Normalized Misognyny and Why I Hate the Trend Making Fun of “Popular Girl Humor”

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Jefferson chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Everytime I open Tik Tok, I see videos poking fun at the humor of popular girls, often who are teenagers, because it’s “basic”. Whether it is making silly faces at minor inconveniences, being overly clumsy, or quoting popular audios, these simple forms of humor have grown to be negatively associated with popular girls. 

I, like many others, do not really find this type of humor funny, but I don’t have it in me to care. Why are we, as young women, putting down our peers based on how they express themselves? This “popular girl humor” is not mean, it’s not poking fun at others, it is just a playful way to express yourself based on what is trending.

Some may argue that when people use “popular girl humor”, it makes women seem stupid and one-dimensional. Yes, the “I’m just a girl” trend does tend to put women down, trivializing real issues and associating a lack of intelligence with femininity. However, when comment sections are filled with “at least she’s pretty,” aren’t we doing the exact same thing? We are putting down women because it is a trend on Tik Tok, reinforcing the stereotype that women can’t be both pretty and funny, that humor and femininity cannot coexist. When men use the same goofy, surface-level humor, they get praised for it. When a girl does it, she’s called “cringe” or “pick-me.” These young girls are mocked for “trying too hard” by people claiming their humor doesn’t seem to be trying hard enough. What is this double-standard, and why are we still holding it up?

What’s worse is I’ve only seen women making fun of other women with this trend, and it needs to stop. We say we want to encourage women to be authentic and creative, but, at the same time, we’re punishing girly, joyful behavior the moment it doesn’t fit our version of “authentic”. Yes, the humor is performative at times, but isn’t that the nature of social media? That doesn’t mean it deserves to be mocked. 

“Popular girl humor” is simply a way young women have learned to express themselves and create bonds with other girls through something they have in common. By mocking it, we are normalizing misogynistic attitudes that make femininity the punchline of a joke. Girls should not have to apologize or censor themselves because they want to make someone laugh. It’s time we move on from putting young women down because they’re pretty or because we don’t think they’re funny, because it just normalizes the same misogyny we claim to be fighting.