Popularised by Gillian Flynn’s novel and film ‘Gone Girl’, the idea of the cool girl has dominated Western societal expectations towards young women. The cool girl is a romanticised and contradictory standard used to judge girls. She cannot really exist because most of her traits cannot all be true within one person, it is only the idea of her that is desirable, hence why she can never be real. The cool girl is a lie sold by the male gaze, an accumulation of every stereotype desired by boys.
Flynn characterises the cool girl as “hot and understanding. Cool girls never get angry: they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want.” She pokes fun at the shallow male desires and exposes one-dimensional and selfish expectations for relationships. But even after the Cool Girl myth was highlighted to mainstream media, have the standards changed?
The cool girl is a lie sold by the male gaze, an accumulation of every stereotype desired by boys.
To some extent, the controversy of Cool Girl has lessened in that there is a new weekly standard or title to push girls into. Men don't only want the Cool Girl, in recent months, there has been a rise of the Clean Girl, the Downtown Girl and countless others. However, this, of course, doesn't mean the problem is resolved, if anything, this agenda of constant change only benefits the male gaze and pushes the message that young girls can never be enough as themselves.
In short, the Cool Girl is a myth because all girls are cool anyway
An unfortunate impact of these standards is that it's more common both on social media and in real life to see girls pitted against each other to compete for desirability. Amongst the myth of the Cool Girl and the looming male gaze rises the ‘Pick- me girl.” She's not like other girls you know and might often boast such quirks to appeal to boys. The issue here is twofold: girls are changing themselves in the hopes to earn validation of being “picked”, but equally others are accused of faking interests or hobbies to be picked even when these might be genuine and crucial aspects of these girls’ personalities. It's a vicious circle that sets young women up to fail.
In short, the Cool Girl is a myth because all girls are cool anyway. Stop caring about what your phone says.
