It usually contains some combination of vegetables, attractively cut snacks and smaller portions that resemble something you would have at a picnic.
TikTok videos under the hashtag #girldinner have nearly 278 million views while there have now been endless debates on whether assigning gender to this type of eating is sexist or just a light-hearted way to describe the easy dinners that those who have not felt up for cooking have done for generations.
DON'T MISS: A New Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Was Leaked On The Internet
While formerly largely the domain of TikTok influencers, the "girl dinner" trend is increasingly crossing over to mainstream chains. On July 20, the Restaurant Brands International (QSR) -)-owned Popeyes unveiled its new "Girl Dinner Menu" — a combo deal of sides that are normally meant to accompany a fried chicken entree.
Popeyes
What Is the New Popeyes 'Girl Dinner?'
Consisting of the Mashed Potatoes with Cajun Gravy, Homestyle Mac & Cheese, Coleslaw and Cajun Fries sides, the "Girl Dinner Menu" costs $5 and is available at participating Popeyes restaurants throughout the summer.
The Louisiana-style chain said this gives customers a chance to test out "options packed with robust Cajun flavors that are made with the same slow, time-honored, homemade traditions of Southern cooking that the brand started in 1972."
Even though all of the sides have already been sold at the restaurant for years, getting them together as part of a low-cost deal is meant to tap into the viral popularity of the "girl dinner."
A Popeyes representative also said that it had "the intention to offer a delicious variety of flavors to 'Girl Dinner' enthusiasts."
While the ease and aesthetic pleasure of this type of eating was what resonated with social media users and helped "girl dinner" go viral, the term has also been controversial over its gendering of lighter eating as well as nutrition-related criticism over positioning snacking as a bonafide meal.
Diet Culture Has People Divided
"The pro-girl dinner faction argue that highlighting what women choose to eat when they're alone (something that requires very little labour) serves as an antidote to both diet culture and the mental load traditionally required to get food on the table," write Guardian editors Alyx Gorman and Yvonne C. Lam. "[...] The girl dinner's critics argue that actually, given how overly aestheticised and nutritionally impoverished many of the meals being shared as 'girl dinner' seem to be, it is just perpetuating both diet culture and performed femininity."
Since seeing its fried chicken sandwich become both a social media and real-world hit in the summer of 2019, Popeyes has been trying hard to create another viral sensation — while the fast-food chain has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram, it's TikTok presence is still growing at only 115,700 followers.
As such, the chain has experimented both with new versions of the classic fried-chicken-and-two-pickles sandwich as well as different viral terms and trends.
"Something like the chicken sandwich took multiple years to go from ideation to actually being in our restaurants," Popeyes President Sami Siddiqui told TheStreet in an exclusive interview in May 2022. "[...] Once [our recipe developers] come up with things, it goes to sensory testing and eventually market testing and operational testing to see what kind of impact it will have on our franchisees and profitability."
