Girl Boss

By: Holly Ji

Illustration by Holly Ji

You may have seen the term “girlboss” when discussing Kamala Harris now that she is in office as the first female, Asian, and Black vice president. Girlboss seems like a way to uplift and support successful women, especially those who excel in male-dominated fields like politics, but there’s a lot more underlying issues that often go ignored when celebrating girlbosses. It goes without saying that becoming successful as a woman is more difficult than as a man, but the women who market themselves as girlbosses are often white, straight, cis, able-bodied, and come from middle to upper class families. The term girlboss ignores this privilege and is marketed as “self-made” or “something anyone can do.” In politics, the women that have power and support are often those who are fine with stripping away women’s rights, like Amy Coney Barrett and her pro-life pushes against women.

In the case of Kamala Harris, it’s wonderful to see a woman, let alone a colored woman, be vice president, however some people see that as good enough and settle. When celebrating her as a girlboss, what goes ignored is Harris fighting to keep people in prison even after they were proven innocent. What goes ignored is Harris stopping a transgender inmate from getting gender-affirming surgery. What goes ignored is Harris defending California’s death penalty system in court. What goes ignored is Harris repeatedly time and time again maintaining the prison industrial complex and its racial inequalities during her career. Of course celebrating having a WOC vice president and criticizing Kamala Harris are two things that can coexist, but it’s important to make sure that your celebrations don’t overshadow your criticisms. In short, girlboss is not the feminist, empowering term you may think it is. It covers up mountains of privilege and wrongdoings and doesn’t help women in the slightest.