booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater

i want a booktok tiktoker whos obsessed with "spice" in books to be tricked into reading the entire 6 book Dune series

"youre not healing your inner child, you are regressing into ignorance" what a great line

I hate that being dumb is part of being a girl, I love pink girly things, plushies, and all of that, but "girl math" "girl dinner" is just bad financial decisions and eating disorders repackaged with a little pink bow on top. I am not perfect but when I make a bad financial decision and go to my friend and say omg I'm actually so disappointed in myself, I don't want her to say it's girl math. Infantilization is just as bad when you do it to yourself. Come on girls we are better than this.

“We can begin the book confidently, knowing the enemies will turn into lovers and the fake dating will turn into real dating - all will be tied up with a neat bow” YA romance books are the reinvention of Hallmark Christmas movies, safe, digestible, and easily produced

“You can’t ‘I’m just girl’ your way out of everything. You pay taxes and vote. You’re not healing your inner child. You’re regressing into ignorance” My favorite quote !!

“Does it have spice?” The booktok gooners say in unison

""let people enjoy things"" are you so hell bent on getting external validation for everything you do that someone criticizing any of it is literally stopping you from doing things you want? do we not have free will anymore?

One time on Instagram I criticized a recent film by a female director. I was immediately told in the comments ✨by a man✨ that my criticism was tantamount to betraying my own sex. That as a woman, I should be supporting women creators by default and being a good "sister" rather than "bringing other women down." I'm an art history PhD and engaging critically with visual media is literally all I have done for the past decade of my life, so being told to silence my intellectual expression and instead mindlessly clap like a seal for a terrible movie exclusively because it was headed up by a fellow woman was so condescending and infuriating. And that's only one example of the growing anti-intellectualism I have contended with in online spaces. This video is so important. Thank you for making it.

“Book stylist” is one of the most dystopian terms I’ve ever heard in my life.

"Let people enjoy things" I enjoy critical thinking and being a hater

Never seen a booktok video, but man its so weird looking at the barnes and nobles "BookTok" table and seeing some sadboy literary novel like No Longer Human next to like 7 different piles of enemies to lovers romances. Does not exactly paint a flattering picture of the community's well-being

I think it’s also important to note that the desire to overconsume books instead of going to a library and checking them out kind of marks the death of a third place.

Sometimes books are jusy poorly written. People need to learn to accept that some of the books they like are of poor standard, but theres nothing wrong with enjoying it. A book being bad and a book being enjoyable are not mutually exclusive things, and someone critiquing a book you like is not a personal attack??

I feel so vindicated after years of being told I'm no fun or take things too seriously just because I have critical thoughts about movies and books lol

as someone who read a lot of fanfiction way too early in life, I'm honestly so bored by the 'spicy' books that get hyped on tiktok. there are so many fanfiction on ao3 that a one more spicy and two have a better and more interesting plot than a lot of modern books.

people need to realise that 'dark academia' wasn't supposed to be an aesthetic of ... brown clothes and old buildings --- it was literally created as a genre of intellectualism that criticised the racism and classism so prevalent in academia

honestly at this point all mainstream books have become so soulless i can find more well written pieces on ao3 😭

I had to stop engaging with booktok when I got a tiktok of a girl proudly saying "Guys, if your girl says she's a bookworm ... she's just reading thousands of pages of smut." And I know it was a joke but. Bestie ... first of all, speak for yourself. Second, while women can, should, and do enjoy erotic literature, art, and films, there's something so strange and insidious about suggesting that all women read is porn. There's a subtle anti-intellectualism embraced there, that is also highly gendered. As someone who does enjoy reading smut, but also reads a broad range of other genres, I've never been able to quite articulate what about the joke feels so blatantly anti-feminist and unfair without just sounding like I am anti-erotica, or think that smut is anti-feminist (I do not think that to be clear). I think there is real value to be found in erotic writing, and reading smut can be a fun way to explore sexuality. But I cannot imagine someone saying "Ladies, if he tells you he's a film buff, just know he's actually just watching porn."

25:47 “You’re not “healing your inner child” - you’re regressing into ignorance.” I KNEW there was always something about the whole “I’m just a girl” trend that’s been going around that’s been bothering me, and this is it, thank you for putting it into words