gamegrrl:

quantumfemme: unoppressedactivities: white girls are having a crisis, y’all. I’m so embarrassed oh my god why okay but like. girls being made fun of for liking things that are either marketed toward them or popular (or both) is REALLY prevalent?? and like?? sexist?? like blatantly sexist??? and if you actually read the article its like?? talking about destroying the idea that a girl is “less than” just bc she likes popular stuff? like man that’s important please stop

The bolded excerpt from the article captures it really well.

“Liking something popular doesn’t make you lame. Discounting someone for having some of those same interests does.”

And this is something that happens pretty exclusively to women. The article even points it out. When men enjoy things that are popular among men, no one comments on in, certainly not in a negative way. No one laughs at men for liking CrossFit, or beer, or watching football. It’s okay for men to like things that lots of men like because mens’ interests are good and valuable from a societal perspective. Because men are good and valuable. But when women like things, those things become the subject of shitty, sexist jokes that further the belittlement of the interests of women and women in general.

This is just another way for men to shit on women and to further brainwash women and girls with internalized misogyny. This becomes another case of “I’m not like other girls.”

“Oh she likes pumpkin spice lattes and Sex in the City? That’s so gross and lame. I like Guinness and WWE. I’m just not like other girls.”

As though being like others girls is so bad. But thanks to the idea that liking what other girls like makes you a “basic bitch” and thus lame and to be laughed at, another generation of girls is growing up thinking that women and the things they enjoy are detestable and to be laughed at while the interests of men are somehow superior and preferable. That girls doing things that make them happy is some sort of sad joke.

And that’s complete bullshit.

EDIT: Okay so I had originally made a separate post about this but I’m seeing a lot of people reblogging this and using my words to support their racism, which fuck you, so clearly that was a mistake. The issue I used this post to address was the way in which (at least in the US) women’s interests are largely belittled and devalued - and how this devalues women and hugely drives internalized misogyny.

I used the article and it’s examples as a launching off point because it brings up a shallow version of this issue and frames it in a clear way, however it does so without addressing (and in fact completely ignoring and relying on) the appropriation of the term “basic” or “basic bitch” from aave and the fact that the appropriated use of the term changes its meaning. I originally chose to address this in a separate post because, since I am white, the problematic and harmful nature of appropriation of aave and black culture is something that I do not have the experience to speak to. But I see now that this was a mistake. Obviously, I still do not have experience to speak on this issue however there are a lot of people who have commented on this who absolutely do and who have made other excellent posts as well discussing the way issues like this completely fail to address non-white women and the problems they face, and how discussion of issues like this more often than not happen at their expense.

One thing that I have seen on this post that I want to address right fucking now is white feminists calling black women misogynistic and blaming them for the creation and use of this term, and for their responses to this post. Let me be clear - the people who’s language is being appropriated are not to blame for the appropriated use of said language. Further, the points that they are making in regards to white feminism, appropriation, racism, and their experiences are incredibly important. Attempting to separate issues of sexism and racism in order to shut down women of color from talking about their experiences and oppression is racist white feminist bullshit.

The issue I was attempting to discuss is only tangentially related to the term the article uses to frame it. It’s so much more than the appropriated meaning of the term “basic,” it’s often at the very seams of US culture. It’s in our language, the existence of gendered marketing, the fact that professions dominated by women are considered ‘soft’ and less valued, the experiences and oppression of trans men and women. The devaluation of women, women’s work, and women’s interests is something that occurs every day and in nearly every aspect of life.