Take Your Time - A look into Feral Girl Summer, your Flea Bag Era, and leaning into giving up
By Siobhan Kelleher
The Sad Girl is in her late teens, early twenties. She is a young woman who is written into the centre of the plot and side lines of society.
Photography by Elizabeth Hunt
Growing up in the early/mid 2000’s, the peak coming-of-age rom-com years, I was taught to root for the underdog characters. My female role models were scrapy, misunderstood, and unexpecting. I, like so many of my peers, followed suit.
The Sad Girl is in her late teens, early twenties. She is a young woman who is written into the centre of the plot and side lines of society. We see her portrayed in many lights, from the deeply toned, apathetic Cool Girl (Effy Stonem, Robin Scherbatsky), to the brightness of a silently suffering manic pixie dream girl, (the endless list infamously includes Clementine, Ramona, Sam, to name a few). But what brings theses outwardly contrasting characters together is the message that they portray to their audience; their value is found within their suffering. Yes, the sad girl trope teaches us that before we can have what we want - the emotionally unavailable man of our dreams, or the respect of out peers or psychologically abusive and distant mother - we must endure at least 107 minutes of emotional turmoil.
Over the past few years there has been a rise in the popularity of wellness culture. Blonde, tanned women in matching athleisure sets taught us how to journal, eat mindfully, and choose matcha over iced coffee. It suddenly became in vogue to become a better version of yourself. However, like all trends, there are cycles that must be followed and repeated. When The New Yorker’s Kyle Chayka pointed out that Gen Z now makes up 61% of Tumblr’s new users, this point was only proven. In 2014 social media saw under saturated, white flash photos of teenage girls, donning pastels and layers over their waif like frames. Forever 21 storefronts became filled with oversized jumpers that read ‘Sad Girls Club’ or (and most painfully) ‘Normal People Scare Me’. In an attempt to rebel from last seasons ‘that girl’ trend, our For You pages are now filled with Kate Moss montages and supposed ‘Female Manipulator Anthems’.
So why is this a problem? What’s wrong with giving yourself a break from productivity?
It’s not as simple as a change in life’s pace when it comes to this renewed phenomenon. Rather, it is the mindsets and behaviours with which it is realised through. Not only does this romanticisation of female hysteria create a lack of desire to actively pursue supports or services for mental illness - on the contrary, it glorifies them. While mental illness in and of itself is not a flaw, when left untreated it can lead to multiple further concerns, including relapse, worsening of symptoms, or regression. When ignored, mental illness can be fatal, and yet this ‘subculture’ drives us to actively pursue and indulge in it. Having lived through the rise and fall of 2014 Tumblr, and my own battles with depression and disordered eating, it’s truly devastating to imagine another generation of young people, women especially, being lead to believe that mental illness is something to be sought after.
When I was diagnosed with persistent depressive disorder (which is absolutely as fun as it sounds), I felt lost inside myself; as though a part of me had been chipped at so many times that I all together crumbled. I struggled to grapple with my own sense of self, and identify with who I was before this moment. I began to realise that our generation collectively has an incessant need to identify with a certain group, mindset or aesthetic. There is always a question of whether someone is a ‘90’s grunge, smudged eyeliner, tote bag, Mazzy Star, gone girl’ girl or an ‘old money, tennis skirts, beach house on the coast’ girl. These run on sentences of adjectives define who you are, right down to your core.
To an extent, yes, it’s so important to understand what kind of person you are or want to be, but when we becomes so entranced by these concepts, we forget the beauty of the human condition. As individuals we are created to grow, develop, to change our minds, and develop new ways of understanding our existences. Even after the development of one’s frontal cortex, the world around us is always changing, both personally and outwardly. So much time is wasted considering how we may be perceived by others, that we forget to take in what is truly happening around us. One should never be 100% steadfast in anything, let alone their beliefs. There should always be room left to grow.
I welcome change, in fact I admire the way in which we collectively adapt to change with such ease in this world, but let us not become so reliant on trends and aesthetics that we lose our independence. The origins of the infamous ‘Feral Girl Summer’ lie so heavily within the overt celebration of female hysteria and suffering. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in ripped tights and bathroom stall quotes, that we forget the damaging origins that they lie in. Maybe I’m biased, having seen what can be born from deliberate ignorance, but perhaps I am just tired of trying to fit my name onto a list of expectations that I write for myself. Maybe I don’t want to be described in just two syllables, and get boiled down onto a Pinterest board. There is an entire world to be found beyond our desired perceptions and online presence. All the worlds trends cannot prevent us from who we are, and the longer we spend trying to deny this, the further we stray from the truth. :)
