Girl Defined
Girl Defined is a Christian lifestyle blog and YouTube channel run by sisters Bethany Beal and Kristen Clark which focuses on purity culture and navigating mainstream America as an evangelical Christian.
History
[edit]Sisters Bethany Beal and Kristen Clark started Girl Defined with a focus on high school and college-aged girls, after their first project, bairdsisters.com, failed to gain traction.[1] In 2016, the sisters began posting videos on YouTube and published their first book, Girl Defined: God’s Radical Design for Beauty, Femininity, and Identity.[1]
Girl Defined became the subject of an Internet meme in 2018 after comedy YouTubers Cody Ko and Noel Miller featured Girl Defined's content on their series That's Cringe. This began a trend on social media in which influencers and regular users made videos parodying and mocking Girl Defined.[2]
The sisters started posting on the platform TikTok in the 2020s.[3] In 2021, Beal went viral for sharing her story of having her first kiss at the age of 30 during her wedding.[4]
Views
[edit]Girl Defined promotes biblical womanhood. Many of their ideas are borrowed from purity culture which was popular in the 1990s and early 2000s.[5] The organization has been labeled as Christian nationalist by Hope College scholars Sage Mikkelsen and Sarah Kornfield.[6]
Feminism
[edit]Girl Defined has referred to feminism as an "attack on God's design for womanhood."[5] They have stated their intent to build an online community to support women and girls while "taking a stand against feminism."[7]
Gender and sexuality
[edit]The sisters discourage kissing and other sexual or sexually suggestive acts before marriage.[5] They advise girls who are attracted to other girls to "seek God" instead. They also argue that transgender people should renounce "choices" that they have made about their gender.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Brobst, Scout (October 19, 2020). "How Young Evangelical Women Are Navigating a Sex-Positive Internet". Vice. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ^ McNeal, Stephanie (November 5, 2019). "How These Small-Time Christian Influencers Became A Viral TikTok Meme About Purity Culture". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ^ Vilanova, Constance (January 20, 2023). "Aux États-Unis, le culte de la virginité s'installe sur TikTok". Télérama (in French). Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ^ Weekman, Kelsey (July 6, 2022). "What Happens To Christian Influencers When They Get Married?". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ^ a b c Thwaites, Elle (June 28, 2022). "The impact of Christian purity culture is still being felt – including in Britain". theconversation.com. The Conversation. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
- ^ Mikkelsen, Sage; Kornfield, Sarah (2021). "Girls Gone Fundamentalist: Feminist Appeals of White Christian Nationalism". Women's Studies in Communication. 44 (4): 563-585. doi:10.1080/07491409.2021.1911895. S2CID 242451674. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
- ^ Hugh, Jess (October 5, 2022). "'You can't cancel me': embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus". The Guardian. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ^ Phillips, Jessica (January 20, 2021). "YouTube's Fundamentalist Influencers Are Preaching Abstinence and Anti-Abortion". Vice. Retrieved February 9, 2023.