Hateration as a concept is nothing new, but the way it manifests within the digital space is constantly evolving. Every fortnight, people online find another way to project their insecurities onto others.

The latest victims of this viral spout of envy have been birthday baddies, specifically young Black women innocently sharing pictures from their birthday celebrations online. These celebratory posts were met with swarms of hate and what can only be described as uncontained jealousy.

Jealousy and disregard

Many of these comments are rooted in a noxious cocktail of envy and anti-Blackness. The jabs primarily target these women’s ages, stating that they look much older than they claim to be. Many of these digital misanthropes even claim to look younger than these women who are in their early twenties — setting off an ongoing feud between millennials and Gen Zers.

“Who looks younger?”

“Who subverts the process of aging the best? “

“Who’s more impervious to the scrutinous stipulations of arbitrary beauty standards?”

One young woman shared a harmless photo in front of the popular sushi chain restaurant Nobu, where she went to celebrate turning 23. Her photo went semi-viral, and she was met with hordes of comments claiming she looked much older than she was.

How projection finds a platform

These comments are clear projections, transparent in their intent to humble and debase. On TikTok, similar instances happen regularly where a young woman will share a video of herself and be inundated with unwarranted critiques about how she looks old for her age. It is quite peculiar to see older generations use age as an insult, a counterintuitive jab that boomerangs their own mortality right back to them.

Not to mention the layers of misogynoir oozing from these jabs. The overt adultification of Black bodies doesn’t end once Black women turn 18, and many Black women are hypersexualized in a manner that other communities can’t even begin to conceptualize.

Jealousy is a curious symptom of the human condition, and no one is immune to its infectious spread. Everyone feels jealousy at some point or another, but that is not an open invitation to inject your venomous envy into the lives of others.