Primal Girl Urge
The rise of the “feral girl” aesthetic and how it satisfies our need for raw femininity
Written by Maria Freese Culture Staff Writer
You’re familiar with the phrases “happiness can’t exist without sadness” or “dark wouldn’t be scary without light.” Spring break wouldn’t be as exciting if you weren’t in school the rest of the year. Being around your friends wouldn’t mean as much if you’d never felt lonely. Human nature is perpetually trying to balance all aspects of life. We exist in a teeter-totter of a society, on a teeter-totter of an orbit around the Sun. Trends come and go, we try to balance out the scales we stand on and balance our own opinions with those that are accepted. We try to balance our self-expression.
For every avocado toast, green juice, slicked back ponytail, meditation at 5:00 a.m., SoulCycle, blazer and biker shorts, home office girly, there is a two-hour sleep, four-day-old eyeliner, body odor and lavender smell, ripped tights, cigarette smoke, chipped nail polish and drinking Red Bull for breakfast animal.
A friend and I have declared the latter, “woodland animal girls.”
In a desperate attempt to escape the “hot girl summer” agenda, we adopted the ideology of “feral girl summer.” Think Oscar the Grouch core. It encapsulates the girls you wouldn’t be surprised to find asleep on a park bench but would give you a hot take on the tumultuous political climate if you’re brave enough to tap her on the shoulder (Dickson, 2022).
The pendulum is swinging away from the “clean girl aesthetic” because running on the treadmill and tracking your macros, micros and like counts are exhausting. It sneaks up on you. One morning you’re recording a TikTok of your 12-step morning routine, and the next, you wake up five minutes before you need to leave for class in your jeans from the night before. It is a slippery slope, but it’s a slope you shouldn’t be afraid to slide down.
While clean girl fashion inspired by Emma Chamberlain and Bella Hadid portrays women as successful, essential parts of society, it still leans into the patriarchal belief that to be a true success, one must portray themselves in a certain way. Business suits, blazers and an aura of professionalism are necessary (Tazewell, 2022). This aesthetic tells girls that to be desirable to a male-dominated workforce, they must––in essence––become men. Feral girls tell another tale. Success is not a look, it’s an attitude. People come to you if you exude confidence (maybe a wee bit of ego), excitement and energy (Boswell, 2022). Being a feral girl is a commentary on femininity while also being an excuse to never drink kale, celery and turmeric blended concoctions ever again—unless such a concoction truly tickles your fancy.
Recently, the media has been flooded with the villainization of feral girl ideology. Many argue that this couldn’t-care-less aesthetic still cares just as much about beauty standards as “hot girl summer” and “clean girl” trends (Waheed, 2022). Rather than looking at the outward appearance of these movements, it’s necessary to focus on the drive behind them. While there may be a difference in how these looks are portrayed outfit and makeup-wise, they are fundamentally similar. Both aesthetics are focused on the attitude of the women under the clothes more than the outfits themselves. For example, waking up in a tent on a back-packing trip with the sunrise and drinking tea at an overlook can feel like the most “clean girl,” “hot girl summer” experience, even though there is nothing clean about living on the trail for a week. At the core, young women are using these trends and ideas like “feral girl” as a mantra to remember life should be fun (Sinclair, 2022).
Both of these aesthetics are plastered across our phone screens and billboards through the medium of size double zero women. It’s a harsh reality that society hasn’t moved away from the ‘90s, heroine chic expectations. Yet, the feral girl lifestyle isn’t only for girls with Kate Moss’s body types. The rise of feral girl ideology is an opportunity to stop pitting women against one another. Any woman or person from any background, size, shape and style is welcome to join the movement that is “feral girls.” It is for all the women feeling the primal urge to embrace their sweaty, raw femininity.
Feral girls jump into the lake at midnight and howl at the moon. Their friendships have the same feeling as first love, and they can simultaneously discuss the importance of gossip while getting dressed up for the club on a Friday night. The most important thing to note about woodland animal girls is that they are not the enemy of the clean girls. They are one and the same (Sinclair, 2022). They are the flipside. They are the devil on the “Whole Foods, Erewhon shoulder.”
One cannot exist without the other.
The teeter-totter is tipping, the pendulum is swinging––we are trying to find balance. Pull out your gas station sunglasses, forget about the mirror and never look back.
Sources:
Boswell, R. (2022, April 12). Why is Self-Confidence Important to Success? Rachel Boswell Coaching.
Dickson, E. (2022, June 17). The Creator of ‘Feral Girl Summer’ Explains How to Be Your Most Chaotic Self. Rolling Stone.
Sinclair, L. (2022, June 14). Feral Girl Summer and Hot Girl Summer have this one thing in common – and it’s the reason why we shouldn’t pit them against each other. Stylist.
Tazewell, G. (2022, August 18). Why the ‘Clean Girl’ Aesthetic is Problematic. 21Ninety.
Waheed, J. (2022, June 17). Everyone seems to be talking about ‘feral girl summer’ but what does the trend really say about us? Glamour.