Play #likeagirl

Originally it was ‘Oh you throw like a girl, you shoot like a girl’ and that was not a good thing,” said Hilary Knight, one of the best female hockey players in the world. “To watch that Super Bowl commercial and see the effect it had on people around the world and how empowering it was, because doing things ‘Like a Girl’ is something special, it’s a good phrase, it’s a positive phrase, and we should be proud of being women and girls. It changed the way that I view the phrase ‘Like a Girl’”.

Always, the feminine hygiene brand owned by Procter & Gamble, has been running an experiment on what ‘Like a Girl’ really means. They asked both men and women to show them what it meant to run, fight, and throw like a girl. The results demonstrated that young girls were completely not affected by their identity as a girl. They started to see the negative associations come out at 12 and older. “It seems small, like just say” oh you run like a girl, said the award winning director of the Always videos in a meet the director video, Lauren Greenfield. “It is just words, but that is the moment where the identities are so fragile that it actually can be really be devastating.”

In this campaign, interviewers have asked women and girls everywhere to share via social media what you do ‘Like a Girl’. The idea is to make the saying mean amazing things and build up girls’ confidence.

“In a way, I take that as a compliment because ya I throw like a girl because I am a girl and I throw with power and dedication so I took that as a compliment when they said I throw like a girl.” said female quarterback Karlie Harman to people in the Always youtube video. She is just another example of an inspiring character for girls that  have been found through this campaign.

Branding female campaigns is not a new thing. Dove did a series of advertisements to show how “real” women feel about themselves. Pantene has done similar work, but they choose to work with gender stereotypes in the work place. These types of advertisements have all gone viral. Although the Always videos may have the same idea, they are worth watching to see what the little girls have to say.

“I think the most moving part of the experiment for all of us watching and engaging where how many women did it and then said wait a minute why did I just do that,” said Lauren Greenfield in the youtube video meeting the director. This is so important to this experiment because it shows how girls think of themselves with really knowing it.

Out of all the controversial ads that aired during this year’s Super Bowl, the ads promoting gender equality received the most negative feedback. Although the campaign got a lot of positive attention, as soon as the shortened ad aired in the Super Bowl and about 15 million people saw it, the internet haters found their next prey. After the Super Bowl ad, women everywhere took to posting on Twitter with the hashtag #likeagirl and how being a girl didn’t stop them from being powerful and strong. It did not take very long before there was a new hashtag for the haters #likeaboy which started trending as they talked about how unfair it was that the commercial only was for women. The ad was meant to bring girls up, not bring boys down. It is about gender equality not female superiority.

After hearing about this or maybe seeing the ads, many people ask “well” what can I do?” The first thing you should do is go to YouTube and search ‘like a girl’ and watch and support that videos. Women and girls should show the world what you do ‘like a girl’ with the hashtag #likeagirl. Your support could mean the world to a girl’s confidence.