The “Hiiii” Girl vs. the “Bruh” Girl
By: Kristin Merrilees
Tags: Social Change, Women, Teens, Feminism, Social Media

The “Hiiii” Girl vs. the “Bruh” Girl

There’s a trend on TikTok that describes the difference between two different “types” of girls. But many think it encourages internalized misogyny.

The “girly girl vs. tomboy” differentiation has risen again — this time, on TikTok and the Internet, in the form of the “hiiii” girl vs. the “bruh” girl.

The “hiiii” girl, also referred to as the “hey girlie” girl or the “🥺” (shy/pleading face emoji) girl (the names refer to how these girls speak/text), is known to embrace more traditionally feminine traits. They like pink, brunch, dresses, flowers, makeup, and fashion.

By contrast, the “bruh” girl (who is known to use the word “bruh” in texts or conversations), is known to have more traditionally masculine traits and likes, such as sports, video games, weird or edgy humor, athletic clothes and sweats, etc.

When this trend became popular on TikTok in June, it mostly focused around people coming up with characteristics/habits/dislikes of each type and trying to figure out which one they were. However, it quickly became apparent that the bruh girl was considered by many to be more desirable, with many self-described bruh girls stating that they’re more fun, “elite,” and “lowkey superior.” The trend became a way to subtly dig at girls who were traditionally more feminine, wore makeup, etc. Accusations of people trying to become bruh girls to be trendy were also thrown out, as well as attempts to differentiate the “fake” bruh girls from the real ones.

Many think the belief that bruh girls are better is a form of internalized misogyny, “the involuntary belief by girls and women that the lies, stereotypes, and myths about girls and women that are delivered to everyone in a sexist society are true.” This manifests in girls looking down upon other girls who exhibit more traditionally feminine traits while viewing others who exhibit traditionally masculine traits positively.

This has been compared to the “I’m not like other girls” trend, a bunch of Facebook and Tumblr posts a few years ago which would portray traditionally feminine girls as superficial, unintelligent, and only caring about appearances, which was later turned into a meme.

Those who are perceived to be “trying too hard” to be bruh girls have also been accused of being “pick me” girls, meaning they put other girls down in order to be accepted (“picked”) by guys.

This also overlaps with the divide between the so-called “basic” vs. “alt/indie” girls. A few days ago, a girl posted a TikTok with the caption “they always pick the skinny, blonde, Lululemon-wearing, drama-starting, toxic [girl].” (I’m not including the video here because the creator has deleted the video and disabled all of her comments, likely because of all the comments/duets she’s been receiving). Many were upset by this video, which implied that “alternative” girls are better than those who dress “basic” or have traditionally feminine traits.

Categorizations of different types of girls have been happening for a while now —there’s the basic girl, the indie girl, the VSCO girl, the e-girl, the soft girl, etc.

However, more people are realizing that these divides are artificial and encourage the pitting of girls against each other. Instead, girls are beginning to embrace all sides of their personalities.

As TikTok user @/katararomama states, “I keep seeing videos on my For You page that are like, uh I wanna be a bruh girl, but I also wanna be a ‘hey girlie’ girl, or I wanna be a surfer girl or a skater… You can be all of them. This isn’t a TV show where you have to have a set aesthetic for your character. You’re three-dimensional. Dress however you want!”