When it comes to inquiring about someone else’s sexuality, euphemisms can be safer and less embarrassing for all parties involved, because you don’t necessarily have to out yourself in the process, she explains.
But how did the name of a queer musician become synonymous with sapphic identity? And what does it say about the way that Gen-Z sapphics are playing with language and their sexuality on TikTok?Ĭoded language has long been used by LGBTQ+ English speakers to “locate each other and find a community,” especially during times and places where people are not allowed to express their queerness, says Lucy Jones, an Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham. And given that sapphic culture is still largely marginalized within global mainstream media, it’s no small feat that the phrase nearly dominated a corner of TikTok for almost the entirety of 2020. While there have been other cultural rallying points for lesbians of generations past, “do you listen to girl in red?” has helped Gen-Z sapphics discuss and express their sexuality in a way that is both discrete and further-reaching than ever before, thanks in part to the scope and speed of today’s online trends. It was only through coded language that she felt the courage and self-assuredness to step out into the world as a queer artist. She later showed the track to her parents, too, adding, “I don’t think they really understood it much, but they support me anyway.” For the young artist, the fact she could maintain a sense of discretion while still connecting with a global queer community drove the song’s creation. Some professed that they had sent the Tiktok, which now has over 83,000 likes, to their crushes. When Margo posted an early version of her song in July, dozens of excited commenters cropped up immediately, begging her to upload a version to Spotify. And thousands of TikToks tagged either #girlinred or #doyoulistentogirlinred - some of which contain no reference to Ulven herself, but instead are solely about lesbianism or bisexuality - have collectively amassed over 700 million views on the platform since. Eventually, the #doyoulistentogirlinred hashtag peaked in mid-September with a daily total of 300K video views.
Others used the phrase to express their thirst for women and femmes, like in a video from gokeegango in which she frantically runs out of shrubbery to yell in the camera: “Ma’am, please, I need to know… Do you listen to girl in red?!”Īs the phrase became a full-blown meme, it evolved as an in-joke, with some users “answering” the question by flashing other coded signifiers for sapphics on the platform, like baking, making outrageous earrings, showing off their eyebrow slits, and wearing Doc Marten boots. Users started making TikToks responding to the question in delight, like when alicarr0ll starts lip syncing to audio of Michael Scott from The Office screaming “Everybody stay calm!” to indicate their excitement that someone would think that they’re queer. According to a TikTok spokesperson, the #doyoulistentogirlinred hashtag was first created in April 2020, the same month that the phrase popped up on sites like Urban Dictionary and Quora. That spring, the question first emerged as a sort of “open secret” on sapphic TikTok. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
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