“Hey girls, anyone else feeling the misogyny slipping through the cracks of our everyday conversations?” - Why TikTok’s new ‘Pink vs Blue jobs’ trend is harmful to feminist progress
With roughly 2 billion users in 2026, TikTok is one of the biggest social media platforms, with hundreds of thousands of trends coming in and out of popularity each day. One in particular has recently been heavily critiqued as being sexist, anti-feminist propaganda: ‘Pink Jobs vs Blue Jobs’.
In late 2025 and early 2026, videos discussing ‘Pink Jobs vs Blue Jobs’ started gaining popularity. The idea behind the trend was that the domestic duties of a couple should be split into ‘Pink Jobs’, the woman’s job, and ‘Blue Jobs’, the man’s job. The colour organisation of these jobs is rooted in the stereotype that views women as ‘pink’ and men as ‘blue’, which is only the beginning of the traditional conservative values displayed in these videos.
Examples of ‘Pink Jobs’ are dishwashing, laundry, and appointments, while the ‘Blue Jobs’ are responsibilities like yard work, driving, and handling finances. Thousands of comments agree with these divisions, with one commenter stating, “Gender norms are necessary for a functional marriage”. The division of these jobs supports reductive gender roles where women are confined to domestic roles while men perform labour, and promotes a heteronormative view of an ideal marriage.
The preservation of these conventional views in the modern day is a part of key traditionalist conservatism. From a conservative perspective, these clearly-defined roles are often justified as creating stability and order within both family and society. The popularity of these videos also suggests that these ideas resonate with audiences, showing how traditional gender norms still feel desirable despite social progress.
The ‘Pink vs Blue jobs’ trend also expands into the workforce with the idea of ‘pink-collared’ and ‘blue-collared’ jobs, once again enforcing the idea that men and women have separate duties and skillsets. While ‘blue-collar’ originally referred to manual labor jobs, the trend re-defines it as ‘traditionally male jobs’ by introducing ‘pink-collared jobs’.
These videos define pink-collared jobs as beauty-focused or care-taking roles, with a popular video listing makeup artists, receptionists, and midwives as some of these pink-collared jobs. Jobs such as labourers, lawyers, CEOs, engineers, and most physically or mentally demanding jobs are noticeably omitted.
Neosexism is reinforced through the subtle assertion of misogynistic beliefs and by undermining the existence of gender inequality. Neosexism operates by presenting inequality as already solved, which allows these traditional roles to be reintroduced without appearing overtly discriminatory. The videos frame ‘Pink vs Blue jobs’ as a personal choice, making it harder to criticise their role in normalising regressive structures. Furthermore, it shows the conservative push for societal structure through traditional roles, framing the separation of these responsibilities as productive rather than restrictive. The trend is politically harmful as it normalises a regression in feminist progress and frames the ‘domestic wife and hard-working husband’ dynamic as desirable.
The rising popularity of these videos has even started a counter-movement where women call out the trend for its regressive views on societal gender roles. Many of them use the satire song “Sorority Girls” by Mommy Long Legs which critiques the pressure put on women to conform to shallow stereotypes.
The trend serves as a reminder that social media can be more than just harmless fun, but instead assist in promoting regressive ideologies to a large audience.