Gaslight gatekeep girlboss what is the difference?

10 Answers

Gaslight gatekeep girlboss what is the difference?

Gaslight

Psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts and perception of reality. Often the gaslighter causes confusion by warping memories and eventually causes a loss of confidence and self-esteem in the victim and a dependency on the perpetrator.


Gatekeep

A gatekeeper is someone that tends or guards a gate. They control access or entry. Can also refer to a health-care professional (as a primary care physician) who regulates access especially to hospitals and specialists. In a nutshell, it is someone who gives permission to have access to a building, event or physical object.


Girlboss

Girlboss denotes a successful woman whose success is defined in opposition to the masculine business world we live in. A confident, capable woman who pursues her own ambitions instead of working for others or otherwise settling in life.

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These three words are often used together as a way of mocking or poking fun at mainstream thinking about female empowerment. Let's take a look at each one, shall we?


gaslight (verb)


This verb has a pretty nasty meaning. It means to make a person doubt their own thinking about things. At its worst, gaslighting makes someone question whether their feelings, thoughts, and experiences are real. I'll show an example below:

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In the photo, the man would be gaslighting his partner if he denies that he was checking out another woman, and tells her that she's only imagining things, perhaps even adding that it's her insecurity talking. In this case, the man was a gaslighter. His manipulative behavior would make the woman lose trust in her own perception and judgment.


gatekeep (verb)


This verb is not as nasty as the first one. It happens when a person tries to stop another person from claiming an identity or being part of a community.

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In the same way that a goalkeeper stops the ball from getting into the goal, the gatekeeper stands at the "gate" and stops a person from feeling that they belong to a particular group. Here are a few examples:


  • Lisa told me I can't claim to be a Potterhead because I haven't read all the Harry Potter books. Never mind that I've contributed to the community by writing tons of fan fiction.


  • Karen told me I have to stop wearing lipstick and sexy clothes to be a "real" feminist.


girlboss (noun)


This word originally had a positive meaning, and was used to talk about very successful women in the world of business holding positions of power as CEOs or other executive level roles. In recent years, though, the term has taken on a negative meaning after reports revealed that some of these successful women who were held up as models of female empowerment turned out to be just as demanding and toxic as their male counterparts.

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Here are some examples of sentences using this term:


  • Before Elizabeth Holmes was found to be a fraud, she was seen as the model of girlboss feminism.

  • I wore a suit for a class presentation yesterday, and that's the closest I'll ever get to being a girlboss.

  • I changed my tires own my own today and felt like a badass girlboss.


Should I use it?


Using gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss together is a bit tricky because of the ironic way these are often used, especially on social media. But don't let me gatekeep you. 😉

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Gaslight, gatekeep and girlboss are terms we hear on social media and they each have different meanings.

As we go through the different ages words begin to change or be created to fit that era.

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss

Gaslight means to make someone angry so that they are viewed as the villain or the one who is being irrational.

Gatekeep means to hold on to characteristics or practices of a culture and not allow anyone outside that culture to take on or use these practices and shame them if they do.

Girlboss is as simple as the word, it refers to a woman who is self-made and relies on no one for help.


Examples


Gaslight
She is gaslighting you so that you fight back, don't let her make you mad.


Gatekeep

Braids are not only from African culture, stop gatekeeping hairstyles.


Girlboss

My best friend is such a girlboss, she doesn't need anyone.

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Compound Words

A compound word is made by joining two or more words to make a new word with a new meaning.



Example:


gas + light = gaslight


gaslight (verb)- manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity.



gate + keep = gatekeep


gatekeep (verb) - to control or limit access to



girl + boss = girlboss


girlboss (verb) - to make something or someone appear as a feminist idol, or inspiration for profit, despite the numerous flaws of the person.


(meanings from UrbanDictionary)



Use the compound words that you've learned in a sentence:


Example:


gaslight - Your husband could gaslight so well, he was able to make them believe you are crazy.


  • girlboss

  • gatekeep

The verb in a sentence.

These compound words can be used as verbs in the sentence.

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a phrase mostly used in social media


Social media language

Gaslight gatekeeper girlboss

History:

The combination of these three words was first popularised by a Drag Queen Katya Zamolodchikova on Tweeter. After reading many comments on one of her tweet, she decided that the combination of the three words starting with the letter G can sound cool and very feminine.

Use:

Mostly used by females, and it is used as an adjective to describe yourself or the activity you did as a something superb.

Meaning:

Let's take a look at each word separately:

Gaslight (verb) - manipulate psychological means, so the other people doubt their own sanity

Example: The killer tried to gaslight Sherlock Holmes, so as to mislead him from the clues.

gatekeeper (noun) someone who holds others back rom their goals

girl-boss - before it was used as a compliment to show that a woman is independent and strong, she can run her own business. Nowadays, it is used ironically, to show that someone is too pushy, and annoying.





Conclusion

So, even though the meaning of the phrase had a higher and more positive meaning to show that someone is very happy with its performance, today, mostly it is used ironically. When we want to say that we did something impressive, at least impressive for us, than we can use the phrase.

I am very good at arguing. I gaslight gatekeeper girl-boss.

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What's it meme?

When taken separately, the definitions of these three words may not seem to have much in common with each other. However, together, these three words have become a popular meme: a sarcastic shorthand.

Gaslight

“Gaslighting” is a form of manipulation in which someone tries to get another person to question their own reality or perceptions.

Gatekeep

“Gatekeeping” is also a form of manipulation in which someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity.

Girlboss

Someone who gaslights and gatekeeps generally isn’t a great person, which is why the inclusion of “girlboss” in the phrase is so interesting. In the early 2010's, being a “girlboss” was considered a positive and impressive thing, but now, Gen Z considers it a “cringe” sign of trying too hard (to get ahead).

Examples

Bringing these three words together celebrates female villains/scammers we’ve grown to have complicated love/hate relationships with, like fictional manipulator Amy Dunne from Gone Girl, Instagram try-hard Caroline Calloway, convicted fraudster Anna Delvey, and disgraced tech pioneer Elizabeth Holmes.

In Short...

“Gaslight” has become the trendy synonym for lying — particularly a strain of lying where someone denies an obvious truth — and “gatekeep” has become interchangeable with discrimination. “Girlboss” shifted culturally from a noun to a verb, one that described the sinister process of capitalist success and hollow female empowerment. On TikTok and Twitter, “girlboss” the verb became yoked to “gaslight” and “gatekeep”.

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Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss,” is a parody of the motivational adage "Live, Laugh, Love", that began on Tumblr in January 2021, and has turned into a meme with negative connotations. The entire phrase is known as the “toxic G’s,” but not all of the words individually started out toxic.

“Gaslight every moment, Gatekeep every day, Girlboss beyond words”

Born in the mid-2010s, “Girlboss”, originally coined by, former NastyGal.com CEO, Sophia Amoruso when she wrote her book titled #Girlboss, was used in the sense of Amoruso being the female entrepreneur and finally taking some power from men who had a hold of it for so long. It was a term meant to embody empowerment and the ambitions of women; it was supposed to be a positive thing. Being a “girlboss,” or being a boss, is simply dismantling the entire idea that anyone needs to be something in order to be considered successful. Additionally, it is about not attaching gender to everything because being a boss is about being able to be proud of yourself and happy wherever you are. It is being able to freely express and work in whatever profession you are in.


The title “girlboss” became completely intertwined with career success. It comes with extreme pressures and high levels of expectations for success, including stepping on and over anyone you need to reach, and exceed, those expectations. This is where the phrase became toxic.


In January 2021, a sentence appeared on Tumblr: “today’s agenda: gaslight gatekeep and most importantly girlboss.” The discourse became subverted very quickly. On TikTok and Twitter, “girlboss” the verb became yoked to “gaslight” and “gatekeep” to create a kind of “live, laugh, love” poking fun at the toxic aspects of women’s empowerment and white feminism while also laying bare the covert ways those practices uphold the patriarchy. One meme depicts wall art reading, “Gaslight every moment, Gatekeep every day, Girlboss beyond words,” in a flourishing Script font and framed by flowers and butterflies.

What it means to ‘gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss’: breaking down the terms

  • Gatekeep: Gatekeeping refers to a dynamic where people in power limit other people’s access to social currency.

  • Gaslight: Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that occurs when an individual causes someone else to question their perception, feelings, understanding, or reality.

  • Girlboss: The term generally describes women who are CEOs, who own their own companies, who are a part of MLMs (multi-level marketing), or who are rising in the ranks in a traditionally male-dominated space. But the notion of the girlboss is flawed.

References

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/88nvjg/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss

https://www.radsister.com/blogs/news/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss

https://www.inhersight.com/blog/diversity/gatekeep-gaslight-girlboss

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss

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The new popular phrase of choice on Social Media, "Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss" is simply used in place of "Live, Laugh, Love".



Meanings:

In effect, gaslighting and gatekeeping are both now regularly used to mean "someone saying something I don't like".

The term "girlboss" used to be a compliment but is now used as an insult.


Gaslighting is much more than a buzzword. It's a serious form of abuse that can lead to anxiety, depression, and psychological trauma.

Gatekeeping is when someone decides who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity. For example, if a person mentions they love BLACKPINK in particular, a gatekeeper may retort with "Oh yeah? Name five of their albums."

Girlboss is the manifestation of the American myth (not a true story) that says if you're not succeeding, it must be because you're not working hard enough.





Example:

Gaslight every moment, gatekeep every day, girlboss beyond words.

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Girlboss was coined in 2014 by Nasty Gal founder Sophie Amuroso (her eventual memoir was titled #Girlboss; the same name she gave to her media company) and quickly grew to become a cultural phenomenon. People really did take it seriously for a while, but it's been a long time since the term has been used in an earnest or aspirational way. It's been renounced by just about all of its former adherents, which makes sense when you understand that being plugged into the zeitgeist and an early adopter of cultural trends is a necessary component of being a girlboss in the first place. For the most part, it's now used in mockery, although some erstwhile girlbosses have already begun the hard task of reclaiming the title in a self-deprecating way. In that sense, it could end up being the new "basic": a term with negative connotations which people nonetheless use about themselves with a nudge and a wink (if you look at the #girlboss on Instagram, there is still a fair amount of sincere usage, but this is normie-led and therefore beyond the scope of this article.)


Next, we move onto gaslighting. Unlike girlboss, this began as something more than a buzzword. Named after a 1938 Patrick Hamilton play, Gas Light, in which a man attempts to drive his wife insane by altering her perception of reality, it has been in common usage for decades as a term describing a specific type of emotional abuse. Gaslighting is, I think, a real thing, and it's worth having a word to pinpoint this pattern of behaviour -- but it has been afflicted by "concept creep", through which its meaning has expanded to include any number of behaviours. Today it has largely become a fancy way of saying "lying". It has moved from the interpersonal to the public sphere. One of the most famous examples of this tendency was a wildly viral Teen Vogue article headlined "Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America". But


Gatekeep

Gatekeeping is perhaps the least ubiquitous of the three terms in question, but as with gaslighting it refers to something important, or rather a series of important things. In the UK, it's a term that relates to housing and the practice of local authorities refusing to house homeless people when they have a duty to do so. For trans people, medical gatekeeping means the inability to access the healthcare you need without going through a potentially unsympathetic and obstructive third party. It is a serious form of oppression and one which is mirrored in some forms of medical fatphobia. Less seriously, it's used in relation to an annoying type of behaviour in which people attempt to police who else likes the things they like, with the assumption being that other people's interests are an affectation. The classic example would be storming up to someone in a Nirvana T-shirt and asking them to name three songs, but my personal favourite is when Jeremy Corbyn said he liked Ulysses and someone challenged him to a competitive close reading session.

But like gaslighting, gatekeeping has also fallen victim to concept creep and can now be used to describe any kind of disparaging opinion whatsoever. Expressing any view not stridently in favour of mass culture, for example, risks seeing you branded a gatekeeper. Take the backlash levelled at poor old Martin Scorsese when he (not inaccurately) compared Marvel films to theme park rides. The director was accused of gatekeeping what is and isn't real cinema, even though it excluded no one. In effect, gaslighting and gatekeeping are both now regularly used to mean "someone saying something I don't like". Language changes and this isn't necessarily a problem, but in this instance, it does risk diminishing the utility of two concepts that once had value. Maybe, in the face of this, we'll have to invent new words to talk about what gatekeeping and gaslighting used to mean before social media got its grubby little hands on them.was he? Or was he simply lying?


Gatekeeping is perhaps the least ubiquitous of the three terms in question, but as with gaslighting it refers to something important, or rather a series of important things. In the UK, it's a term that relates to housing and the practice of local authorities refusing to house homeless people when they have a duty to do so.


Gaslighting is, I think, a real thing, and it's worth having a word to pinpoint this pattern of behaviour -- but it has been afflicted by "concept creep", through which its meaning has expanded to include any number of behaviours.


Gaslighting is, I think, a real thing, and it's worth having a word to pinpoint this pattern of behaviour -- but it has been afflicted by "concept creep", through which its meaning has expanded to include any number of behaviours.

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Gaslight (verb), gatekeep (verb), girlboss (noun)


Common colloquial Internet words

These words can commonly be seen on the internet, but have different meanings.

Gaslight (verb) - to convince someone that their outlook or ideas on something are wrong even if the original outlook was correct, typically in a negative situation.


Gatekeep (verb) - to try to prevent new people from supporting or enjoying a product, person, or group. Typically done by fans who do not want to share the product, person, or group. Someone who does this action is known as a gatekeeper.


Girlboss (noun) - a female who is strong, independent, and often has achieved many accomplishments and/or adversities.





Ann was being gaslighted (or gaslit) by her boyfriend. Although he had cheated on her, he convinced Ann that it was his fault he cheated, even though she did nothing wrong.


Sam was gatekeeping people from listening to BTS because he had been a fan before they became popular globally.


Liza was being a gatekeeper of her favorite lipgloss and refused to tell others what brand she used because she did not want it to become popular and harder to obtain.


Penelope was a total girlboss, She had been promoted to Senior Vice President by the age of 20, making her the youngest Senior VP at the company ever.

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