In Defence of 'Girl Dinner'

At the time of writing, there are over 642 million videos circulating on TikTok with the hashtag ‘Girl Dinner’. The phenomenon, still trending, has exploded as millions of people hop onto social media to share their own versions of the meal deemed ‘Girl Dinner’. But what exactly counts as girl dinner? 

First created by Olivia Maher, the TikTok comedian describes her ideal meal as bread, cheese and grapes amongst other bits, calling the platter ‘girl dinner’ or ‘medieval peasant dinner’. For a little more British context, TV chef Nigella Lawson explains the trend to be ‘picky bits’, but stateside, The New York Times declares girl dinner to be “snack plates made by one person [...] for one person”’. Think of it as a glorious, filling meal composed of leftovers, snacks, delicious tid-bits and everything in-between. It can be cheese and crackers with a side of popcorn, half a leftover baguette with a whole bowl of olives or any easy pasta dish which requires virtually no washing up, eaten directly out of the saucepan. It’s low-cost, low-maintenance and serves solely to make us feel good.

Girl dinner is about how, when we’re alone, we gladly have sorbet followed up with Babybels. We scoff endless supplies of hash browns from the air fryer, gleefully consume crumpets lathered in butter, sit and catch up on Love Island with a jar of pickles. We make for ourselves these sumptuous, simple meals which make us feel good and girl dinner is helping women bond over a united love of picnicking at home. 

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Girl dinner is a trend where we can share the opulent, daring charcuterie board which overflows with rich cheeses, sweet grapes and crusty baguette we construct on an uneventful Tuesday evening, just because we can. That intricate construction of cracker, cheese, grape, apple, meats, all layered together in a compact yet delicate pile, the one which tingles our senses like that one scene in Ratatouille where Remi tries cheese for the first time, (you know the one). That meal which is not only an impeccable way to use up leftovers before the weekly foodshop, but indulges our senses. A plate of the best bits from the Marks and Spencer reduced section, paired together without rhyme and reason, only because we like it.

The phenomena, however, is facing criticism by some media outlets as they argue the trend is simply evidence of us once again obsessing over women’s eating habits. This is, in some ways, true. Taken out of context, girl dinner can appear as an alarming trend, reminiscent of pro-ana social media accounts, where women post a glass of Diet Coke or half a share bag of Kettle Crisps and call it ‘dinner.’ Without context, this behaviour is undoubtedly upsetting - nobody wants consistently eating nutritionally impoverished meals to go viral.

But, I argue, girl dinner is not here to pressure you into calorie counting. It does not want you to feel self-conscious of the instant ramen and fried eggs you ate today. Instead, it wants you to post it on your TikTok and relish in the fact that millions of women agree, these are the flavours that matter. 

“Centuries of surveillance over what women have on their plates can leave us with a headache every time we step into a supermarket, as an internal battle rages between what we want to eat, what we’re ‘supposed’ to eat in a wellness-crazed culture.”

It feels obvious that this trend inevitably stems from generations of scrutiny upon women’s diets and acts as a rebellion against the diet plans of Weight Watchers and Slimming World. Centuries of surveillance over what women have on their plates can leave us with a headache every time we step into a supermarket, as an internal battle rages between what we want to eat, what we’re ‘supposed’ to eat in a wellness-crazed culture. The framing of food that is ‘good for you’ and food that is ‘bad for you’ has rotted all our brains. Girl dinner serves to relieve us of this centuries-old burden: You want a bowl of mint-choc-chip ice-cream at 11pm? Fancy a platter of treats from Lidl bakery in lieu of a lunchtime salad? Considering a bowl of peanuts paired with boiled eggs? Girl dinner says do as you please.

The word ‘Girl’ is not new to being used in internet trends: ‘Hot Girl Summer’ reigned over several years worth of hot days, ‘Clean Girls’ cook salmon and rice with an ice cube balanced atop and have blueberry nails, ‘It Girl’s’ wear patterned tights, Praying bags and red lipstick. These outrageously specific, exhausting trends never fail to instruct women on who to be, how to dress, what foundation to use. Yet for once, this word - a word which carries so much weight, so much significance - is not being used to tell us who we should be. Here, ‘Girl Dinner’ offers us instead a bizarre freedom to eat what we like, when we like and not only that, but embrace our peculiar food pairings and dinner habits and find common ground within it. It is a trend which refuses to tell us who we need to be and simply embraces the oddities of our food habits as well as ourselves.

I stand firmly in defence of girl dinner, the joyful trend driven by pleasure which finally sees an opportunity for women to somewhat banish diet culture and embrace culinary non-conformity. It’s a hashtag which offers a platform for women to bond over weird and wonderful eating patterns, something of a first for the online world. Girl dinner says feast (with minimal washing up).

Words: Grace Dodd