Scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, it’s hard to miss the rise of “girl” trends. Maybe you’ve seen someone explain how a $60 purchase is “basically free” using “girl math,” saying things like “I’m just a girl,” or joking with their boyfriends about shopping at the “blue store” so they can go to the “pink store.” These trends are seen as funny, relatable, and often created by women themselves, which is exactly why they spread so quickly online.
But during Women’s History Month, it’s worth asking a slightly uncomfortable question: Why do so many of these viral jokes rely on stereotypes about women in the first place? And maybe an even bigger question: Why are we so quick to accept them? What feels like harmless humor can echo the same assumptions women have spent generations working to challenge.
Take “girl math.”
The purpose of the joke is to humorously justify impulse spending with irrational logic. If we use $100 in cash instead of our credit or debit card, suddenly it’s “basically free.” It’s meant to be self-aware humor, but the punchline still relies on a familiar stereotype—that femininity equals incompetence and women are impulsive shoppers who can’t do math. Even when the joke is meant ironically, the stereotype behind it doesn’t suddenly disappear.
The same jokes show up in other trends, like the “pink store vs. blue store” joke. The humor often comes from the idea that women gravitate toward stores like Target or Sephora, while men prefer places like Home Depot or Best Buy. While it can be a funny dynamic to point out, it flattens people into stereotypes that feel…very dated. Not every woman wants to wander through the perfume aisle for thirty minutes, and not every man wants to spend his afternoon comparing power drills.
When it comes to algorithms like TikTok’s, content that is easy to categorize, highly shareable, and instantly relatable is pushed more heavily. The more people watch, share, and tag friends, the more these stereotypes feel normal, even if we know they aren’t true. The humor feels harmless, but its reach makes these jokes surprisingly powerful in shaping how the internet thinks about gender.
Many believe that because women are the ones making these jokes, they are automatically okay and cannot perpetuate the very stereotypes forced onto us for centuries. While it may feel empowering to laugh at yourself, it doesn’t erase the stereotype. Instead, it makes the message more convincing because the humor comes with a sense of validation. And with the internet favoring content that is easy to digest and repeat, these messages travel fast and embed themselves into popular culture.
If the punchline is always that women are irrational, impulsive, or chaotic, it’s hard not to wonder why those are still the traits we associate with femininity. Maybe the real question isn’t whether these jokes are funny. Maybe the question is why the internet still finds the same generalizations about women funny in the first place.
While joking about your own gender can be funny, it’s important to come to these realizations and understand how important it is not to be complicit in your own dehumanization. The internet has continued to force this idea of “it’s not that deep” and “that one friend who’s too woke,” but the harm will never be zero.
Women can’t afford to portray ourselves as these incompetent beings who can’t do anything without a man. Being a woman represents much more than continued jokes at our own expense. Being beautiful, empathetic, and smart should never make us targets of ridicule or stereotypes.