The season is quickly approaching when girls will be sporting their Uggs and long black parkas everywhere they go. Along with winter and Uggs comes the season where girls are called that eye rolling word most often: basic. The image of the “basic white girl” that comes to mind is a girl walking around in her “basic” outfit, drinking a Starbucks latte, and probably chatting away on her iPhone. While I won’t deny that some basic qualities exist amongst the female population, I am here to propose a question: Why aren’t our lovely friends the “basic white boys” ever called out on their bluff?
If you deny that a “basic guy” prototype exists, you are seriously delusional. Like girls, there are many exceptionally common qualities that most of our male counterparts often display. For one, you will never see the “basic white boy” walking around in the winter without his Timberland boots. “But hold up!” he might say, “My Timbs are very functional!” All right bud, I’ll give that to you. Your work boots are very functional, FOR A CONSTRUCTION WORKER. Your basic boy is not going to build anything or do any physical work that would require heavy-duty footwear. He is going to sit in the Business Building for his accounting lecture.
For every girl with a long black parka, there is a guy with a Patagonia. Yes, my friends, the basic boy loves his Patagonia fleece. I will give it to the guys, Patagonias are very comfortable and warm, and honestly, most guys look good in a nice Patagonia. However, we are not talking about comfort or warmth or looks here. We are talking about basicness. Tell me the last time you walked more than one block without seeing a guy sporting one of his colorfully patterned fleece Patagonia sweaters on a chilly day. Oh yeah, you can’t, because they are literally everywhere when the thermostat drops below 45.
At this point, you’re probably saying, “Okay, so guys wear Timbs and Patagonias. Girls are still much more basic!” Well, not so fast! Just like the girl who carries her Starbucks cup as if it is actually attached to her hand, we see our boys carrying something just as painstakingly basic: the Blender Bottle. Yes, it’s true! Just about every single male I know between the ages of 18 and 22 has a Blender Bottle. I understand that post-gym you have to make sure the gains count by mixing up your mysterious powdered shake with a small plastic ball inside your water bottle, but this “accessory” is truly basic. It’s just too typical to see a guy at the gym with a Blender Bottle.
So, both guys and girls are basic. We have trends that we follow, because that’s what human beings do. Most of our trends are practical and comfortable for our age group, so why not follow? The moral of the story here is that while girls are very basic, it cannot be denied that the “basic white boy” exists alongside his female counterpart.
However, while we can poke fun at our basicness all day long, the point is, let people wear and do what they want. This season, before you call someone basic, ask yourself why you care. Odds are, you don’t care. People wear clothes, and a lot of times people wear similar clothes. Worry about the person inside the clothes, basic or not.
