I’m blaming it all on the Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte. The limited edition coffee, not quite the cultural phenomenon over here as it is in the States, has of late prompted a whole slew of articles making light of the shit that ‘basic white girls’ do – number one being apparently, drinking Pumpkin Spiced Lattes by the bucket load. Other quoted traits include (but definitely aren’t limited to) knowing every word to Mean Girls, fancying Channing Tatum (Ginuwine's Pony, Magic Mike, you know the drill) and talking about their Netflix addiction.
While the ‘Basic White Girl’ meme is funny, close to the bone for many people and successful thanks to it's relatability, it is at base level, a grouping together and mocking of traits and behaviours that most 20-something women would admit to at least one of (even if it is under duress). Thanks to the derisive way that the stereotype is painted though, girls want to disassociate themselves from the meme; the less things they've done on the lists, the more worthy they are.
A recent blog post on the very excellent TwoThousandTimes explores this need women feel to distance themselves from the ‘female’ behaviour that tends to get a bad rap. After the writer ‘Miso’ watched a woman coquettishly inform a first date that she was ‘Not like most girls…’ as if ‘most girls’ was a negative connotation, Miso defended her right to be just that. ‘Some nights I go out and get far too intoxicated only to return home and eat an entire tub of hummus with carrots or anything really because we all know that everything is just a vehicle for delivering the hummus… I cry for no reason while I make toast because, life and maybe hormonal imbalances too… sometimes I don’t shake my legs and armpits for weeks and sometimes I tell people I already have plans when my only plan is to splat on my couch and watch an awful reality show I would never confess to watching public.’
As well as this, Miso admits that yes, sometimes she waits until she leaves her friends' houses to poo and fart, but as a human being she does do them. She sometimes goes to the gym dressed in all her gym gear and then turns straight back around when she reaches the door because she doesn't feel like it. Even better, she sometimes is 'excited to get home from work solely because it finally means I can take my bra off. I am like most girls.'
‘I want all females, girls, women to know and understand that they are special. You are a cosmic constellation and your sheer existence is a miracle,’ continues Miso. And you know what? She's right. Being a feminist and a career-driven lady doesn't mean that women have to deny the so called 'guilty pleasures' that being a girl can entail. Let's look at this objectively; Mean Girls is still famous 10 years on because it's freaking awesome, Channing Tatum is fanciable because he's hot and Netflix has 40 million fucking users, so no matter what the lists say, you are not the only one with said 'addicition'. So, despite how much mocking the internet might send your way Basic White Girls; if you want to Instagram the hell out of yourself pouring a Pumpkin Spiced Latte over your head before spending a hour deabting the merits of the Valencia filter over X-Pro II then you go right ahead. Life's hard enough - don't take away the things that make you happy.
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Picture: Lukasz Wierbowski
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.