On ‘basic’: Or how we scared ourselves out of liking things

This is one of many irksome things our generation does: We’ve built up a language that privileges scathing, post-ironic pseudo-clever callouts, making it hard for people to just like things, or even get into things other people are into.

MANILA, Philippines - Basic is often used to describe a person or piece of media seemingly lacking in cultural sophistication. Or at least that’s what I think some people mean when they throw it around.

Example: I remember the first time I saw the word being used in this way, on my Ask.fm feed, when an anonymous user asked one of my friends something along the lines of “Why don’t you like John Green?” to which she replied, “John Green is the basic bitch of YA.” I haven’t read enough John Green to judge the guy, but I’ve read Looking for Alaska, a book addled with Manic Pixie Dream Girl Syndrome and reeking of cigarette fetishization, featuring characters that delighted in how flippantly they could utter swear words, so I got the judgment, kinda sorta.

The second time I saw it being used was when my friend prefaced his excitement over the Lumineers coming to the Philippines with “Call me basic but…” I didn’t know at the time why he had to preface his excitement with a disclaimer.

It’s easy for us to connect cultural sophistication — or coolness — to interest in and knowledge of classic/relatively obscure pieces of media. And coolness can take on different forms. You watch an insane amount of critically acclaimed TV. Cool. “This is Water” is not the only David Foster Wallace essay you’ve read. Cool.

But we use the word “basic” to refer to specific behaviors and performed identities. For example, “mainstream” and “jeje” aren’t synonymous with basic. At any given moment, your favorite song is probably featured on the Billboard Top 10. Not basic. You wear multicolored caps and text in a language that looks like an imperfect clone of Wingdings. Not basic.

One might also think that the way “basic” is thrown around is somehow related to how we use words like “plain” or “beige” or “vanilla.” But “basic” isn’t even neutral or boring or conventional, even though the word originally meant these things. MUJI is plain fashion. Beige walls are tiring to look at. The missionary position is vanilla sex. “Basic” sort of navigates around all these things and, like popular culture, moves arbitrarily.

Note that “basic” doesn’t attach itself to a particular subculture or attire. If you wear black Affliction shirts and baggy whitewashed jeans and rubber shoes and rock out to Dying Fetus, you’re not basic. But switch the rubber shoes with Hush Puppy loafers paired with thick calf-high socks and suddenly you’re labeled with a word so arbitrarily defined and carelessly thrown around that its journey towards uselessness is rendered inevitable and swift, and you’re just another target for the cool kids until the next ugly permutation of “uncool” comes along, and we’re back to climbing the social ladder by stepping on heads.

And “basic” used to be such a lovely, harmless word. G major is a basic chord. A mage with a starter fire spell is a basic RPG character. A plain white, roundneck t-shirt is a basic top. (Basic. Not normcore. I don’t even know how to begin taking normcore apart.) And if you wanted to play a game, or settle into a new hobby, or immerse yourself in a project outside of your comfort zone, what did you do? You learned the basics. “Basic” was kind and welcoming.

But we use the word “basic” to attack the legitimacy and value of someone else’s interests. Targets of the term seem to like a particular set of things in a certain way. You can like Wes Anderson, but he can’t be your favorite director. You can like artisanal coffee, but your favorite drink can’t be caramel machiattos. You can like poetry, but you can’t say your favorite poem is “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines.” Otherwise, you’re basic. Basic, basic, basic. Basic bitch. Basic shit. Ultimately baseless.

And there’s the trick to deconstruction — figuring out what the word aims to dominate. “Basic” attacks people who seem to vie for a certain level of coolness, or sophistication, or classiness but, for various reasons, fall flat. And who can blame them? Trends change colors at a breakneck pace and not all of us can be chameleons.

See, this is one of many irksome things our generation does: We’ve built up a language that privileges scathing, post-ironic pseudo-clever callouts (“At Coffee Bean right now and this basic bitch two tables away from me is reading Norwegian Wood only now?? gurl, it’s 2014”) making it hard for people to just like things, or even get into shit other people are into. We’ve built unnecessary defenses around the things we like so that other people are unable to like the same things we do.

“Basic” is a word brandished by people who know how to keep in step with how popular culture and its nuances change and mutate, but like to bash people who can’t really keep up. The result is people apologizing for liking certain things. “I know it’s basic/lame/uncool but I love [insert random piece of pop culture here].” Why are you apologizing? Why should anyone make you feel like you have to say sorry for genuinely liking a thing? If you like Looking for Alaska, you and I probably aren’t going to vibe much, but I’m not going to call you basic for it.

We laud pop culture for how accessible it is, for its capacity to be universal. There should be something in it for anybody and everybody. “Basic” acts as a shorthand dismissal of various pieces of popular culture, and makes it difficult not only for people to be open about the things they like, but keeps us from criticizing the way trends rise and fall and behave. Things become less accessible, everybody’s afraid to like things, and unreasonable arbiters of taste are kept on their high horses. Basically.