Brooke Hogan has had enough of younger people acting like millennials invented stories about early 2000s nightlife—and she came armed with platform heels, bandage dresses and enough Miami club memories to make her case.
Hogan posted an Instagram video after seeing a younger woman mock women who wore heels to clubs and claim the parties were not as wild as people now say they were. Brooke opened the video with puffy eyes and admitted she had been crying over what she called “little daddy issues,” but quickly turned her attention to the nightlife debate.
“Oh, my God. Sorry, my eyes are puffy. I’ve been crying. You know, little daddy issues. Long story short, I have a point to get to.”
The post that set her off questioned why women would willingly wear painful heels to dance for hours, while also claiming they were dressing for “the male gaze.” The woman also accused older generations of exaggerating how wild clubbing used to be.
Brooke said she immediately snapped to attention after hearing that.
“I rose up out of my Walmart pajamas.”
From there, Hogan gave younger viewers a full breakdown of what a real early 2000s night out looked like. It started with everyone meeting at someone’s apartment, finishing their makeup, having drinks and leaving much later than planned because texting on T9 took forever.
“It started with a pregame, okay? T9 text. It took forever. You’d say, ‘Meet me up at my apartment, and then we’ll go from there.’”
“You wanted to get to the club at, like, 10:30, but then it was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s already 11.’ You’re laughing, having a good old time in your apartment, and then everybody’s like, ‘Let’s go. Get out the door. Call a taxi.’”
Brooke said this was happening while she lived in Miami Beach and her family was filming their reality show. Even with cameras around and her celebrity status rising, she insisted the process was still the same as everyone else’s.
“I lived on Miami Beach. This was when we were filming the show. Just because you’re a celebrity, back in the day, it didn’t change how you did stuff. We did stuff how you did stuff because that was how it was.”
She also claimed clubs felt less tense, less divided and much safer before social media took over every second of people’s lives.
“There was no social media. You didn’t have to worry about a club getting shot up. The things we feel today about division, race and racism have always existed, but in this particular era, you didn’t feel that.”
“White girls could walk into a club full of Black people and vice versa. It didn’t matter. The club was popping.”
Brooke then went after the way people dress for clubs now, saying men used to show up smelling good, wearing button-down shirts, belts and nice shoes instead of throwing on a T-shirt.
“I think the biggest difference between then and today is people cared about how they looked. Men smelled good. It was crazy. Men wore button-downs to a club.”
Women were not dressing casually either. Brooke described the neon, skin-tight club outfits of the era as short, revealing and completely built for a long night of sweating.
“We’d be in a bandage dress. Our dresses were hoey. They were hoed out. They were short. They were neon. They were all the things.”
Then came the platform heels. Brooke admitted they hurt, but she completely rejected the idea that women could not dance in them. In her view, the shoes actually made it easier to get low and bounce.
“The heels made it easier to get down. You should try it sometime, because when your toes are down and your heels are up, you can actually bounce more.”
“If you were my height, 5’10”, you looked 6’4” walking into the club. It didn’t matter. You’d still break it down so low people wouldn’t even know.”
Hogan also said the thin club dresses served a real purpose because dancing for hours was basically a workout. The one thing she admitted got nasty was the glitter oil women used to make their legs and skin shine.
“These dresses had to be nothing because of the sweat and the workout. These dresses were basically made out of what you guys call Lululemon now. We were in thin material that breathed.”
“The only thing that was kind of gross was we wore glitter oil to make our skin shiny and our legs shiny. But it looked good.”
Music was another major part of Brooke’s argument. She referenced Nelly and Sean Paul while claiming clubs were packed with real songs that kept everybody moving instead of people standing around staring at their phones.
“God, the music was good. Like Nelly. We had ‘Gimme the Light.’ We had everything. Every single song that came on was amazing.”
“When you had actual bangers, people had to put time into making bangers.”
Brooke remembered people dancing in booths, on walkways and anywhere else they could squeeze in. Club employees sometimes had to warn women to stop standing on the furniture because their heels would punch holes through it.
“It wasn’t even really a dance floor. There were booths and walkways. You’d get in the booth and stand on the booth in your heels.”
“Sometimes people would be like, ‘Please don’t stand in the booth,’ because the heels would pop through the booth.”
For Hogan, the biggest difference was freedom. Nobody was worried about looking perfect for a video, getting caught in the background of someone’s livestream or waking up to an embarrassing clip online.
“There was no social media. You could have mascara running down your face from the sweat, be beat to hell from dancing and still have a good-ass time.”
“You didn’t care. The conversations were good, and your ears would ring after.”
She also made it clear that women did not take those heels off inside the club, no matter how badly their feet were burning.
“You would only take the heels off when you left the club. I’m telling you, the burn in the bottom part of that thing—oh, so bad.”
Brooke named Miami hotspots Opium Garden, Pearl and LIV while explaining that LIV may be the closest thing younger people can still experience today. Even then, she believes the music and overall atmosphere cannot be duplicated.
“If they could recreate Opium Garden, or I think there was a place called Pearl in Miami, or LIV is still there, right? LIV would probably be the closest thing if you’re a young person today.”
“You’re not going to get the music you used to get when we were doing our thing.”
Hogan ended by saying early 2000s clubbing was not only better—it came from a happier period when people spent less time doomscrolling and more time outside, socializing and creating memories.
“Maybe it was a better time. It was a better time in life in general. You didn’t have all this screen time and doomscrolling and things that are scientifically proven to make you depressed.”
“You’d go and have these amazing, epic nights, make all these great memories, dance, sweat and have all this fun. There was happiness. Every day was happy.”
Brooke Hogan is not backing down from her claim that early 2000s nightlife was louder, freer and far more fun than anything younger generations are experiencing now. Painful heels and ruined makeup were simply part of the deal—and according to Brooke, nobody needed a phone in their face to prove they had a great night.
Do you agree with Brooke Hogan that early 2000s clubbing was better, or is she looking at the past through rose-colored glasses? Leave your feedback in the comments below.
