The Girlfriend Effect is a trend that involves women showing a “before and after” style slideshow with photos of their boyfriend or husband before they started dating, followed by photos of how they look now.
The Boyfriend Effect, generally, is reversed. In this trend, women post flattering photos of themselves before dating and less-flattering photos after.
What It Tells Us
The implication of the “Girlfriend Effect” is that the man looks more put-together, more confident, and more attractive due to the influence of the woman. This has resulted in some applauding what once was called a “woman’s touch,” but it has also resulted in some criticizing the cookie-cutter, Instagram ready styles that have been impressed on the men.
The implication of the “Boyfriend Effect” is that men are exhausting, that men are not helpful to their (the ladies) image, and that men are the cause for their (the ladies) lack of, what this generation has termed, “self-care.” There isn’t really a whole lot of push back on this one simply due to the fact that there is a certain level of truth in it for certain relationships and our culture is so used to painting men in a bad light anyway.
Now, here’s where I get to get into trouble. While men indeed are notoriously known for not being the most fashionable and while woman typically are, why do we see the need today, primarily among the ladies, to highlight the areas that men struggle in and to blame men for the realities and for the struggles that are naturally a part of married life, of the busy life, and of getting older. With that being said, they are indeed areas that we all could improve in, but that should begin with more personal honesty and less of trying to point the finger at somebody, or anybody. else.
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
1 Timothy 4:8 says, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
