Always “Like a Girl” 

“Like A Girl” a viral commercial aired in the 2015 super bowl halftime show has won various awards on the empowering message and feminine product Always. Always manufacturing is striving for viewers to consider females strength at a time when young girls go through adolescence losing their confidence. The statement “Like A Girl” has changed from being powering to being insulting. Society focuses on gender difference portraying the message that women lack the strength men have. After Rhetorically analyzing the statement “Like A Girl” we can see what running like a girl, throwing like a girl, and fighting like a girl means to society.

Throughout grade school most have said or witnessed at some point a male or female conversing after someone fails to exceed someone’s expectations, by saying “wow are you a girl” and “you did that like a girl”. Our society more specifically, youth to adolescence have taken that statement and downgraded it to something shameful. The commercial brought both genders of youth children and teenagers into a filming studio dressed in street apparel to observe what first comes to mind when they hear “run like a girl”, “throw like a girl”, and “fight like a girl”. The order in which the interviewer asked went teenagers first as they have reached puberty and have had the range of emotions that come from that age to the children who have yet experienced and understood the stereotypes and discrimination towards the statement incorporating one male child and his perspective not being a young female.

The interviewer asked Erin, the first girl that appeared in the studio, to perform the action that first comes to mind when she’s asked to run like a girl. Following Erin came two other females, the young male child, and one adolescent male. Their action performed after hearing the question is what society has portrayed the statement to mean. The lack of ability to run with strength and power without wrecking the hair and their appearance while the motivation for themselves wasn’t there because they are living to the standards of being a female. When the same question was asked to young female girls their perspective on the question changed. When they were asked to perform the same action as a teenager, the young girls ran with power, strength, and determination. When they were asked what it meant to them to run like a girl they knew it meant to “run as fast as you can” because girls have the ability to do so.

The interviewer then asked the same group of teenagers what it meant to fight like a girl and as expected they fought up to women’s “standards”. Instead of showing aggression and power, the majority showed themselves acting weak and defenseless. Their actions resembled a cat fight or blocking their face instead of punching and fighting back because although not all women show aggression and argue physically, we have the abilities to defend or fight back more aggressively then hide and act cowardly. When the same question was asked to young females their actions were the exact opposite of what the teenagers portrayed as females’ abilities. They punched, kicked, fought back, and had an aggressive face to show that they meant business. The same lack of effort and enthusiasm was shown when the individuals were asked how a girl threw a ball following with the same response from the young girls who knew they could throw harder and farther than what society believed they could.

“So, when did doing something like a girl become such an insult?” It became an insult when we as individuals made it an insult and youth and adolescence started questioning if it is positive or insulting. During the ages of ten through twelve, girl’s confidence and self-esteem drop due to females beginning their menstrual cycles and puberty and the fluctuation of hormones that come with it. That’s when Always the feminine company wants adolescences experiencing their product to be satisfied and reassured that being female should be a positive term. Especially, during the time when females are trying to figure themselves out because it’s never reassuring when you are downgraded and insulted for being who you are or the gender you identify as. It can make someone feel weak in a time that they should be strong because you are who you are and should stand proud of that.

The argument of rather the statement “like a girl” should be insulting or not is dependent on how you use the term to a peer or to yourself. If a person makes a mistake or fails to complete a task to the best of their ability, male or female, people use “like a girl” as an insult for not meeting other people expectations. The statement could be used in a positive manner towards yourself when you keep in mind that you throw a ball like a girl, you run like a girl, you fight like a girl because you are a girl. You shouldn’t let other people’s insecurities and doubts depict how you look at yourself as an individual. Some believe you have to follow the stereotypes created today in order to fit in with your surroundings, so you aren’t looked at differently for being someone you’re not. Always commercial strives to make adolescence understand that they are not alone in this time of their lives and their years to come. This is part of being female and there are so many more aspects to us then a run down and downgraded saying.

The brand Always for feminine products wants to educate females that going through puberty shouldn’t be a stressor when the company has you covered. They offer menstrual pads along with different types of cleanser wipes and tampons. Not only do they offer different types of products, they provide tips and advice that could answer important questions for first time experiences. The company also stands by the environment ensuring that they make at least of an impact on the environment as they can while using safe materials and products. Always wants nothing more than girls to be confident in who they are and stand proud of what they are doing.

After the airing of “Like A Girl” in 2015, the commercial went viral promoting Always feminine products with an empowering message on the strength women acquire. Despite the negative stereotypes and miss use of the statement on females’ abilities, females have the determination and should stand proud of who they are. Stand up for yourself and stand up for others, every female experiences puberty hitting some harder than others. Taking different amounts of time to come to satisfaction or acceptance with ourselves or others, and no added grief is needed. It doesn’t matter if females are waking up, playing sports, running, throwing, or fighting, we have should be proud and the statement “like a girl” should be meant in positivity`. 

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