Thousands of videos of young women presenting themselves as “mid-girls”, “average” girls are circulating on social networks. A way of opposing the injunctions of perfection, but which is “double-edged”, analyzes a doctor in psychology.
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The concept of the “mid-girl” has been launched on social networks in recent weeks, and more specifically on TikTok. In a video that has accumulated nearly three million views, and more than 300,000 likes, the content creator @lunaindaclub explains her definition of this new term. “She’s a beautiful girl, a 5 or a 7/10, but she’s not ugly.” A kind of in-between, “neither ugly nor beautiful”other TikTokers repeat.
In these videos, users describe how they consider themselves to be “mid-girl,” starting with the same sentence each time: “I know I’m a mid chick because…” “No one tells me I’m beautiful if I’m not wearing makeup”, “No one ever offers me drinks at the bar”, list the girls in their videos.
A trend that is “double-edged”, warns psychologist Amélie Boukhobza. “On the one hand, it’s a way of getting out, of opposing the injunctions of perfection that are conveyed both by society and by social networks.” She also sees it as a form of “attempt to resist these standards, aesthetic, intellectual, all these things which are ultimately a bit impossible to achieve, these ideals of perfection”which are widely relayed on social networks, with injunctions of beauty, nutrition or even sports performance.
An approach which can therefore “have an interest in self-esteem, of self-acceptance, since we are not perfect, we are more or less part of an average.” This is where the doctor of psychology expresses reservations about this trend of “mid-girl”. “D“As soon as it comes into issues of comparison with others, there is a fairly negative downside, self-esteem takes a big hit,” deplores Amélie Boukhobza. The risk is to start comparing yourself to everyone around you, to tell yourself that “the girlfriend is better, she is less fat, more muscular”, it becomes “denigration”.
Moreover, these reflections revolve a lot around the physical, regrets Amélie Boukhobza. “There is something very linked to beauty, to aesthetics.” Indeed, the examples taken by women in these videos are linked to their physique, which they judge to be average, banal. A bias that can be very unhealthy, and above all, which hides the fact that beauty is very subjective, recalls the psychologist.
“Beauty lies elsewhere. It is in imperfection, in the imprecise, in the indefinite. It is something that cannot be caught and cannot be framed.”
Amélie Boukhobza, doctor of psychologyto franceinfo
However, some Internet users seem to be taking a step back from this trend. “It’s okay to be a mid chick, you can’t be a 10/10”concludes @lunaindaclub in her video. Some users even quickly opposed this trend. “You may have complexes, but wake up, this trend is crap”proclaims Tik Tokeuse @hiwaste.