Girlhood Is A Spectrum

Submission 12,102

Part of a series on Exploitables. [View Related Entries]

About

Girlhood Is A Spectrum is a catchphrase associated with an exploitable meme template that shows an arrowed spectrum line chart that represents to the two extremes of "girlhood." Meme creators added image macros or characters to either side of the template that aimed to both represent and satirize the modern, female experience. The original meme was uploaded to Instagram in December 2022. Usage continued into 2023, spreading to Tumblr, Twitter and TikTok over the following months.

Origin

On December 21st, 2022, Instagram^[1] user @moonflowerette posted a meme that read, "girlhood is a spectrum," and showed an arrowed range between a "wounded baby animal" and a "grotesque bug" (shown below). Instagram user @moonflowerette hid the exact number of likes on the post, however, it received viral engagement alluded to by later, cross-platform reposts.

Spread

On December 23rd, 2022, Tumblr ^[2] user fxlthyangxl reposted the original meme, earning roughly 8,200 notes in two months. The meme was also reposted on December 28th by Twitter^[3] user @greydomovoy, earning over 60 likes in the same timeframe.

On December 27th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @Butch_4_Bitch posted a variation of the template that showed the same spectrum but instead ranging from a "creepy porcelain doll" to a "big lizard." The tweet received roughly 18,500 likes in two months (shown below, left). More Twitter users posted variations in the days that followed. For instance, on December 29th, Twitter^[5] user @epistamy posted a variation with a spectrum ranging between a Biblically Accurate Angel and the character Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. The tweet received roughly 88,200 likes in two months (shown below, right).

Going into early 2023, the template was remixed more often across social media platforms. For instance, on February 9th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user northstardoll tweeted an iteration that ranged from Hello Kitty to a dark, cryptid-like stick figure. The meme received roughly 171,200 likes in six days (shown below).