The “boy math” trend is everywhere and some of the world’s most powerful men – US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump and Elon Musk among them – have become targets.
Boy math is a TikTok trend being used by women to describe the stereotypical ways heterosexual men try to rationalise or misvalue numbers in real-world situations.
A classic example: “Boy math is how 5’10” measures 6′”.
“Boy math is being afraid of gold diggers when you only have 3 pairs of socks to your name,” one tweet said.
“Boy math is having a 70-inch tv but no dining table” another said.
Another viral tweet added: “Boy math is wanting 0 kids but having 0 condoms on hand.”
It follows the “girl math” trend which attempts to poke fun at the way women stereotypically think about their personal finances. Example: A $400 handbag that you will use every day over a year is really costing you just over $1 per day.
In the United States, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put her own spin on the trend, poking fun at Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy over his attempts to avoid a government shutdown. He has since been removed from his role as House speaker, with a number of hard-right members of his own Republican party joining forces with Democrats to vote for his removal.
“Boy math is needing 15 attempts to count the votes correctly to become Speaker and then shutting down the government 9 months later,” she wrote. She then followed up with: “Boy Math, Part 2: Motion to Vacate”.
Boy math is needing 15 attempts to count the votes correctly to become Speaker and then shutting down the government 9 months later
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 27, 2023
Across social media, some people have used boy math to poke fun at specific people – one popular target is Elon Musk and his takeover of Twitter (now known as X).
“Boy math is paying $44 billion for a $25 billion company and, through business smarts and entrepreneurial know how, turning it into an $8.8 billion company,” a tweet read.
Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump has also been a target of boy math.
“Boy Math is telling everyone you won an election when you actually lost by millions of votes.”