Maher referred to another video in which “a girl said how, like, in medieval times peasants had to eat nothing but bread and cheese and how awful that was, and she was like ‘that’s my ideal meal’ ... I call this ‘girl dinner’ or ‘medieval peasant’.”
Maher’s post eventually led to her being interviewed by The New York Times - and she told the outlet the post had been inspired by a chat with a friend about how much they loved bread and cheese as a meal.
“We love eating that way, and it feels like such a girl dinner because we do it when our boyfriends aren’t around and we don’t have to have what’s a ‘typical dinner’ — essentially, with a protein and a veggie and a starch,” Maher explained.
Food writer Tom Hillenbrand chimed in on the trend, writing on Twitter. “Most Germans eat like this every evening. We call it Abendbrot.”
Nigella Lawson added: “And we call them Picky Bits.”
But the trend hasn’t proved a hit with everyone, as some have warned against snacking for dinner instead of having a proper meal.
One user’s opinion was that “Girl dinner is breeding negative thoughts ... [it’s] set up as, like, girls are literally eating snack plates for dinner with, like, four crackers, two pieces of ham, five pickles and maybe some olives. What’s really lacking is substance and calories.”
She went on to claim that those embracing the trend “aren’t eating enough ... at least, that’s in my opinion”.
“Now, I have no nutrition [or] dietetic background, but I do come from an ED [eating disorder] background that really took a lot of my life.”
“It’s just minimal calories, to me. It’s a snack plate. And also what girl dinners are doing, it’s showing me that maybe eating enough on my plate or what’s on my plate is not good enough or it’s way too much,” she added.
Another TikTok user worried the trend was “glorifying disordered eating as a cute little girly thing”, adding that “a bag of popcorn is not dinner ... a piece of toast is not dinner”.
Meanwhile, others have suggested the trend is an “empowering” thing for women because of the minimal work involved in preparing it.
Cleveland art historian Seema Rao told The New York Times: “The idea of cooking dinner was historically women’s work in the home.
“What I like about ‘girl dinner’ is it takes away the idea that you have to cook anything. You just literally put it together.
“So you go from a position where the production of the food is what makes it good and makes you a valid woman, to the idea that having food is what makes you a valid woman.”
