E-girl / E-boy

About

E-girl or E-boy, also spelled Egirl and Eboy, is internet slang that combines the words "electronic" with "girl" or "boy." Generally, the label represents people who have a large presence online and tote a specific style influenced by skate culture, goth, KPOP and cosplay, among others.

Origin

Although the origin of the terms e-girl and e-boy are unknown definitions for both go back to 2009 on Urban Dictionary. The earlier use of e-girl is derogatory in nature. On June 14th, 2009, Urban Dictionary^[1] user awillie defined e-girl as "Call her an E girl cause she's always after the D, She all over him…a true E girl." The definition received 138 upvotes and 131 downvotes in ten years. E-boy was defined by LordFinnese on November 19th, 2016 as, "Often seeking the attention of eGirls they born and raised on Twitter where they gain exponential amounts of attention from eGirls, and still complain about being lonely only to get with eGirls and get nudes. Often good looking and a FuckBoy, but only online." The definition received 236 upvotes and 50 downvotes in three years.

On August 31st, 2010, @jbiebsbelievexo^[2] posted the earliest tweet using the word e-girl saying, "OH HELL NO IT'S A RANDMON BLOND EGIRL WTFQEJNFDA" (shown below, left). On June 2nd, 2013, @Trev_Hahn^[3] posted the earliest tweet using eboy saying, "Whose the thirstiest eboy?" (shown below, right).

Spread

The terms e-girl and e-boy slowly became a definitive style showcased on TikTok. On February 23, 2019, MyNameIsBelieve posted two egirl/eboy tiktok compilation video which have received 314,491 views an 195,500 views respectively (shown below).

E-Girl Factory

E-Girl Factory is a series of TikTok parody videos in which users typically become captured in a makeshift factory and become transformed into an stereo-typical e-girl (an internet flirt) performed in sync with a clip from a bass boosted remix of the song "ME!ME!ME!" by Japanese DJ and producer Teddyloid.
On January 27th, 2019, Daring Compilation uploaded the first "E-Girl Factory Tik Tok Meme Compilation" to YouTube (shown below, left). The video gained 8,860 views and 166 likes in two days. On the same day, YouTuber Willanator uploaded "E-Girl Factory – Tik Tok Ironic Meme Compilation (2019)" (shown below, right). The video accumulated 888 views and 18 likes in two days.

I'm an E-girl Who Plays Video Games

I'm an E-girl Who Plays Video Games is a copypasta which spawned on Twitter after a user attempted to make a point about girls who claim to be gamers but only play so-called casual games like Pokémon and Animal Crossing. The copypasta spread as people added their own humorous pictures along with the text.

On January 2nd, 2019, Twitter user @broken_shroomz^[1] tweeted a starter pack for "I'm an E-girl Who Plays Video Games," using so-called casual games Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and Love Live! School Idol Festival. The tweet gained over 4,300 retweets and 23,000 likes (shown below).

The tweet was quickly criticized by many Twitter users who thought the point being made was sexist. Twitter user @starswithnames tweeted an obscene rebuttal, gaining over 24 retweets and 890 likes (shown below, left). User @KylePlantEmoji called the original poster a "misogynist gatekeeper," gaining over 340 likes, though this tweet was mocked by those who thought he was White Knighting.

Other Twitter users turned the original tweet into a copypasta and added humorous pictures. User @dcmcfanclub posted a picture of Polybius, gaining 20 retweets and 50 likes (shown below, left). User @YoItsYohane tweeted pictures of a pair of Sonic the Hedgehog games as well as Fortnite and Big Chungus, gaining 17 retweets and 80 likes (shown below, right).

Tik Tok E-boy

TikTok E-Boy is a series of TikTok parody videos in which users either transform themselves into an "e-boy" or display themselves as one. Many use Canadian singer-songwriter Mac Demarco's "Chamber of Reflection" as a backing track.

In late January, TikTok users began to use @eating.christians sound clip to transform into an eboy. @laurajeanjacket shared one of the more popular videos with 60,500 likes and 2215 shares as of February 20th (shown below, left). @rhinoceros333 also shared a popular variation of the e-boy transformation with 18,300 likes and 1,307 shares as of February 20th (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References