Anew trend is spreading across TikTok and Instagram, and young women are vulnerable to its feminist messaging. These popular videos use an audio excerpt from the 2024 movie Here, in which a character breaks down over the opportunities she thinks she has missed.
“But I never made it to law school,” she says, voice trembling, “and I never got to see Paris in the spring, and I never got to stay over in Yellowstone because it was too crowded.”
In video after video on social media, the audio plays over a montage of women traveling, enjoying “girl time,” and pursuing higher education. Across the colorful clips appears a warning: Don’t let your figs rot.
That line comes from a concept in Sylvia Plath’s book, The Bell Jar. She describes all the potential future paths she could choose, stretching out before her like a fig tree, with each fig representing a different future. Paralyzed by indecision, she fails to act before the figs rot, leaving her life wasted.
These social media videos instruct young women to fear wasting their potential, but the implication is clear: Traditional living — marrying young, settling down, living within your means, having children, and raising them yourself at home — is what wasted potential looks like. Unless you devote your 20s and 30s to higher education, career-building, and “finding yourself” through travel and so-called self-care, you have “let your figs rot.” Fewer husbands and kids, more degrees and vacations.
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