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’ isn’t so much about saying women don’t eat, or encouraging them not to, it’s a lighthearted take on women throwing together a bunch of random food items that they actually want to eat, rather than putting effort into cooking a homemade dinner. The nutritional value is still there, it’s just not a meal in the traditional sense.
The ‘almond mom’ thing comes from the women who came of age during the ‘heroin chic’ era of the 80s/90s, and now have their own children whom they push their disordered eating habits onto (particularly daughters). Almond comes from the stereotype of them claiming they’re full after eating something very small, for example a handful of almonds.
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!”
Well the first one comes from at least a couple girls I’ve dated before. As well as several girls I know/am related to right now, now that I stop and think about it.
It’s definitely a thing.
Toxic body standards regarding women is what I believe it stems from eating like the corner of a saltine and a carrot stick and being like geeze I overate… I’ll pay for that later.
Maybe that’s not the history of the internet but just because you put a fresh coat of paint on something doesn’t always increase the value
Cooking a whole meal just for yourself and having all those dishes to clean is just too much work. I’ll eat a full meal but it’s gonna be stuff that doesn’t require work. That’s girl dinner.
Almond mom is more of a sad look back at how the extreme diet culture of the 90s shaped our mom’s eating habits. I remember those magazine articles with diet tips like, if you’re hungry eat HALF of a banana and drink a tall glass of cold water! It was messed up and a lot of moms still think that way about food.
Girl dinner is just about making snack foods into a meal. Like I ate 5 pickles, an entire sleeve of crackers with half a pound of cheese, a glass of wine, and a bag of popcorn for dinner. It was very calorically dense but never a full meal
I think a lot of this is confirmation bias and people humble bragging.
How many social media influencers are out there talking about having a bad day and eating a whole pizza or downing a whole large fast food meal?
Girl dinner has nothing to do with the almond mom thing.
Girl dinner encapsulates my adhd lol. Girl dinner is not being able to decide what to eat, not wanting to go through the effort and mess of making a whole ass meal, so you just cobble together a bunch of random shit. A bunch of olives, some pretzels, shredded cheese straight out of the bag, etc.
I often call myself rat girl when I do this lol.
Anyone who is slim is not eating the typical American diet. Women that are eating the typical American diet wobble around like giant land mammals.
Girl dinner: random items that check the boxes for a well rounded meal, instead of cooking an entire meal it’s just kinda thrown together. Still satisfying, but easy & filling
Almond mom: a woman that is always on a diet, usually a fad, & pushes it onto her children. Example: my mom dips her fork into her salad dressing before taking a bite of salad because it’s “less calories”, instead of just dumping the appropriate amount of dressing on the salad
Drinking coffee & not eating anything else: ehh a lot of people do this but I think it’s become a joke because women tend to get too busy to sit down & eat, then end up forgetting to eat throughout the day. A lot of stay at home mom’s or women in the work force are pressured to keep working & in turn don’t get the chance to eat. (This is my interpretation as someone who is a stay at home mom, that has done this since I’ve been a teenager lol)
There’s a good bit of stereotypes towards women & food because the majority of women you speak to will have or have struggled with food in the past, & the ones you mentioned are some of the most commonly talked about on social media.
These are all how I have PERSONALLY interpreted the stereotypes, so take it with a grain of salt
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