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.