Meanings
- neologismuncountableThe act of extolling individual stories of female empowerment.
This girlbossification nearly always puts women in competition with each other, rather than emphasizing shared struggle.
2021 December 26, Alexis Soloski, “Catherine Was Great. But Was She a Girl Boss?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 30 Dec 20212 more examples
The Waiting Game shows that if we simply allow women to exist in the past on their own terms there is no need for explicit 'girlbossification'; they are a fascinating historical lens in their own right.
2025, Nicola Clark, The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens, unnumbered pageAs Sophie Lewis describes in her article "Can the Sireniform Speak?," the de-queering and de-sexualizing of octopus villain Ursula in The Little Mermaid (2023) takes away what pleasures and queer imaginations were present in the original, while the girlbossification of Ariel and the post-racial casting only deepens the colonial clash-of-cultures fantasy at the heart of the mermaid tale.
2026, Vicky Osterweil, The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World, unnumbered page
Origin
Cite this entry
girlbossification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossification
“girlbossification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossification. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “girlbossification,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/girlbossification.
Source: girlbossification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.