Ironic misogyny is still… misogyny

Sayings like “Girl math” and “Too pretty to work” have taken over TikTok as women chase the vacant-minded high of never having to “Turn their brains on” when they are with their men. These phrases have been condemned for their misogynistic leanings as these words feed into the disenfranchisement of women under a patriarchal society. Now, it bears clarifying that these sayings are ironic and not meant to be taken literally, but an unfortunate weak spot of ironic content is that it doesn’t really matter how high-brow or meta the jokes are if the general public isn’t able to decipher said irony.

That’s why when t-shirts toting phrases like “Too pretty for a job,” and “Too hot to work,” started making their rounds online, people were quick to point out how harmful it is for these shirts to be circulating while right-wing ideologies are on the rise. It’s easy for many of us to assume that the average person seeing these shirts would know better than to take them seriously, but we exist at such an interesting time with respect to economic burnout that many young people earnestly see no point in working.

Mourning the American Dream

Whether that be because we live in an era where you can work over 40 hours a week and still not earn enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment in most major cities in the U.S. or because we have 24/7 access to the luxurious lifestyles of the rich and famous, its hard to know but it’s likely a combination of all of the above. In any case, the American dream is losing its charm, and people are looking for any way out of the corporate rat race, even if that means regressing 125 years.