liberation came from Megan the Stallion you know and for the first time women felt like they could do that as well,” said one female audience member.
One audience member stated that while having a hot girl summer is not about going out and partying every night and having multiple sexual partners, if one does and claims that she is still having a hot girl summer, that is her choice which should not be judged.
“One of the things that I did was I stopped waking up early and going straight to my phone and doing that for 21 days I stopped and now the first thing I do when I wake up is pray,” siad a female in the audience, giving an example of how she had a hot girl summer. “Being a hot girl is being about your business, not letting people affect who you are mentally, physically, spiritually, if you’re about yourself, you’re minding your business, so hot girl summer is just you living your best life.”
The audience concluded that the culture of hot girl summer should continue into every season of the year, not only during the summer months.
“I think with us women, if we have the motivation to get what we want, get our education, focus on our studies, not only focus on guys and have conversations with other women that are not always about guys, then I think that’s empowering us more because if we respect each other then men are going to respect us,” said a woman in the audience.
Another audience member said that the key concepts of hot girl summer should continue, regardless of whether or not it is actually called hot girl summer.
“It kind of creates that atmosphere that we have lives outside of men,” said another audience member. “Self growth should always be a conversation and it should always continue so I think this should be something that is always continued as a personal reminder to yourself even if it’s not labeled as a hot girl summer.”
Hot girl summer may have been marketed as a warm weather culture. However, there appears to be no end in sight for the mentality of equality between men and women.