How “Feral Girls” Reshaped Pop Culture

What does it mean to be a “feral girl?”

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What does it mean to be a “feral girl?”

A few years ago, a term popped up that signaled to everyone that a sea change was coming to the way we all thought about girlhood, femininity, and power. A TikTok creator popularized the term “feral girl summer” as a response to the “clean girl” ethos taking over: Where the clean girl reveled in control, sleekness, and efficiency, going feral was about embracing the id. We’ve seen similar ideas such as the online obsession with “being chaotic” and “doing it for the plot”— there is an appeal to the loss of control, to surrendering yourself to your basest impulses.

There have been a number of books and shows that have tapped into that idea, zeroing in on fictional hunger, anger, ferocity, and cruelty.

In 2009’s cult classic Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox stars as Jennifer Check, a young woman sacrificed at the altar of male ambition and resurrected as a bloodthirsty demon (the movie is in fact, quite good and quite funny if you revisit it!). Jennifer’s best friend, Anita “Needy” Lesnicki, realizes her friend is… wrong, somehow, and becomes horrified as Jennifer begins devouring their male classmates.

Images clockwise from top left: Showtime’s Yellowjackets, Amazon Prime’s The Wilds, Amazon Prime’s Wilderness, and Jennifer’s Body.

In the fifteen years since the movie came out, the two have emerged as not only queer icons (happy pride!) but as bellwethers for the appreciation for a stranger type of female hero. While Jennifer becomes transformed through her victimhood, her arc is one of good for you: this is a movie where you root for the monster. Jennifer is charming, lethal, ruthless, and mean, and it makes for an incredible viewing experience when you sink into the material from the perspective of someone rooting for a girl untethered from society’s expectations for her.

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We know that in American society, women and girls are expected and socialized to be nice, kind, and sweet. On The Wilds, we got an in-depth look at a different type of female character, one in which darkness was interrogated and celebrated.

Premiering in December 2020, The Wilds was about a group of girls stranded on an island after a plane crash. The show was quiet but intense, bringing us into the world of each young woman pre-and post crash, showing us all their tiny rebellions. One was a closeted pageant queen, another a cello prodigy. Sarah Pidgeon (now of Love Story fame) played Leah, a frighteningly serious young woman with an analytical mind and a nose for conspiracies. Through the show’s run, we watch her investigate, realize things, and slowly begin to revel in her own darkness, tapping into a core she would never have been allowed to explore in the real world.

Sarah Pidgeon as Leah on The Wilds.

Similarly, Yellowjackets became a cultural moment by centering the experience of outsiders— girls who were not only angry, but jealous, brilliant, tactical, and wild. Alternating between a past timeline featuring a soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash and the present, the show cut its teeth on centering the stories of women with unusual— and sometimes dangerous— urges.

Misty, played by Gen X icon Christina Ricci, became a cultural icon due to her bloodthirst and eagerness to engage in behaviors that we normally never saw on TV. A prolific serial killer with a Reddit obsession, the character was hailed as iconic and camp. Not only that, but she was seen as a true representation for something we had never seen before— a woman tapping into her anger and using it to reshape her life. Across the cast, we see vengeful, petty Shauna, furious queen bee Jackie, rebellious Natalie, calculating Taissa, and all of them receive grace from the narrative and the audience.

Christina Ricci as Misty on Yellowjackets.

In Rebecca Barrow’s Doe, Maris channels a few of these powerful feral girls: like Misty, she channels her anger and uses it to empower her. In her dreams, Doe awaits, a creature more than willing to give her the strength to do what she– or they– feel is right.

This book sits us in the heart and mind of the world of a feral girl seeking to change her life by making a deal with an ancient deity. Maris is furious, powerful, smart, and dangerous, and centering the story on that of a queer Black woman alters the fabric of the story with many new layers.

Rebecca Barrow’s Doe.

Centering the stories of women and girls who deviate from the typical norm is bold, and Doe taps into the stories of feral girls who refuse to be bound by the old rules of society.

Maris steps into the shoes of feral girls before her: Misty, Leah, Shauna, Jennifer: there is a rich tapestry of women who let their desires power them, tap into ancient forces, and fully unleash on people who have wronged them.

Doe is out now!