Brown Cabinets Stigma

About

Brown Cabinets Stigma, also known as the Brown Cabinets Girl, refers to a widely held belief primarily alleged on TikTok that people with brown cabinets in their kitchen are poor or less cultured. The concept and meme was popularized by TikToker @chynaakyra in November 2023, when she ridiculed another woman for having brown cabinets. The viral video spread across social media sites like Twitter / X where a viral debate and discourse ensued.

Origin

A stigma surrounding brown cabinets originally surfaced in the late 2010s, evident in viral tweets that discussed them. Currently, the first known was posted by X^[1] user @alleinamaggie on May 16th, 2018, who namedropped YouTuber Jenna Marbles upgrading in life from brown cabinets, gaining roughly 1,100 likes in five years (shown below).

Despite being the first known reference to the stigma, the aforementioned tweet^[1] isn't fully indicative of the Brown Cabinets stigma. A more well-rounded and early example of the axiom was posted by X^[2] user @IamyaeIam_ on July 22nd, 2020, who tweeted, "These apartments want 2020 prices with 1975 kitchens and bathrooms. Nobody wants brown cabinets with white appliances!!!" gaining roughly 335,000 likes in three years (shown below).

Spread

Going into the 2020s, the stigma surrounding brown cabinets grew, including the aforementioned addition of "white appliances" as evident in @IamyaeIam_'s 2020 tweet.^[2] For instance, on March 23rd, 2021, X^[3] user @817_dee posted a viral reply about disliking "brown cabinets and white/black refrigerator," gaining roughly 1,100 likes in two years (shown below).

Brown Cabinets Girl (TikTok)

On November 19th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @chynaakyra posted a video in response to an unknown woman that she was having an online argument with, using text overlay that read, "I'm still playing the victim & you still got brown cabinets." The audio that she used also referenced the term "Pick Me Girl." In two days, the video amassed over 4.1 million plays and 180,800 likes (shown below).

Viral reactions to the video ensued on the app in the days that followed its upload, mostly from TikTokers who joked about having brown cabinets in their homes. For instance, on November 20th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @normaniwhereisdaalbum posted a video with text reading, "how yawl want people with brown cabinets to react," gaining over 2.3 million plays and 341,300 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on November 20th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @dejafaulkner posted a duet with @chynaakyra, stating that "cabinets = wood / wood = brown," receiving over 2.3 million plays and 196,500 likes in a day (shown below, right).

The discourse about @chynaakyra's video then spread across social media, evident in a repost shared by X^[7] user @kthrqx on November 20th, who captioned it, "what’s wrong with brown cabinets 😂???" gaining roughly 1,700 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References