When I arrived on this campus there was a whole new Whitman lexicon that I gradually learned to accept and cherish. Examples include “chill” being the highest compliment ever, “Narnia” being the cool spot behind Maxey and “fuccbois” being, essentially, the literal scum of the earth. But I’ll be honest about the last one–I still don’t quite understand what fuccbois are. As a campus, we call out members of fraternities and some independent guys as being fuccbois for dressing a certain way, talking a certain way and just generally acting in a certain way. What do we really mean when we use that word?

In regards to the first two common criticisms, people can obviously wear whatever they want and voice their opinions regardless of whether people agree. That’s their choice. If they say or wear something hugely offensive then people probably can and should judge them for their idiocy; however, it is unequivocally their right as free people to wear ugly colored shoes and say, “Make me a sandwich, hur-hur” to their female friends. That’s something that they can definitely do, regardless of whether or not I like it. But after some extensive ‘research’ of asking everyone I know to define the term fuccboi (although I will admit most of my friends are fellow women), no one could give me a clear-cut definition. Regardless, I was able to get a few descriptions of fuccboi-esque behavior.

Popular examples of how fuccbois act include hitting on five different girls at the same party, texting “I miss you” in an effort to pull a girl back who left him last week and acting totally different around guy friends than when a girl talks to him one-on-one.

My initial reaction to these stories was of mild disgust, but the fact remains that the term of ‘fuccboi’ itself means something different to each person, and even Urban Dictionary definitions were mostly how to ‘spot a fuccboi’ rather than what they essentially are. Just like any other word, if you can’t define it, you probably don’t actually know what it means. In reality, the term ‘fuccboi’ is just something to put a name on a certain ‘type of guy’ who has always existed. The way I see it, a major problem presents itself when people begin to say, “Fuccbois all act a certain way.” Because how is that any different than the high school mentality of judging nerds for needing glasses? That being said, most of the disparaging comments about fuccbois get at one of three problems: fuccbois are selfish, fuccbois will lie to get what they want and fuccbois don’t respect women.

Each of these traits is problematic to the society we live in. Being selfish is annoying in so far as it’s generally one of those things we learn to grow out of with age, but let’s face it, even as adults we still put ourselves first. If someone else is a bit more honest about their self-interested nature, can we really blame them? Lying to get what you want should not really need much explanation as to why it’s wrong. Lying is dishonest, and what a ‘fuccboi’ wants is not more important than the other person’s whose desires are opposite.

As for the problem of not respecting women, I see that as a problem similar to racism: it is undoubtedly wrong and unacceptable, but also something that can’t necessarily be altered in another person. You can’t personally teach someone to respect women any more than you can change their upbringing and what they were exposed to growing up. Fuccbois ultimately demonstrate the social problem of people who still haven’t really grown up, haven’t learned to live in society and haven’t learned how to treat other people with respect. But beyond raising our own children better, we can’t necessarily force fuccbois to stop being fuccbois. They have to learn that on their own. Yes, fuccboi is undoubtedly a fun word to say, but we should be aware of its essentially empty meaning. And if it actually is a real phenomenon, we should simply avoid fuccbois who have the right to treat others like trash, even though literally no one wants or respects that in the first place.