# What is meant by a "Basic Woman"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011 "2014-09-20T13:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/41 "2015-08-27T09:34:33Z")
Get a t-shirt made up: 10 CLS 20 PRINT “Fuck you, girls!” 30 END ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/42 "2015-08-27T11:44:38Z")
Not sure - No visible tattoos maybe? Thing is I find many women go thru a stage where they are just “basic”. They might have been wild in college but mellowed out after marriage and kids. After all many crafts, hobbies, lifestyles, sports, clubs, bars, etc… take alot of time and money and sometimes you just dont have those. Ex. people that do reenactments for years find out they dont have the time after awhile. I’ve known some people who lived for years a very bohemian lifestyle or lived in a commune but then they find out they needed to get a career and family going and they make changes. But then people live a LONG time and maybe at age 50 or so when the kids are all gone, the house is almost paid for, career is going well, they might just go and make some big changes. Start up a new hobby maybe. Or just go out and start getting tattoos. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/43 "2015-08-27T12:06:55Z")
Seems like a snobby way to feel a little more like a snowflake… ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/44 "2015-08-27T12:24:33Z")
Stuff that is “basic bitch”: [ul] [li]leggings. double points for leggings with Uggs. A third point for a “cute” hoodie. [/li][li]doing yoga (or saying you are)[/li][li]pumpkin spice Starbucks[/li][li]the newest overpriced fashion jewelry fad (like Alix and Ani bracelets, mentioned upthread)[/li][li]being obsessed with straightening your hair and flipping it around/pushing it out of your face[/li][li]getting a mani/pedi with girl friends and talking non-stop the entire time so that everyone in the salon can hear the verbal bon mots[/li][li]watching reality TV and discussing those people with others[/li][li]she only reads chick lit[/li][li]obsession with wearing the perfect highlighter/contour combo[/li][li]false eyelashes in the daytime[/li][li]ANY reference to any of the Khardashians provides quadruple points. [/li][/ul] [Vocal fry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqVgtLQ7qM) is \*very \*basic. There’s more, but I need more caffeine to come up with it. ETA: Basic bitches are the target consumers of every ongoing pop culture fad. Inspirational pillows or wall “art”, Pinterest, cupcakes as _amazeballs!_, and certain girlie drinks. All also basic. ETA2: I should come up with a list of “basic” tendencies for those of us who grew up in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/45 "2015-08-27T13:18:01Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Get a t-shirt made up: > > 10 CLS > 20 PRINT “Fuck you, girls!” > 30 END except it should be 30 GOTO 20 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/46 "2015-08-27T14:23:22Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Stuff that is “basic bitch”: > > [ul] > [li]leggings. double points for leggings with Uggs. A third point for a “cute” hoodie. [/li][li]doing yoga (or saying you are)[/li][li]pumpkin spice Starbucks[/li][li]the newest overpriced fashion jewelry fad (like Alix and Ani bracelets, mentioned upthread)[/li][li]being obsessed with straightening your hair and flipping it around/pushing it out of your face[/li][li]getting a mani/pedi with girl friends and talking non-stop the entire time so that everyone in the salon can hear the verbal bon mots[/li][li]watching reality TV and discussing those people with others[/li][li]she only reads chick lit[/li][li]obsession with wearing the perfect highlighter/contour combo[/li][li]false eyelashes in the daytime[/li][li]ANY reference to any of the Khardashians provides quadruple points. [/li][/ul] You know, this is pretty much my understanding, but looking at this list makes one thing very, very clear. These items are _so disparate_ that the term is almost meaningless. In fact, the term _basic woman_ clearly is more about the person who is using it, and why. When someone uses the term, really they’re trying to say something about themselves more than about the other person. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/47 "2015-08-27T14:46:06Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > They’re just jealous of your high pH. And here I was thinking it was because she was programmed in an ancient interpreted programming language that hasn’t been cool since the 1980s. :dubious: ETA: Glad to see the trope’s been ninja’d a few times upthread. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/48 "2015-08-27T14:57:23Z")
I have never heard this term before. Then again, it sounds like a term a 20 something would use. Not just a 20 something, but the kind of young lady that I would not be spending much time around. It’s vaguely"Valley Girl" and, as \*\*guizot \*\* said, extremely telling about the speaker. So, fuck 'em. As to the links in the OP: I haven’t thought of or heard that song in ages; thanks!I don’t think I ever knew the words to it, but I remember it being played in nightclubs. Good times. I don’t know what the hell that second link is. The third link is incomprehensible to me. I not only am unfamiliar with Lauren Conrad but the whole article is filled with expressions and references that are completely alien to me. I know I’m old, but sheesh (at least I’m not basic :p) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/49 "2015-08-27T14:59:44Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Aha! I know these people, but I’ve been calling them “Westfield Moms” for years. As in Westfield, NJ, which is where I live. I have a ton of trouble telling my son’s classmates’ mothers apart because they all seem to look the same, act the same, and talk about the same stuff. Nice ladies to be sure, but I’m never sure whether I’m talking to Taylor’s mom or Tyler’s mom or Dylan’s mom or Declan’s mom. > > And every single one of them is sporting those generic Alex and Ani bracelets that look like wire hangers with dime-store charms dangling off of them. The fact Westfield Corp [Westfield United States](http://www.westfield.com/us/) owns a huge fraction of the middlebrow malls and shopping centers in the US makes it a doubly-appropriate term. Bravo. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/50 "2015-08-27T15:03:24Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > You know, this is pretty much my understanding, but looking at this list makes one thing very, very clear. These items are _so disparate_ that the term is almost meaningless. … What’s similar about the list is that the person doing those things is the consummate follower. The list consists of whatever is popular in middlebrow whitebread Mommy culture _today_, as communicated and standardize by mass media aided and abetted by the hive mind of social media. The list will be quite different in 5 or 10 years. But whatever it is, the Basic person will embody it perfectly. IOW, a person who’s simply a clone of the average Facebook follower. And who, ideally, is unaware that that’s what’s driving their behaviors and preferences. They mistakenly believe they’ve come to their preferences and habits by deliberate choice. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/51 "2015-08-27T15:41:52Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > You know, this is pretty much my understanding, but looking at this list makes one thing very, very clear. These items are _so disparate_ that the term is almost meaningless. They may be disparate items but there’s a very specific type of person who engages in all of them. It’s like when people make cracks about white college girls drinking pumpkin spice lattes in their north face jackets and ugg boots. Disparate items - only one kind of person who’d be caught dead in the middle of that venn diagram. Although, to go along with the follower concept, when I was in college and just out of it, basic as a descriptor meant shallow and without a lot of thought. Someone acting, dressing or talking basic is being boring and conventional. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/52 "2015-08-27T18:15:15Z")
Apropos of nothing: [QUOTE=Diane Court] Lloyd was such a gentleman. He was funny and nervous and strange, and I met people that I never would have met before, then I blew it. I called him basic. Can you believe I did that? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![dunkleosteus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkleosteus/32/9331_2.png) [@dunkleosteus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dunkleosteus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/53 "2015-08-27T20:27:26Z")
My understanding of the term is that it would really only be used by and for a younger generation (\<30, although I can’t speak for your age) and that it refers to a woman who is generally not intelligent, probably works a low-income job (or doesn’t work), and likes to gossip or shop a lot. I’ve usually heard it from a man to or about a woman that he wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with because of the qualities described above. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/54 "2015-08-28T00:58:50Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Resurrecting the zombie to add startling news: The insult may have been coined by none other than Sylvia Plath! > > Cite: > > [Sylvia Plath might have been the first person to use ‘basic’ as an insult (as in ‘basic b\*tch’) | The Independent | The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sylvia-plath-might-have-been-the-first-person-to-use-basic-as-an-insult-as-in-basic-btch-10473076.html) That’s pretty interesting. I might have to go back and read her stuff as an adult. TY for sharing this. I do think “basic bitch” is a really good descriptor. Florence King used the term “merkin” (hilarious itself) to refer to a similar kind of woman. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/55 "2015-08-28T01:04:25Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > She doesn’t drink anything that doesn’t end in “-tini” or “-politan” or start with “pumpkin spice.” I’m going to make a single-serving bottled, pre-mixed version of [these](http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/180314/pumpkin-spice-martini/?mxt=t06rda), but with fat-free soy milk, to be served cold. The basic bitch pumpkin spice -tini. I shall be rich! ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/56 "2015-08-28T01:37:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > What’s similar about the list is that the person doing those things is the consummate follower. The list consists of whatever is popular in middlebrow whitebread Mommy culture _today_, as communicated and standardize by mass media aided and abetted by the hive mind of social media. > > The list will be quite different in 5 or 10 years. But whatever it is, the Basic person will embody it perfectly. > > IOW, a person who’s simply a clone of the average Facebook follower. . . On the one hand, I know what you mean very well. But on the other, concepts such as “middlebrow whitebread Mommy culture” are really subjectively defined, not to mention very general at best. And who is the “average Facebook follower”? Where exactly is the boundary between “hive” social media and acceptable social media? There’s too much variation in these things (however disagreeable they may be) to give real intrinsic meaning to the term. It’s like saying, “Oh, all those crass people using their telephones.” > [@LSLGuy](#): > > And who, ideally, is unaware that that’s what’s driving their behaviors and preferences. They mistakenly believe they’ve come to their preferences and habits by deliberate choice. This part, however, really does say something. I don’t get the impression, though, that the general usage of _basic bitch_ really means to imply it. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/57 "2015-08-28T01:48:36Z")
I thought maybe ‘unadorned’ in a feminine context, so stuff life not shaving your legs too often or bothering too much with makeup after a bit of eye liner. I dunno really … 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/58 "2015-08-28T02:05:15Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > They may be disparate items but there’s a very specific type of person who engages in all of them. It’s like when people make cracks about white college girls drinking pumpkin spice lattes in their north face jackets and ugg boots. Disparate items - only one kind of person who’d be caught dead in the middle of that venn diagram. Yes, that’s true. I guess I just don’t come across enough of those people to make the term so operational for me. The college where I teach is I think only about 23% white. (And the neighborhood where I live, East Hollywood, is I think less than 20% white.) Seriously, how can pumpkin spice be so critical? What do they drink from January to September? ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/59 "2015-08-28T02:35:30Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Seriously, how can pumpkin spice be so critical? What do they drink from January to September? I’m guessing a skinny soy milk latte with cinnamon. ETA: my god, there are pumpkin spice k-cups. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011/60 "2015-08-28T03:27:05Z")
“Basic bitch” seems to basically refer to Gretchen from Mean Girls (corrected for the current time period). It’s not the politics playing, trend setting queen bee, it’s the hanger-on who is pretty and popular or whatever, but also a consummate trend follower. It’s a lame insult I wouldn’t use, but it’s also one where after you see the definitions paints an extremely clear picture if you’ve been around the people they’re complaining about. It’s the stereotypical “sorority girl” at your college, or one of the “popular girls” that’s not quite popular enough to be homecoming queen at your high school. They’re the exact target audience you’d rope in if some stuffy guy in a suit told you to “make something that appeals to late-teen/early-mid twenty something American white women” without being more specific. It’s the one who says what stereotypical “pretty girl” in most movies would say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-a-basic-woman/699011.md?page=4)