Boys vs. Girls Across Generations: How Zoomers Took Up The Torch And Changed The Subject Of Memes

As members of Generation Z, also known as Zoomers, continue to age and join online communities en masse, they have rapidly become one of the most culturally dominant voices in meme circles. One of their most popular formats to use is the Girls vs. Boys series of memes. These “Boys” memes are a style of online content with a focus on the male experience. Such memes have come in waves throughout the years, but 2019 saw an explosion of content that typified it as a style unto itself.

Though these types of memes have fallen in and out of fashion, younger generations continue to reinvent them to relate to their particular worldview, which often makes them somewhat divisive due to their skew towards younger scenarios with different ideologies. Additionally, many users react negatively to them after becoming burned-out with the oversaturation of Girls vs. Boys formats.

Unlike other styles, these memes are interesting because they're inherently gendered, as the content itself is only relatable when a user can conceptualize the experience -- even though they're overexaggerated. An important piece of information to consider for the attachment to the style comes in its usage on sites like Reddit, which has experienced a slow demographic change as Zoomers continue to join the platform. A theory suggests that Gen Z has latched onto this style as they can relate more to the meme’s references, but also its gendered dichotomy -- a concept Zoomers have personally witnessed being challenged.

Boys vs. Girls memes can trace their underlying concept back to the traditional notions of Western gender roles. But online, it has only shaped itself as a meme just recently. The progenitor of this style can be linked to Barstool Sports’ Saturdays Are For The Boys, where Barstool writer Feitelberg tweeted out the now-iconic phrase in June 2016.

Earlier that same year (although with less prominence) a Facebook group was made, called Cracking Open a Cold One With the Boys, that similarly became a meme and would spread rapidly over 2017. Likely due to the earlier influence of Saturdays Are For The Boys, the idea was incepted into social media that “The Boys” are an active online force.

Then, in late 2018, the Girls vs. Boys style of content would rise to dominance with varying subtypes, such as When Teacher Says to Get Out of Class, Boys Locker Room and Boys Sleepovers vs. Girls Sleepovers. A meme in the same vein, though neglecting to employ the same comparison format, emerged in popularity alongside the others, as Me and the Boys became a near-instant homerun that fit neatly among its predecessors. The meme's main takeaway is its focus on events related to highschool experiences, as well as comparing the gendered reactions to those scenarios.

The controversy of the style comes with how the major meme creators and consumers have changed from Millennials to Zoomers. Throughout the years, social media has remained consistent in its major demographics -- which is to say the dominant age bracket has been around 18 to 29. However, as time moves forward, who remains in this bracket inevitably shifts.

Millennials, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, are individuals born between 1982 and 2000. To scale that upwards to 2020, the oldest part of the generation would be 38 and the youngest would be 20. As a result, Millennials are aging out of the dominant demographic online, whereas Zoomers are moving into that bracket and becoming a dominant force. The Zoomer subreddit /r/teenagers currently has 2 million subscribers, and if one assumes that is genuine, then it's evident that the new generation has a significant online presence unlike those who came before. As a result, the memes revolved around high school and younger experiences make perfect sense. If Zoomers are pushing the content, it will be the kind they can more easily relate to. Ultimately, Gen Z's relationship to gender differs compared to Millennials and older generations, meaning their difference in taste for memes will be as well.

One thing about Boys vs. Girls memes is how they act as an established, and yet ironic, look into a certain demographic's perspective on gender. Memes exist primarily for their ability to relate the experiences of one person to another, but it also deconstructs them in the same vein. So where a meme about how girls complain in the locker room about PE while boys are fighting in their locker room in excitement, the gendered differences are overexaggerated to the point of absurdity.

From this absurdity, traditional gender roles are continually pushed forward, while simultaneously asking to be reexamined. It makes sense that Zoomers are the ones to enjoy such ironically gendered memes, as they grew up as Western culture itself began to reexamine its own notions of gender. While the style remains popular, how it grows and changes will be determined by the Zoomers who love and spread them as they push Millennials fully out of their age demographic … until they themselves ultimately face the same result in the end.

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