Social: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.
History
The success of Girl Defined was built off the failure of the sisters' first project, bairdsisters.com. After bairdsisters.com failed to gain traction the pair rebranded to focus on high school and college aged girls.[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]
In 2018, Girl Defined became a meme after YouTubers Cody Ko and Noel Miller featured Girl Defined's content on their series That's Cringe. This began a trend in which influencers and regular people made videos parodying and mocking Girl Defined.[2]
In the 2020s, the sisters started posting on the platform TikTok.[3]
In 2021, Bethany went viral for sharing her story of having her first kiss at 30 during her wedding.[4]
Views
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 scholars Sage Mikkelsen and Sarah Kornfield.[6]
Sexuality
Kissing before marriage is discouraged as are all other sexual or sexually suggestive acts.[5] They advise girls who are attracted to other girls to "seek God" instead.[7]
Feminism
Girl Defined has referred to feminism as an “attack on God’s design for womanhood.”[5] They believe that part of the purpose of the community is to support people “taking a stand against feminism.”[8]
See also
- Abstinence-only sex education
- Chastity
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brobst, Scout (19 October 2020). "How Young Evangelical Women Are Navigating a Sex-Positive Internet". Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dzngz/how-young-evangelical-women-are-navigating-a-sex-positive-internet-girl-defined.
- ↑ McNeal, Stephanie (5 November 2019). "How These Small-Time Christian Influencers Became A Viral TikTok Meme About Purity Culture". Buzzfeed. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/girl-defined-tiktok-meme.
- ↑ Vilanova, Constance (20 January 2023). "Aux États-Unis, le culte de la virginité s'installe sur TikTok". Telerama. https://www.telerama.fr/ecrans/aux-etats-unis-le-culte-de-la-virginite-s-installe-sur-tiktok-7013909.php.
- ↑ Weekman, Kelsey (6 July 2022). "WHAT HAPPENS TO CHRISTIAN INFLUENCERS WHEN THEY GET MARRIED?". Buzzfeed. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseyweekman/christian-influencers-purity-culture-marriage.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Thwaites, Elle (28 June 2022). "The impact of Christian purity culture is still being felt – including in Britain". The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-christian-purity-culture-is-still-being-felt-including-in-britain-182907.
- ↑ 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. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07491409.2021.1911895. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
- ↑ Phillips, Jessica (20 January 2021). "YouTube's Fundamentalist Influencers Are Preaching Abstinence and Anti-Abortion". Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ak4b/youtubes-fundamentalist-influencers-are-preaching-abstinence-and-anti-abortion.
- ↑ Hugh, Jess (5 October 2022). "'You can't cancel me': embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus". https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/05/brittany-dawn-davis-tiktok-christian-social-media-influencer.
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