Hot Girl Summer Explained

If you’ve been on TikTok or Twitter in the last couple of months you’ve probably heard the phrase "hot girl summer" at least a couple of times (if not, where have you been?). Whether it is friends encouraging each other to live their best lives or the original hot girl herself, Megan Thee Stallion, letting her followers know what the phrase means to her, hot girl summer has dominated social media platforms. Coined by Stallion in her 2019 song “Hot Girl Summer”, the phrase is used to describe people having fun, feeling empowered and enjoying the summer with friends – and with the temperature finally in double figures and lockdown restrictions easing, now is the perfect time for a hot girl summer!

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The spirit that is so vital to having a hot girl summer is encompassed in Stallion’s music video of the same name - it is full of partygoers feeling empowered about their bodies, having a good time and being themselves. While partying may not be everyone's style, the hot girl summer mindset can be adapted to whatever you feel comfortable with. The phrase has become 2021s answer to ‘you only live once’ for young people, encouraging them to live their summer how they want to and with no regrets.

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However, while the concept of hot girl summer is empowering and exciting, harmful and unrealistic body standards have managed to work their way into the phrase and could perhaps pressure people into feeling that they need to look like society's version of “hot” in order to be able to have a fun summer. Summer is already a season where companies especially target young women in order to make them feel insecure about their bodies and profit off of these insecurities. Unfortunately, hot girl summer may be unintentionally adding to this pressure. Diet culture thrives in the summer and even pressures some people to buy clothes smaller than their size in hopes of losing weight by the time summer comes around. By branding a summer of fun and empowerment as “hot”, we risk alienating those who don’t feel that they look hot due to society’s toxic beauty standards. Though unintentional, the phrase may be pressuring people into feeling that there is only one way to be "hot". There is no one way to be or look hot – and hot girl summer is an outlook on the way you live your summer, not about the way you look. So, go out with your friends, wear what makes you feel comfortable and sexy, and have fun.

 

Recent criticism has also been levied at those who use the phrase “hot girl summer” to talk about a summer of sexual empowerment and safe, consensual sex with as many people as they like. Certain TikToks which criticise women’s use of the hot girl summer phrase as a euphemism for being sexually active and empowered have recently gone viral. Not only is this criticism rooted in misogyny by using derogatory terms for women who like sex, it also places blame onto women for using “hot girl summer” as a euphemism. Instead of criticising women for using this euphemism, discourse should move towards why women feel they need to hide the fact that they are sexually active and empowered with the phrase "hot girl summer". Society doesn’t let women be open about their sex lives and when they find a euphemism to refer to a summer full of sexual empowerment, they are also criticised for this.

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Criticism like this illuminates a larger societal double standard surrounding sex and purity culture for men compared to people of other genders. Using the phrase hot girl summer has unfortunately been added to the long, long list of things young women are criticized for. It is not surprising that a term primarily used by women to empower themselves and have unapologetic fun has been ridiculed online. The push back young women have received for simply using a fun phrase to empower themselves and their friends proves that women are not allowed to exist in society without criticism.

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As we move into the summer months and the weather (hopefully) stays warm, please remember that anyone can have a hot girl summer - there is no one right way. The whole point of the phrase is to be empowered and have fun in whatever way you want. Hot girl summer isn't about the way you look or the things you do - it's a mindset.