Why the “Girlboss” Culture Created More Harm than Good

In 2014, Sophia Amoruso’s “Girlboss” novel launched the birth of a new era of feminist ideals in the workplace. Out was the concept of women simply playing supporting characters to others in their professional lives and in was the boss defeating the patriarchy to conquer it all. “Girlboss” culture, as it turns out, is embedded in white privilege, toxicity, and overworking.

Amoruso’s autobiography attempted to disprove the idea that “girlbosses” can’t exist. She attempted to show that women aren’t constrained by the systemic patriarchal barriers that block a woman’s professional accomplishments and earning potential. Nevermind that Amoruso first gained access to real money by working at a Borders bookstore and stealing stacks of bestselling novels to resell on eBay for profit.

Amoruso’s ability to spin her tail of shoplifting, stealing, and lying to justify how these actions allowed her to later found Nasty Gal, an online vintage store full of curated pieces chosen specifically by Amoruso herself, is a privilege no woman of color posseses. Nasty Gal later became a multi-million dollar empire - only to file for bankruptcy and collapse years later.

Amoruso then took the money from that deal and launched none other than the cutely titled Girlboss Media.

This isn’t to say Amoruso didn’t work - she certainly did. It isn’t easy to manage inventory or create a brand all on one’s own, and Amoruso put in the work that got her to her goals. However, Amoruso’s peddling of the “girlboss” mentality being 100% accessible for all lacks the same intersectionality lens that Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In did just a year prior to #Girlboss’s original publication in 2014.

White feminism and and self-identifying white feminists often achieve their success at the expense of women around them, usually, women of color or women of lower economic status or privilege. The latest example coming from the notable implosion of “The Wing,” a women’s co-working space that raised millions of dollars peddling diversity and inclusion while they were internally mistreating their employees of color to the point where a high-profile digital walkout was staged.

There’s no doubt that what Amoruso created provided value in empowering many in the next generation of women, but one can’t deny that she only got as far as she did by leveraging her white privilege, just as countless “self-made” white women have done before. Amoruso’s ability to get a job at a museum for health insurance just long enough to treat the lump in her breast, then promptly quitting that job to pursue her passion full-time, is a direct testament that her existence is on an opposite plane of reality to the one women of color and lower-income women live in.