Why is Everyone so Afraid to be Basic?

From the performative male to basic girl -- what compels us to distance from "conformity" and design eccentricity? Follow our writer Erin, as she investigates our desires for individualism and why we run away from the labels of being "basic".

In a world swirling with labels, tropes, and types, we are just dying to compartmentalise and label everything and anything. Mainstream music? Basic. Like matcha? Basic. Enjoy romance books? Take a guess what I’m going to say next…

Wikipedia defines ‘basic’ as a term used to (pejoratively) describe culturally unoriginal people, particularly young women, who seem to prefer products, trends, or music that help them build an upper-class façade. Some of basics’ predecessors are valley girl, bimbo, and airhead. But ‘basic’ things must be popular for a reason, right? They’re more accessible to the general population and allow us to find common ground with one another! (but I digress…)

The point of this article is not to police anyone’s usage of the word but rather to investigate the motivations that lie behind using the word and society’s role in shaping these perspectives. Perhaps you’ve been labelled as ‘basic’ for something you enjoy, or maybe you’ve thrown the word around yourself. I know I have. The primary question I want you, reader, to keep in the back of your mind and perhaps have the words to answer after you’ve reached the end of this piece is: Is it really that bad to be ‘basic’?

The Performative Male 

Drinks matcha, listens to Clairo, wears wired earphones, and reads feminist literature. Does this sound like you? If yes, I’m afraid you’ve been diagnosed with “performative maleluenza”. It can be rather severe if not treated promptly – a textbook case of mindless trend-following.

The Performative Male is characterised by someone who adopts progressive, especially feminist ideologies in order to project a likeable and enlightened image, without really holding any of these beliefs himself. The Guardian states that “The idea is that the performative male is a guy who goes about looking feminist and woke. The catch is that his aesthetic is curated to appeal to what he thinks women might like rather than being a totally earnest expression of his interests.”

Signs of a Performative Male:

●           Drinks matcha

●           Carries tote bags with Labubu keychains

●           Dons wired earphones

●           Listens to Lana Del Rey or Clairo

●           Feminist literature reader

Caveat: It goes without saying that there are males who genuinely like the aforementioned items and incorporate them into their daily life. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This label critiques not the interests themselves, but the insincerity behind the adoption of these traits for social approval, hence the word ‘performative’.

This is almost a 180-degree reversal from previously popularised male archetypes like ‘alphas’ or ‘gymbros’, which are characterised by hyper-masculinity, while the ‘Performative Male’ seeks to portray an image of emotional sensitivity.

We can observe similarities between the Performative Male and the Basic Girl in that these archetypes seem to be adopted by people who are trying to project an identity that is not their own. Whether it is to be seen as more attractive to women or to project a more high-class persona, the underlying basis for these appearances is validation. Both seek to win validation from different groups in society by telegraphing their beliefs rather than putting them into practice. An important difference, however, is that Performative Males tend to be labelled as such because they are deliberately putting on a performance. Basic Girls tend just to be labelled based on an assumption that they are putting on a façade.

The advent of such labels and society’s obsession with categorisation reflect our desire to separate ourselves from that which is generic. It stems from a fear of being exactly like everyone else, a.k.a. The fear of being basic. Through our usage of the words, we alienate those who fall into these categories, thus marking ourselves as being part of a more ‘niche' or ‘indie’ group and signalling our own individuality and ‘superior’ taste. Having a ‘niche’ or ‘rare’ taste elevates social capital because you appear to be more intriguing and cultured. It implies that you aren’t trying to fit in, which paradoxically, makes you seem all the more ‘cool’.

Why We Desire to be Individualistic

That led me to question — why do we feel the need to differentiate ourselves? Why do we have this fear of being like everybody else?

Psychology reports a strong correlation between consumer choices and our aspirations. “We Buy What We Wanna Be”, a research paper by Frontiers in Psychology, finds that people purchase items that align with how they wish to be perceived, reinforcing the link between consumption, identity and validation. The things that we buy show other people the things that we like, which represent our personality. Essentially, we declare our individuality through our ability to consume differently. ‘I buy a thing that you don’t have so you admire what I have and by extension, me’. This speaks of a fear of conformity and a desire we have to be seen and validated.

Innately, all people have a desire to be liked and even admired for something. Is that necessarily wrong? I disagree. But I will caveat that when this desire gets excessive to the point of actively pretending to be someone you’re not by putting on these façades or even feeling a crushing pressure to constantly be better than everyone else, it creeps into unhealthy territory. Why do we value others’ opinions over our own or even our loved ones? Ironically, the same can be said for the desire to fit in. In film and television, a common trope we see is the ‘Nerd Girl Makeover’ wherein the stereotypically nerdy girl, usually seen with spectacles and bad fashion sense, gets a makeover, usually consisting of taking off said spectacles, donning a dress and some makeup and then and only then, is she deemed beautiful. Here, the desire to be accepted outweighs having to shoulder the looks of judgment or disapproval for not fitting into social norms.

Adding another layer to this discussion, people who stand out for a certain ability or attribute often seek communities to fit in. Take, for example, athletes. Star athletes often train for years to be accepted into a professional sports league so that they can find a place where they meet like-minded people and get support from them to further grow in their craft.

On the other side of the coin, how do we reconcile this with things like herd mentality? As defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, ‘herd mentality’ is a term used to describe the psychological behaviour of members in a group behaving in a similar way so as to not want to be different from other members. Humans want to stand out and be liked, yet also, not want to stand out too much. How do we make sense of this?

A 2023 research study from the Journal of Behavioural Sciences titled “Conformity Consumption and Fear of Missing Out” aimed to find out how FOMO (fear of missing out) affected people’s relationships with social media, digital advertisements, and consumption. It collected quantitative data from over 300 Egyptian millennials aged 25 to 40. One of the findings was as follows: “How human beings respond in terms of their consumption choices is often influenced by their aim to find balance between fitting in with their social groups and maintaining a sense of oneself, all while pursuing both prestige and self-actualisation.” This study links conformity in consumption to the tension between fitting in and expressing our individuality, as discussed in this article and explains how many of our choices are motivated by the desire for approval.

As humans, we would want to stand out for desirable reasons — an ability we have that others may not possess or be as proficient in, an item we own, or a characteristic. For the latter, being different from other members in the crowd would lead to potential isolation. We want to be appreciated, not alienated for being special. 

To Stand Out or to Fit In?

Personally, I don’t think there is a perfect ratio of standing out to fitting in. The choice is yours to decide how each decision to differentiate yourself or conform will impact your person and allow you to become the best version of yourself. It’s perfectly okay to get things wrong and to get ourselves wrong. Life is all about finding the right balance between the two and giving yourself the space to grow and learn more about yourself. As we do this courtesy for ourselves, we ought to also extend the same to others as well. Give others the same space to formulate their own interests, even if they may be more ‘basic’ or even ‘eccentric’ than your own. There are more harrowing things in life than a male walking the streets with a matcha, performative or not. The world would be a less scary place if we all practised more grace.

Now that I’ve stated my case, let’s rethink the question — is it really that bad to be ‘basic’?

References:

[1] Wikipedia Contributors. (2024, October 24). Basic (slang). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_(slang)

[2] Xi, X., Yang, J., Jiao, K., Wang, S., & Lu, T. (2022). “We Buy What We Wanna be”: Understanding the Effect of Brand Identity Driven by Consumer Perceived Value in the Luxury Sector. Frontiers in Psychology, 13(1002275), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1002275

[3] Ezzat, A. A., Din, A. E. E., & Abdelmoaty, H. (2023). FOMO and Conformity Consumption: An Examination of Social Media Use and Advertising Online among Egyptian Millennials. Open Access Library Journal, 10(6), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1110279

[4] Gardner, S. (2024). Why Are People So Afraid Of Being Basic? The Owl. https://bhsowl.org/7212/opinion/why-are-people-so-afraid-of-being-basic/

[5] Novosel, N. G. (2020, September 2). Standing Out vs. Fitting In. Yourmeaninginlife.com. https://yourmeaninginlife.com/blog/standing-out-vs-fitting-in