WAY more effective than saying you like them

ikr, you'd think they'd follow through with their requests for a gentleman who treats them right instead of going for the date-raping jock. Eh, not my circus.

social commentary or satire I suppose. Words can be used to convey all sorts of unrelated things. Back in the day, "nice" meant simple, as in stupid. "She's a nice girl" had a whole different meaning back then. We still do the same thing today with almost everything, via sarcasm. E.g. "well THAT was fun."

Eh, it would have gone over your head anyway

Actually, in fairness to the jocks who treat them like trash...it's a fairly effective tactic. THAT'S the tragedy.