What is a Hot Girl Summer
Abdullah: 'Hot Girl Summer' was kind of a concept that Meghan Thee Stallion came up with in the song ‘Hot Girl Summer’, and it’s basically about people being unapologetically them, having a good time, and not giving a damn what anyone has to say about it. I think at it’s core its just about having a good time.
Zara: I think it’s about coming together with like-minded people, your friends, having fun and being yourself. Ultimately it’s about creating bonds and having a safe space.
Nada: Yeah, it’s doing things that empower you personally. It’s all about self-confidence and being unapologetic and owning yourself. As long as you’re happy, healthy and not hurting anyone – I think being unapologetic about yourself is an important avenue towards self-confidence, and obviously self-confidence is an extremely important thing to have. It takes a lot of discipline.
Zara: You only live once, so why would you want to care what everyone has to say about you. Its better to just be happy and be proud of yourself.
Abdullah: Every single day people tell you how you should act, what you should do, what type of person you should be. There’s always expectations put upon you. Breaking through those expectations and doing what you want to do is something that’s really powerful and something we should value.
“As far as we’re concerned, the Hot Girl Summer is eternal”
HotSoc Beginnings
Abdullah: Initially it was just a small discord server with me and a few friends from uni. Honestly, we couldn’t really find a society or a space in the university where it felt judgement-free. It felt like a lot of societies were tied to a theme or a brand that could be quite exclusionary. So it started off as like a fun space for friends to hang out and when Discord introduced the university-hubs thing, it just kind of blew up from there. We had hundreds of people join within the first few days, so that was insane.
Hot Girl Summer Misconceptions
Nada: The concept of a Hot Girl Summer is not at all exclusive to people who identify as female. Hot Girl Summers are about doing whatever empowers you; as long as you’re having fun, staying healthy and not hurting anybody – then absolutely nobody is excluded, regardless of what the term ‘Hot Girl Summer’ may initially suggest.
Zara: It’s not always the stereotypical thing that you would first think of. That’s an issue that we’ve been faced with, we’ve had a few trolls join with the wrong idea that its about being ‘hot’ or looking a certain way, but it’s really about being yourself.
Is the Hot Girl Summer an expression of feminism for our generation?
Abdullah: It’s about pushing boundaries… going beyond expectations. So I guess that aligns with a lot of feminist ideals and values, which are about empowering people and fighting for equality. I think Hot Girl Summer is an avenue through which feminism can be supported and something we love.
Plans for the society
Abdullah: It was quite a challenge to get things set up because we were in lockdown when we started. Luckily though, we had a lot of community feedback and a lot of people wanted to have in-person events. Hopefully as things start opening up and we can transition back to campus we want to do events like ‘self-care night’ and open mic nights and stuff like that where you can just come and hang out, and not have any expectations put on you.
Zara: We’re also listening to our members, sending out polls asking them what they want from us. It’s a work in progress.
The 3 Rules of a Hot Girl Summer
- Have fun
- Strive to be the best version of yourself
- Do whatever makes you happy
