Written By Haley Clarke-Cousineau

Edited By Aiya Hyslop-Healy

Girl Core is a hybrid nonfiction essay imitating a young woman’s experience scrolling through Instagram reels on any given day. It explores the issues of having so much varying content tailored and presented to you in the span of less than six minutes. More specifically, it presents the sometimes overt, sometimes inconspicuous misogyny that permeates social media, and how easy it is to find oneself succumbing to such negativity. This is a piece whose subtleties and wit ask you to think deeply about every line, and wonder is it simply innocuous or something more?

11:27:07pm

A petite brunette woman is teaching me how to make a DIY ghost fairy-lights with toilet paper and glue. Over the step-by-step instructions, a quote from Halloweentown plays, accompanied by a lo-fi song that makes me think of nighttime in the fall. I think, I should try that.

But I don’t press the two extra buttons to save the tutorial.

11:42:35

A man with the username “millenial_misery” tells me why The Princess Diaries doesn’t make any sense. I agree with two of his points, then realize I don’t care, and swipe down.

Most movies are nonsense; that’s why I like them.

11:43:06

“Your unique hair, our custom solution. Unlock your hair’s full potential with Prose.”

How selfish of me, to be preventing my hair from achieving its full potential.

11:43:17

A beautiful woman who’s been vegan for 3 years hated cauliflower until she prepared it in this new and unheard-of way,

and I need to try it too.

11:43:55

A man is pulling down his fly on the metro. He looks at whoever’s filming him right in the eye, smirking, until another man appears in the shot and starts to yell at him. The fly comes up, the smile disappears, and the creep gets off at the next stop.

A final man pops up in the corner of my phone to tell me how to process this 15-second clip. “This is why you ladies have to be careful while riding the subway! Luckily there was a man there that intervened.”

The comment section is full of women praising Confrontation Man. “Thank God he was there!!”

Which is funny, because every time I can recall feeling uncomfortable on the metro, I prayed for the absence of a man.

I don’t comment that.

11:44:27

“Rip-Resist Tights for 35$. Built to withstand snags, rips, and tears. Buy now.”

11:44:35

“Ask your friends what kind of fall you are!”

My options are displayed over a Girl in Red song -gentle fall (photos of cinnamon buns, walks in the sun, cats with caramel fur), cold fall (fog, castles, wet pine trees), warm fall (park benches and forests of oranges and yellows), or dark fall (light posts, trails in the woods).

What the hell makes a season “gentle”?

I decide I’m warm fall.

11:44:50

An influencer shows the audience her “maximalist” outfit of the day. I find the jacket to be a bold pairing with the skirt—too many colours, maybe.

When I go to the comments, I find they’ve been disabled. 

11:45:03pm

Two little girls are giggling for the camera as their mom films them with carved pumpkins over their heads. When I leave the Instagram reel to visit the user’s page, I find that a video like this is posted at least once daily. The account has 2.2 million followers. It’s run by a woman who lists herself as a “public figure,” but almost all the comments mention how cute her children are.

“Awwwwwwwww my heart exploded! I can’t!”

“I love your family and I don’t even know you!!!”

“These have to be the happiest kids I’ve ever seen.”

“We need more baby Violet videos pls and by the way they’re both looking pretty good😘💙.”

11:46:08pm

In 5 seconds, a freckled woman shows me how to style my hair to make it look like I have cat ears.

Looks kinda dumb.

I find myself wondering if she ever actually leaves the house like that.

11:46:13pm

A comedian jokes about men being lazy in bed.

Said men call her an unfunny whore in the comments.

11:46:43pm

A heavily filtered collage of movie clips plays to the sound of violins. Women from horror scream alongside teen comedies’ best female stars one short clip at a time, until their shrieking and crying and raging all blend into one ear-splitting audio. Florence Pugh, Rachel McAdams, and Mia Goth take turns unravelling on the screen.

One character will be admitted into a cult, the next will be dethroned by her classmates for gaining weight, and the last will become a serial killer.

Over the video, the simple phrase: “girl core.”

11:47:03

No seriously, these tights will not rip. They are, without a doubt, the “strongest tights you’ll ever buy. Sheertex. Never look back.” 

11:47:12pm

“POV: you’re meeting your boyfriend’s friend who is ABSOLUTELY not in love with him.”

The influencer on my screen speaks in a nasal voice and twirls her hair as she portrays a fictional character who wants my boyfriend. And my boyfriend, I guess, remains best friends with the girl who wants him. He doesn’t make an appearance.

I find myself wanting to relate to this for some reason–it’s from my point of view after all–but I can’t. No one’s ever tried to steal my boyfriend.

The commenters, however, can totally relate because it’s somehow happened to all of them a million times. They don’t hate other girls—of course they don’t—they just hate it when girls are mean to other girls. Those girls deserve online obliteration. 

In fact, there’s an entire social media market for influencers who act like these abominable homewreckers on-screen, so that the rest of us can like and comment in mutual frustration. United by a common experience.

11:47:45pm

A new recipe! This time, oyster mushrooms in mango habanero sauce.

“If you’re not making these,” says the man on my phone, fake chicken wing in hand, “I don’t know what you’re doing.”