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What Does 'Girl Dinner' Mean? The Viral Meme And TikTok Trend, Explained
A new concept and slang term is taking over the internet. It's called "girl dinner" and it started on TikTok, however, it's quickly spreading across social media.
The girl dinner meme centers on a specific meal and a specific person. Namely, the phrase is most often paired with images of food that are highlighted to represent what the imagined chronically online modern woman eats on an average night.
As stated, the meme is spreading fast, finding usage on Twitter and Instagram. It's even spawned a variant trend called boy dinner. Let's explain.
What Does 'Girl Dinner' Mean?
"girl dinner" represents a meal that could only be enjoyed by women. In memes, the phrase is most often paired with images or videos of stereotypically feminine food items. Some examples of "stereotypically feminine food items" would be charcuterie boards, Diet Coke and tinned fish.
All of the aforementioned foods have become synonymous with female eating habits online, mostly due to fashion model culture and the concept of eating "skinny" that's present in many circles of female meme creators and influencers.
Where Did The 'Girl Dinner' Meme Come From?
The trend started on TikTok a few months ago in May 2023, when a TikToker named @liviemaher coined the phrase. In the original video, she related her "ideal meal" to the imagined ideal meal of a medieval peasant, further stating that the two were equal to "girl dinner."
After her video went viral, the concept started to spread on the app via women who shared footage of their own meals, labeling them "girl dinner" in text overlay. In turn, the concept spread to Twitter where many meme creators used "girl dinner" as the caption for their humorous tweets. Ultimately, the trend led to the coinage of the phrase "boy dinner" which was the same meme but for guys.
How Can I Use 'Girl Dinner?'
To effectively make a meme using "girl dinner," one must find an image that accurately represents the widespread belief that "girl dinner" represents. This means finding food-based imagery that accurately represents what the typical girl eats.
In opposition to this, one could use "girl dinner" to caption a food-based image that is slightly off from what "girl dinner" has been bred to mean. Many ironic "girl dinner" memes have already spread online, labeling images that no girl would ever eat, such as inedible objects.
So really, to make a funny girl dinner meme, just caption any weird photo with "girl dinner," because the future of entertainment is randomly generated anyway.
For the full history of girl dinner, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for even more information.