After Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died, ESPN SportsCenter anchor Elle Duncan recalled Bryant’s pride in being the father of daughters. She recounted an exchange that culminated in his telling her, “I would have five more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad.”

As Duncan’s story went viral, thousands of fathers responded to the story on social media using the hashtag #GirlDad to share photographs and express fatherly pride. As acts of collective mourning, these posts honored Kobe and Gianna’s relationship, paid tribute to the Bryant family’s loss and nodded toward a profound shared grief.

But just below the surface, #GirlDad and its popularity also hinted at the existence of negative gender stereotypes that are rarely openly discussed. The hashtag only makes sense because we live in a societal context in which girls are routinely demeaned or degraded. (A “#BoyDad” hashtag would seem redundant.) It reminds me of how “Girl Power” gained popularity as a catchphrase in the late 1990s: Girl power countered the stereotypes that girls lack power and agency and that their interests are trivial, not worthy of praise. Conceptually, #GirlDad works in the same way.