With Halloween approaching, the most controversial costume is not something scandalous or offensive: it is The Lorax. Specifically, girls being the Lorax.
This is because of a new social media term, “Pretty People Humor,” which describes someone who has been pretty their whole life and has not had to be funny. This results in “pretty” people having a basic, underwhelming and overall, not funny sense of humor.
As someone who has not been conventionally attractive for most of my life, especially during my formative years, I originally found the trend of “Pretty People Humor” funny. I appreciated it because I know people whose humor falls into this category.
However, over the past 6 months, it has gotten out of hand. People, specifically men, are taking all types of things and labeling it as “Pretty People Humor,” which has become a description synonymous with “basic white girl.”
This brings us to the Lorax costumes.
Over the past few years, a costume that most people found funny was dressing up in an orange skin-tight suit, a padded belly and an orange mustache to be the Lorax. Girls found it hilarious and would post it.
I know friends who wore this costume; they had the most fun and absolutely loved it. Up until this year, no one online had any problems with it. However, over the past few months, the reaction to this costume has become negative and cruel.
People will post videos of girls in a Lorax costume, captioned “Unfunny popular girls getting ready to dress as the Lorax for every Halloween,” and the comments will be filled with people hating the girls for dressing as the Lorax.
This whole thing feels misogynistic, in my opinion. There are two TikTok creators who dress up as The Lorax for content: one is @_ashbyflorence_ and the other is @juicy.jacobb.
Ashby posts content dressed as various characters, one being the Lorax, and answers questions in character. On her Lorax videos, the comments are filled with people calling it “Pretty People Humor” and unfunny. She has also been clipped in various TikToks making fun of “Pretty People Humor.”
The other influencer, Jacob, dresses as The Lorax and other characters and runs around different public places, getting people’s reactions on video. The comments on his posts love him and are nowhere near as negative as Ashby’s. They are all positive, with some even calling him the only funny Lorax.
So, when a woman does it, she is basic and unfunny, but when a man does it, he is hilarious and a genius? To me, there is no reason for that other than sexism.
It is a common issue on social media that girls can’t like anything without some guy putting them down for it.
As someone who is chronically online, I have seen this happen time after time: something like a movie, artist, meme, etc. becomes a popular trend to post about. It will gain a largely female audience who love it and post about that trend for a month. It is fun and positive, and then a man will post something making fun of the women who enjoy that trend.
Suddenly, all of these men will pile on, and other women (known as “pick-me’s”) will come out claiming they never understood the hype. In some instances, the people who originally loved that trend will get bullied until everyone is too embarrassed to post that they liked it.
I do not understand how, when women are enjoying something and not hurting anyone, men will feel the need to take that away from them.
Why can’t people just leave these poor girls alone and let them dress up as the Lorax? It has no effect on their lives whatsoever.
Public Relations Manager
