"Misogyny is insidious and takes many forms in our culture, but making fun of someone for posting Minion memes is not one of them," she wrote. Similar criticisms were also levied against "basic." Noreen Malone wrote for The Cut in 2014 that the term seemed to target women who were into feminine things, critiquing their consumption habits (think Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes or infinity scarves).īut as Dickson wrote for Rolling Stone, there's a distinction to be made between "bullying" women in a misogynistic way and making fun of trends they participate in. Others have also criticised cheugy for being misogynistic and indexing a particular kind of millennial womanhood. bracelets or Tory Burch sandals are also cheugy. As The Cut's Mia Mercado wrote, other luxury items like Tiffany & Co. Many of those criticisms echo discourse around words like "basic," which has been used in ways that indicate class anxiety, as Anne Helen Peterson wrote for BuzzFeed News in 2014.Ĭain responded to that initial criticism the day after posting her first TikTok, saying that cheugy is also applicable to brand-name products like Gucci belts. Like similar terms, some critics have said that the "cheugy" aesthetic plays into misogynistic and classist tropes about what kinds of items or cultural phenomena are perceived as out-of-touch.
Some critics have called 'cheugy' misogynistic or classist Part of the joke of it all is that everyone is likely a bit cheugy in one way or another. As Abby Siegel, one of Rasson's friends who uses the term, told The New York Times, the term didn't have malicious intent. That sets it apart somewhat from its predecessors: describing someone as "local" or "basic" is indubitably judgmental, implying a kind of obliviousness or strict adherence to mainstream culture.īut cheugy isn't quite as harsh. Unlike other adjacent slang words - " local" or "basic" immediately come to mind - cheugy isn't as strongly negative, and it's also something with which some people self-identify. As Rolling Stone's Ej Dickson wrote, it's another installment in the online war between the neighboring generations, previously manifested through the playful slandering of skinny jeans and side parts, and even the writing of diss tracks in response. That makes it the perfect kind of vague signifier, easily applied in a variety of very familiar contexts that resonate both with millennials and zoomers (members of Gen Z). The term indexes a variety of familiar aesthetics, like those of white millennial women, girlbosses, college campus Greek life, or "straight TikTok." Lorenz described it to Rolling Stone as "trying too hard with the trends." Cain told The New York Times that her group chat will debate (and disagree on) what is or isn't cheugy.
The term is vague, which is part of what makes it so appealingĬheuginess is subjective and open to interpretation. In The Know's Kelsey Weekman appears to have been one of the first to report on the term's ascendance on TikTok. It finally hit the mainstream after Cain's video brought it to a wider audience on TikTok. In turn, those people introduced it to their own social circles. As Rasson told The New York Times, the term spread among her friends in high school, at summer camp, and at college.
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