I’m back! Plopped at a Starbucks in Rockville Centre, a New York equivalent of ol’ Malahide. It’s just a town over from where I live and is arguably one of the birthing places of the “basic bitch,” (a crude and overused euphemism for young white girls who wear a strange albeit costly uniform of leggings, Ugg boots, and North Face jackets. They’re known to frequent Starbucks and clog your Instagram feed).
Fourteen year old- ahem- young ladies, like to hang around here because when you think about it, where else do they have to go? I study their interactions like an anthropologist…or creepy, watchful, coffee shoppe loiterer. Whichever term you prefer. They stand in a huddle around the receiving counter, eyes glued to their phones waiting to take a picture of the new holiday cups in which their pumpkin spice lattes will arrive. I can sense how little they know of what really awaits them in life. I see that their beauty is still untampered; unsullied by the self-loathing that is practically demanded of a woman in this day and age. As though I were a mother to these girls, I’m relieved to see only a few of them wearing eyeliner and lipgloss. All this sugar consumption hasn’t made their hair thin or their asses fat… yet. Most enviably it is clear that the boredom of life has not yet set in for them. Little things like holiday coffee cups and lipgloss can still provide so much joy. If you could bottle this fleeting phase of a young woman’s life it would be worth a million.
Yet in this nascent stage of womanhood, they are already being torn down; by the media, by each other. While I might not relate to their lifestyles by way of both choice and circumstance, I don’t see the reason to hate them. Yes, guys. They’re privileged and superficial, hardly concerned with what most of us consider to be important matters but wait… they’re still people. Harmless. Usually with potential for growth unless otherwise squashed by the hate of those who don’t approve of their lives. Some form of this type of girl has existed throughout time, and always will. I think we can get over it already.
