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"  Now that the laughter has died down from College Humor&amp;#039;s seriously spot-on treatment of the term &amp;quot;Basic Bitch,&amp;quot; I have a question: What about the Basic Bro?  You know who I&amp;#039;m talking about. Almost every guy I know has so-called basic tendencies. These may include, but are not limited to: wearing a jersey for a team to which he has no geographical claim; waiting in line at the Standard beer garden or Radegast; pretending he doesn&amp;#039;t know he&amp;#039;s still wearing the neon wristband from last night&amp;#039;s concert. The Basic Bro is as pervasive in pop culture as he is at 2-for-1 night at Bro J&amp;#039;s\u2014and much like the Basic Bitch, there are many subsets. There&amp;#039;s Channing Tatum (the Reformed Player Bro), Bradley Cooper (the Smart Bilingual Bro), Nick Lachey (the Bud Light Bro), Ben Affleck (the Cocky, Alpha Male Bro with Political Ambitions), Toms&amp;#039; Blake Mycoskie (the Do-Gooder Bro), Drake (the Feels All the Feelings Bro), and Justin Timberlake (the Fashion-y Music Bro). Even Obama has some pretty basic tendencies: Just ask the President to name his favorite character from The Wire. See what I mean? Basic Bros love the fact that they love The Wire. Best drama on TV, bro. For the record, I married an Omar Little fan who played professional lacrosse and loves the fun pockets on his Bonobos. (Some might even call him a YUMMY Bro.) Really, the bulk of the men in my life are loud and proud Basic Bros\u2014nice ones, who love me, their moms, and calling each other &amp;quot;girlfriend.&amp;quot; Related: Michelle Phan Tells Us How to Put Our Best Skype-Face Forward Yes, friends, I&amp;#039;m pretty basic by association. But, as Madeleine Davies at Jezebel admits, we&amp;#039;re all a little basic, aren&amp;#039;t we? I go to Soul Cycle, enjoy a glass of white wine or two (with ice cubes), love Pinkberry, and, if you want to know the truth, consider myself &amp;quot;a Carrie.&amp;quot; So why do we fight it? In the cutthroat world of the overachieving Millennial, it seems every guy who used to ascribe to the world of fantasy football and Coors Lights is suddenly Casey Neistat-ing around the world to a soundtrack of Lord Huron. We&amp;#039;re all desperate to be seen as individuals while simultaneously making sure that our acquaintances are aware of our every move. Hey, Guy With The SLR, your trip to Laos would have been a whole lot less basic if you hadn&amp;#039;t Instagrammed your way through every open-air market, right? Or, in this day and age, is a lack of social documentation that proverbial fallen tree in the forest? Related: I Tried It: The Juice Cleanse That Promises Better Sex Calling out trendy behavior as basic\u2014for girls: loving Sex and the City, green juice, HAIM, crop tops, selfies, delicate knuckle rings, crafting, meditation, the list goes on\u2014is a fun way to draw cultural lines. Perhaps, if I admit that something I&amp;#039;m doing happens to be about as unique as a #StarbucksNameGame Instagram post, I have somehow risen above my own averageness. But, honestly, when did being normal become so taboo? Should I be ashamed that I love going to a sports bar full of straight men? That I love when one of my husband&amp;#039;s handsome bros consistently tops off my beer from a pitcher? That, on several occasions, I&amp;#039;ve drawn a squiggly mustache on the side of my index finger and then held it up to my upper lip while laughing like an idiot? Because I&amp;#039;m not. Calling out things as basic (therefore, dumb, regular, contrived, and uninspired) is just another form of insecurity. And while I had a blast coming up with the emotionally-imbued things a large subset of men tend to do\u2014quote Boondock Saints, order a PBR, or wear a tie around his head at a wedding\u2014ultimately, these are social cues around which I&amp;#039;m comfortable. I guess the bottom line is: I love Basic Bros. Maybe even more than I love jamming to a slightly depressing hip hop song with a hella catchy Rihanna chorus. Photo: Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a19196/how-about-the-basic-bro/>