Girl Pretty vs. Boy Pretty

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About

Girl Pretty vs. Boy Pretty refers to a viral debate revolving around the two slang terms that are primarily debated and discussed on TikTok. The trend typically sees women compare the idea of being considered "pretty by girls" versus being considered "pretty by boys" and differentiates between feminine traits that women find attractive and feminine traits that men find attractive, with many women celebrating or expressing disappointment at being "girl pretty." Discussions about being "Girl Pretty vs. Guy Pretty" took off on TikTok in late 2023, with some videos being posted as early as July of that year.

Origin

The earliest known video discussing the idea that "Girl Pretty" might look different from "Boy Pretty" or "Guy Pretty" on TikTok is a June 9th, 2023, video posted by TikToker @claudiathiedmann^[1] in which she discusses how she and her college friends devised the terms Girl Pretty and Boy Pretty to explain why the women and men around them were attracted to different kinds of women. The post gathered over 2.6 million plays and 153,000 likes in six months (seen below).

Spread

Various other users latched onto the phrase in the following months, with TikToker^[2] @burnt.siennuh posting a video on October 21st, 2023, expressing sadness at being "Girl Pretty" but not "Guy Pretty." The post gathered over 3.2 million plays and 680,000 likes in two months (seen below, left). On October 26th, TikToker^[3] @mitzii.x made a posting expressing a similar idea, gathering over 8 million plays and 780,000 likes in two months (seen below, right).

On November 1st, TikToker^[4] @mackenmurphy posted a video going over the online discussions, gathering over 2 million plays and 240,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). On November 13th, TikToker^[5] @blondegirldiary posted a clip from the TV show Gossip Girl as an example of the supposed phenomenon, gathering over 11 million plays and 2 million likes in two weeks (seen below, right).

On November 27th, 2023, X^[7] user @dolliepout posted a set of photos following the trend, writing, "I'll never understand 'boy pretty' vs 'girl pretty' because I feel like if you're pretty you're just pretty idk I don't think looking a certain way makes you less attractive to a certain gender," and gathering over 2,000 likes in a week (seen below, left).

A December 4th post by X^[6] user @piscespari showed a TikTok by an unknown user in which they compared their ideas of what "Girl Pretty" and "Boy Pretty" people look like, gathering over 40,000 likes in a day. However, these photos also drew skepticism from some X users who perceived them as having a racial bias (seen below, right).