What does vsco stand for
“Thots” are women who have had a number of sexual partners and experiences, and in the Instagram context are characterised by posting selfies, bikini pics, and making money from sponsored posts. ‘Instagram Thots’ leave a particularly nasty taste in the mouth for the etymology rooted in slut-shaming. The confusing logic remains the same, if literal millions of people use an app, why is it teenage girls on the receiving end of this derision?īut the trajectory continues, and between Tumblr girls and VSCO girls were ‘Instagram Thots’. But alas, it’s true, Tumblr girls walked so VSCO girls could run.ĭespite Tavi Gevinson’s appearance on the Polyester Zine podcast where she reminded listeners that Tumblr was where she built an entire community of young creatives who became contributors to Rookie, there was not much that could be said to recuperate the viral connotations that followed users of the site. Suddenly straying from what was ‘basic’ was allegedly a new tier of basic. Armed with large DSLR cameras, winged eyeliner and Doc Martens, Tumblr girls were seemingly the first online community to be mocked for deviating from ‘traditional’ hobbies and fashion of ‘mainstream’ young females. They wore Ramones T-shirts, watched Skins and wrote amateur poetry online.
The aforementioned ‘Tumblr girls’ were another subsection of young women mocked for using a popular social media platform. It seems I’ve reached an age where I write think-pieces about Internet trends rather than just living them. The best way to get a sense of what this archetype involves is the memes surrounding it. There are other variations that include lip balm, saying “sksksk” and using Mario Badescu face spray. I marvelled at the minefield of misogyny.įor those, like me, who are apparently no longer at the front page of the Internet a ‘VSCO Girl’ is someone who uses a reusable water bottle called a ‘Hyrdoflask’, wears scrunchies on their wrist, uses TikTok and the VSCO app, and says “and I oop” a lot. Then, I had to Google “Tumblr Girls” and went down a rabbit-warren of research on Internet subcultures. Urban Dictionary defines them as “the Tumblr Girls of 2019”. (I also understand that statement alone has aged me by at least ten years.) I had to Google what a ‘VSCO Girl’ was before sitting down to write. At the ripe age of 22, I don’t even know what’s cool with the kids anymore. There wasn’t a minute where writing this didn’t make me feel old. These new names do little to disguise the fact that we’ve just gotten more creative with the terminology. But we continue to say ‘basic’, and the implied ‘bitch’ still hangs there in the silence. We’re less likely to use the term ‘basic bitch’ now, because at some point most of us agreed it was a mean thing to call someone. These labels exist to hate on young women for enjoying things.
No matter what you call them, they all have the same thing in common. ‘Basic Bitch’, ‘Tumblr Girls’, ‘E-Girls’, and the newest viral sensation, ‘VSCO Girls’. With every reincarnation there is a new label and a new starter-pack meme.