What it means to be a basic bitch
/A “basic bitch” can best be described as a young woman who is completely average. According to the wise contributors of Urban Dictionary, a basic bitch is “just an extra regular female.” Much like #whitegirlproblems, a woman’s basicness is likely due to her preference for Starbucks beverages, Ugg boots, Marilyn Monroe quotes, and other pop-culture phenomena. The term, probably originating from the hip-hop community, like so many slang words tend to do, has become so popular that it’s been shortened to “basic” and is synonymous with “boring,” “average,” or “ordinary.” (For example, an insult directed towards a young woman could include something like: “You’re so basic,” or “That outfit is so basic.”)
Unfortunately, “basic bitch” is just as problematic as “white girl problems,” as it’s mocking and degrading a woman and her personal interests and preferences. As Michael Reid Roberts of The American Reader says, “jokes about basic girlfriends reek not only of a disgust of female mass culture, but of women in general.” Every time a man refers to a woman as “basic,” he’s implying that she is ordinary, and lacks unique, redeeming qualities. Maybe she’s okay to hang out with sometimes, but he wouldn’t commit to a basic bitch. She’s cute, but she’s not special. And women are guilty of it, too. Calling one another a “basic bitch” implies a sense of arrogance, as if one is better than the other because of the clothes she wears (like in Kreayshawn’s hit “Gucci Gucci”), the way she styles her hair, or the television shows she watches, and it only allows men to continue doing it too. In the fight for gender equality, women need to join together and support one another, not perpetuate hate.
After all this thought about basic bitches, I couldn’t help but think, “aren’t men basic too?” How many times do you see massive groups of dudes banding together over sports or video games? We were all witness to the great visor trend of 1999, and the time when Lacoste polos were everything to the popular boys at school. Fortunately for women, some of the great people of the Internet agree: this list provides ten solid examples of “basic bros.” Because so help me God if I have to hear one more man in a KCCO t-shirt telling me how he just can’t live without bacon.
Could you be basic? Watch the video below to see if you are exhibiting any of the classic basic bitch symptoms:
