This girls-only Eagles tailgate offers a safe space for women — and green body glitter

“Ladies only — that’s the one stipulation for tonight,” said DJX over Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” as more than two dozen women (and a smattering of boyfriends) clustered around light-pink pong tables and cornhole boards in Lot F of Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night just before the Eagles in kelly green took on the Miami Dolphins.

The occasion: the first edition of Girlsgate, a women’s-only Eagles tailgate that started gaining momentum on social media earlier in October.

Initially created by Alyssa Layne and Harry McCloskey as a means to promote Layne’s mobile spray-tanning business and McCloskey’s bachelorette and nightlife concierge services, Girlsgate quickly morphed into a safe space for women looking to cheer on the Eagles without stress, fears of harassment, or a cluster of guys mansplaining how the Brotherly Shove works.

For many of the women who attended, it was their first tailgate despite years of living around Philadelphia. Now they’re itching to go back, grateful for a space that felt like theirs and theirs only.

“Everyone knows Philly’s tailgate culture is crazy, fun, and loud, but not everyone has a tailgate to go to, especially women,” said Layne, 27, of Ridley, who owns Let’s Glow Girls. “We just wanted to create a place for women to have fun.”

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The party kicked off just after 4:30 p.m., when Layne poured a bottle of bubbly down a six-tentacled drink funnel for guests to chug. Lime-green Jell-O shots were on offer, as were goodie bags stuffed with hot-pink scrunchies.

Kawana Patterson, 29, of Norristown, was one of the bubbly chuggers. Girlsgate was her first tailgate, she said, having been previously turned off by how territorial she’s seen men get over football.

“They act like we can’t like sports in the same way,” Patterson told The Inquirer while sipping from a Pink Lemonade Loverboy, her drink of choice. Her goals for the night were to “meet new people, get drunk, and ride the bull at Xfinity Live!” for the first time with her friend Taylor.

Though women make up just under half of football fans, according to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, sexism still permeates the league and can trickle down to spectators.

Case in point: When Taylor Swift started attending Kansas City Chiefs games to cheer on tight end Travis Kelce — her speculated beau — angry NFL fans took to social media to complain about how the pop star’s mere presence was emasculating Kelce and to beg for a sex tape.

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Take into account the league’s already checkered record on treating female employees fairly and Philly’s lack of safe nightlife spaces for women, and suddenly the standard Sunday tailgate can feel a lot more fraught.

“Men oversexualize us to the point where we can’t have fun,” said Yarona Grimmage, 25, of Northeast Philly, who attended Girlsgate with her high school bestie, Shakirah Heyward, a diehard Birds fans who “reps Jalen, DeVonta, and A.J.” any chance she gets.

Neither Heyward nor Grimmage were big tailgaters before Sunday but said they would turn out for another Girlsgate “in rain, snow, or shine.”

Lay Fernandez, 22, of West Philly agreed. Sunday was her first tailgate, she said, because “I feel very intimidated around men and I’m shy.” Fernandez was able to break open her shell Sunday night, though, taking turns at the drink funnel and challenging strangers to beer pong.

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Girlsgate was in full swing by the time Layne got around to passing out kelly green Jell-O shots and applying carefully measured amounts of midnight green body glitter on guests’ faces. She giggled when the shimmery flecks started to coat cans of Twisted Teas, Surfside Seltzers, and lemon shandy beers.

“During every decision I’ve made planning this, I asked myself, ‘Will that be fun? Will that help people make friends?’” Layne said, the latter being especially important as she recalled women on Facebook asking her if it was OK to show up alone.

At that point, Autumn Baumgart had wandered over to the Girlsgate from a tailgate a few rows over, hosted by the Fitler Square Italian restaurant Cotoletta. Baumgart said she was wooed by the playlist that mixed ABBA and Whitney Houston with the greatest hits from T-Pain and 50 Cent.

The various shades of pink made her feel comfortable, too, and she said she would make it a point to come back to future events.

“We want to fight the patriarchy,” Baumgart said. “Women like to drink, get rowdy, and be football fans, too.”