Where did this thing come from? Along with the stereotype of girls drinking coffee and eating nothing else? And the “almond mom” thing? Do women not eat? What’s the history of this cultural thingy?
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Girl dinner, almond mom, and drinking coffee instead of eating are near-totally unrelated concepts.
“Girl dinner” is a modern term for the probably-not-so-modern phenomenon of someone (usually a young woman) eating a random assortment of foods that take little to no preparation when home alone rather than cooking a “proper” meal. Could be a single childless woman who does this on the regular, or a woman with a partner or kids who aren’t home to ask for a full cooked meal. Conventionally it means something like a low-effort cheese board, which is plenty substantial, but it really could be anything that requires little to no cooking or assemblage, and isn’t leftovers or a single convenience food (making a salad isn’t girl dinner, but eating carrots and spinach straight out of the bag is). Some people have associated it with unsubstantial, possibly disordered eating habits, but it originates more from “I’m going to have cheese, salami, bread, and an apple for dinner instead of cooking.” I don’t really know why this is gendered. Maybe men don’t do this? Or more likely, men do but don’t talk about it.
“Almond mom” is a term for a mother with disordered eating habits who forces their insecurities on their children. The term comes specifically from Real Housewife (?) Yolanda Hadid telling her then-teenaged daughter and model Gigi (or maybe Bella? I know the names but don’t watch the shows, they’re all skinny models) to eat a small number of almonds when she was complaining she was hungry. It’s most associated with women who were parenting in the 90s due to a lot of diet trends of that era that were so visible to children, but you could apply it to any mother from any era whose response to their kid asking for a snack is “do something that won’t make you fat.”
Coffee instead of a meal is such a broad, timeless statement that I can’t understand why it’s being lumped in with new phrases like “almond mom” and “girl dinner.” It’s also not gendered. I see people of all genders and ages (and races, socioeconomic groups, professions, abilities, and sexualities) mention or make jokes about how they can only have coffee for breakfast, or they were just sooooo focused on work/games/school/socializing that they forgot to have anything to eat or drink but coffee. And I have my entire life. I think it’s just kind of a mildly bad habit that people consider relatable, and know if they mention it they won’t get OTT concern yammering, just a mild “lol I do that too sometimes, remember to eat though!”
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