New social media trend tells men to enter their ‘soft guy era’: ‘Being a provider in 2024 is a scam’
A new trend has emerged on TikTok known as the ‘soft guy era’, which advises men to stop being sole providers in their romantic relationships.
"The soft guy era movement is [about] promoting partnership. You’re telling me you’re a grown woman, and you’re my woman, and you can’t put up 50% of the bills, you’re broke and lazy," a TikToker who goes by the name Lil Goodie said.
"We all know being a provider in 2024 is a scam. So we don’t care, we’re not doing that anymore. We know that’s old-fashioned, these women got money, these women are working, so they need to contribute," another influencer named Scarfacemark said.
The trend blew up on TikTok earlier this month, with Mark and Goodie self-proclaiming the label of co-founders for the movement. Their slogan, "drizzle drizzle," pays homage to an opposing campaign that predates the "soft guy era" known as "sprinkle sprinkle." The tagline was created by Leticia Padua, a creator who uses her platform to give women advice on how to get a man to provide for them.
While Mark alludes to the focus of the movement to be reorienting men towards finding "high quality women," the basis of many of his videos revolve around finances.
"They want us to have money, I want my woman to have money as well," he said in a video.
Goodie echoed the same sentiment in one of his videos, saying, "You want me to pay 100% of the bills while you stay home, make them weak a-- meals, do that weak a-- pilates sessions you do every single day. [All] while you say, ‘oh, um, are we sending our kids to private school?’ How the f--- can we do that?"
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Some online users interpret the "soft guy era" to mean that the woman pays for everything, but others see the dynamic with nuance. The movement focuses on having men prioritize the pursuit of romantic partners that can make an equal or more financial contribution, citing partnership as a centerpoint - but other users, including Goodie himself, touch on the reality of needing more than one income per household in today’s economy.
He continued, "I’m paying all of your bills, and I’m paying for your lifestyle. How the f--- are we going to send our kids to private school?"
Among the collection of "drizzle drizzle" comments on Goodie’s video, one user typed, "In my culture there is a saying that goes 'one hand can't clap.' two income[s] makes the dream work."
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With rising costs for everything from groceries to housing expenses, many are finding creative ways to stay afloat. According to the Federal Reserve, a 2% inflation rate is most ideal for "maximum employment and price stability." Current statistics report current inflation to have increased to 3.48% last month after a slight dip in January of this year.
TikToker Jojo Scarlotta weighed in on rising prices in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"What I did notice under the Biden Administration was that gas, the price of housing, almost everything that you could name under the sun went up [in cost]," he said. "I don’t know what they expect the working class, the middle class to do. People who have just one income, how do they expect people to survive?"
"They thought it was just a joke, they thought it was just satire - it’s not just satire. This is now a movement," Mark said in another video.
Neither of the movement’s co-founders responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.