A common Fuck used to express frustration or disappointment with a situation perceived as being particularly difficult or unpleasant. Also used in a sarcastic way, if not outright overly dramatic, for humorous effect.
Defined:
frustration, chaos, humor, existential crisis, overly dramatic
In a sentence:
“Scrolling TikTok on the toilet and dropped my phone in. FML”
“I read too many submissions on Fmylife.com and now I’m depressed. FML”
This is a variation I don’t use much, for no particular reason. FML may simply be too soft for my taste. When I get frustrated or shit hits the fan, I tend to naturally bust out the Big Fucks.
There’s a website dedicated to FML that captures the many uses of the expression. The site tagline is, the best joke in life is life itself. Yes, truly.
Users submit short stories of absurd, vulnerable, disgusting and hilarious mishaps. I feel like PostSecret definitely paved the way for this, but this site is no PS. With a dash of swift Hot or Not responses, others vote on the story with either: I AGREE, YOUR LIFE SUCKS or YOU DESERVED IT.
FML Spicy Edition
The younger submissions in the “Spicy” section remind me that not having adequate sex education in public schools has really fucked with youth. Positive body image, body function, sexuality, and what heathy romantic relationships should be like are sorely missing from many of these stories.
Leaving younger and older teens to learn from readily accessible porn has produced the results so-called “family focused” leaders and organizations very literally rally against. Limiting education and valid sexual information has never been about protecting youth. It’s about adults being uncomfortable and taking it out on younger gens.
Much of our current anti-knowledge cultural posturing is, of course, done with a profit in mind. Purity Ball event swag doesn’t pay for itself. The lousy sex ed curriculum teens do receive? That’s a profit made by someone. And when an unplanned teen pregnancy happens? There’s a Crisis Pregnancy Center ready to claim another undereducated victim, and get a federal tax break to do so.
Other submissions on FML restore hope about the humor of growing up and trying to navigate becoming a young adult with a sex life. Like,
My first girlfriend started calling my penis a cute baby carrot.
… that poor teenage boy, or—
Kid sister read my boyfriend’s sext in the car and asked our parents what anal was.
The older age submissions, though, man… some of them are rough. Reminds me how many people are surrounded by abusive fuckheads. Accounting for completely made up terrible nonsense just for interaction, a good number of terrible and shocking stories have to be true.
Those submissions, good or bad, true or fiction, are probably a good representation of our society. I didn’t expect researching FML to lead me down this path. I get why FML is most popular with a younger demographic. There’s a lot of fucked up situations and people in our world. And, although I don’t use it, I most certainly support it. A fitting Fuck for our weird and wild timeline.