‘Gen Z Boss and a Mini’: Why is Everyone Being So Mean?

Uh oh, women on the internet are having fun! Bust out your pitchforks!

This weekend, an array of discourse erupted over “Gen Z boss and a mini,” a shorthand for a viral video that has been making the rounds. The video is, overall, pretty innocuous (a group of women following a TikTok trend) yet it has reached the sort of virality that has led to takes on takes on takes, as well as memes and parodies. And it’s all getting a little absurd.

Here’s everything you need to know, in the latest TL;DR.

Give me the TL;DR.

A group of women colleagues at a skin-care startup in Australia made a TikTok trend video that’s going viral—because no one can act normal about women having fun online.

Wait, I need more. What’s the background here?

As is the case for most TikTok trends, this is going to be a little hard to describe in an article. But here goes.

The trend was born via a somewhat random video of a couple of women out on the town. They each describe an element of their outfit to the same, strangely hypnotic tune. The women are henceforth known as “boots and a slicked back bun,” “cowboy boots and blowie (a.k.a., a blowout, don’t be gross),” and “Sambas and a little red bag.”

From the video, it’s clear that this is a group of friends and they are hyping each other up. Like, get it in your Sambas and a little red bag! The video took off, with more and more women and their friends copying the trend. Some infused more than just their outfits into their descriptors, like personality traits or physical descriptions of themselves.

Then, a group of colleagues decided to take it on. They work at TBH Skincare, a startup in Australia that sells products like acne dots, cleansers, and serums with the tagline, “Hey spotty hotties!” In the video, a group of young, attractive, and well-dressed women at an office put their own spin on the trend.

The women designate themselves as “Gen Z boss and a mini [skirt],” “itty-bitty titties and a bob,” “five foot three and a attitude,” “secret product and a trench [coat],” “new Frank Green and a sneaky link,” and “fake tan hands and a hoop.”

Why, out of all the videos doing the trend, did this one go so viral? We may never know; thus is the way of the internet. But maybe it was the Gen Z boss (gasp!). The fact that they are clearly coworkers in an office…that is mostly women…having fun? Unacceptable.

What does the internet think?

So actually, a lot of people (mostly women) thought the original video was pretty cute. But others made fun of it. Here’s a smattering of some of the responses:

“They should make marketing degrees more expensive.”

“Women: why don’t we get paid the same as men 😩 also women.”

“This is cancer. No wonder modern women can’t get anyone to date them.”