What's a hot girl summer?

No matter the weather, sun or rain, we are in the midst of hot girl summer! By now we are all familiar with the term 'hot girl summer,' but what exactly is it?

Released in August 2019, Megan Thee Stallion is to thank for the term. However, it was her fans ("The Hotties") who made the term go viral, and who gave it its current meaning. Though one is inclined to immediately associate hot girl summer with scantily clad women, it's actually a feminist movement.

Hot girl summer is all about enjoying your freedom, no matter your race, class, gender, or your aesthetic. Whether you want to dress in short shorts and colourful crop tops, or rock an all black outfit, hot girl summer is about living your truth, and not paying any attention to what others say.

It’s just basically about women — and men — just being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time, hyping up your friends, doing you, not giving a damn about what nobody got to say about it. You definitely have to be a person that can be the life of the party, and, y’know, just a bad bitch.

MEGAN THEE STALLION

The hot girl movement is another wave of feminism, focused on body positivity, on the financial independence of women, and ultimately embracing your freedom to do anything and everything you want. Hopefully this "trend" will remain, as waves of feminism (as the term implies) is something that tends to recede and lose traction in the same way and ocean wave would. The hope is that it will no longer be a wave, but remain as something that we can all build upon.

The past year has been a difficult and trying one for many of us, hot girl summer allows us to take back some of our independence and to enjoy the summer in all its glory.

The pandemic is still happening, but the presence of the sun allows us to enjoy the parks, the beaches, and to have a semblance of freedom.

It's no secret that our society is built on a patriarchal structure, and women's trends are often ridiculed by stating certain fashion or pop-culture trends as "basic." There is misogyny at play when we make fun of what women are doing, whether it is explicit or not, it looks down on women for enjoying the things they enjoy. Our society expects women to be quiet and subservient, to be "wife material." Women are expected to fit a beauty mould, to be thin and curvy (but not too curvy), to have big lips but be natural, to wear make-up, but not too much. There are so many rules which are (and have always been) useless, which have historically been ways to control women and keep the patriarchal hierarchy at its place.

We are slowly becoming more and more aware of the role we all play in our society as well as the power we have in enacting change for how we built our society. Hot girl summer is a way to fight this, a way to avoid stereotyping women. You don't have to look a certain way or dress a certain way to enjoy hot girl summer because it's all about doing whatever makes you happy! Whether that be taking control of your finances, starting a workout routine, spending your days on the beach, or experimenting with fashion, hot girl summer is about you and what makes you feel free.

So after all of this, go and enjoy the last few weeks of vacation, explore, and simply do whatever makes you happy. As long as you're not hurting anyone, you can do whatever it is that pleases you!