I feel like I am a little in the dark about a certain cultural happening right now. Maybe it’s because I’ve been seriously off in mamma-land for the past 10 months, or maybe it’s because I’m just lame, but can anyone tell me the difference between a squad/tribe/coven and a good old-fashion clique?
When I was in high school, “cliques” were considered the devil. I can’t tell you how many assemblies we had where the topic was “why cliques are ruining everyone and everything”. And come on, have you seen the movie Mean Girls?
So in our teens exclusive groups of girls was frowned upon, but now as adults exclusive groups of girls seems to be celebrated? And do NOT get me wrong, I value my female friendships above all else. Truly I do. But I guess I see them more as individual friendships and less as a “group”. Also the term I use for them is “chosen family”, which although is still exclusive (I mean they are the chosen people, similar to Judaism), it does include my male pals and somehow it feels less bitchy.
I recently saw an inspirational quote which states: “Girls compete with each other, Women empower one another”. (Don’t ask where I saw this … OK FINE it was Selena Gomez’s instagram). And that is a wonderful sentiment, but I’m wondering if simply forming a squad makes us supportive of our female friends, instead of competitive? Do further steps need to be taken? Is there a better way to acknowledge/celebrate the amazing females in our lives? (And I know the all-mighty queen of squads, Taylor Swift, is super supportive of her female friends. This is not a knock against TayTay by any means). Just tossing the question out into the world and cyberspace (people still say cyberspace, right?)!
AGAIN, don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-squad, I am just looking for some clarification on what the difference is between a squad and a clique so I don’t cringe from high school flashbacks every time I see #squadgoals.
SO – any thoughts?
