It’s Friday and the only song I have going through my head is a throw back to 2010 when Rebecca Black made her debut as a singer. That song wasn’t the greatest thing but most of us couldn’t get it out of our heads. I guess she did her job well then.

Basic Girls

Recently, I’ve been doing my social media thing (Instagramming, hash tagging etc.) and have noticed that the tag ‘basic’ or more commonly tagged ‘basic b*tch’, is gaining traction. I’m not sure where the tag started or why it started but I do know this: it’s being used as an insult. On several occasions I have been referred to as ‘basic’ whether it be on Instagram, my friends joking around, or even in one case, on my own blog. The irony of this insult is that I don’t find it all that insulting and here’s why.

According to the Urban Dictionary (because Webster’s doesn’t know what I’m talking about), the term ‘basic’ is used for someone who is void of any interesting characteristics. You might say this person fulfills a stereotype. Take for example, me and the preppy/girly stereotype I resemble. I’m a middle-class, 20-something, white girl, who likes lattes, Taylor Swift, Kate Spade, Vineyard Vines, the color pink, and a fresh manicure. When someone calls me basic, I suppose they mean I’m not interesting. Ok, that’s fine. However, what if we applied the term ‘basic’ to everyone who fulfills a stereotype?

At the college I went to, we had Hipsters galore! What if I said that the stereotypical Hipster was basic? You know who I’m talking about- the type that wears the Waldo glasses, beanies, rides a long board, and listens to Indie music at a local coffee shop. Or what about people who identify their style as ’emo’ or ‘urban’? Can they be basic too?

What’s so bad about being a ‘basic’ girl? I like certain things and you like certain things, it doesn’t mean I don’t have a personality, it just means that on a surface level I have tastes that fall into a category in which other people who have similar tastes fall into as well. Obviously, looking at the surface only tells you so much about a person. Unfortunately, we stereotype because life doesn’t give us much time to dig deeper, but that’s ok. In my mind, I’m a girl who loves being girly and looking at pretty things. Does that really make me basic? If it does, then I’m fine with being called that. I am what I am and no hash tag can change that.