@@moomoocowsly i think my fashion patterns have been dictated more by life stages than by 'aesthetics,' though they obviously form an aesthetic trend in my life. for example, my style changed a lot moving from being a university student to being in the workplace. even as a university student, in my first year i was wearing exclusively thrifted clothing because that was all i could afford, and focused on comfort, then later delved into 'style' and bought clothing that was new. over time i've slowly discovered what i want to wear, and found out it's literally anything with the colours blue and orange combined
@@moomoocowslythey mean something that changes daily, one day it's "cottagecore" the other "Barbie" and so on, the difference is that people are trying to choose one and make it their lifestyle, at some point caring more about how they are seen especially on the internet instead of themselves
''Does the regular person outside of TikTok even know what Blueberry Milk nails are?'' Nope. I was today years old when I learned about Blueberry Milk nails, Glazed Donut nails, Naked nails and the Tomato Girl aesthetic. Thank you Mina. I would never know otherwise.
Literally same, i'm a girl and its too exhausting for me. And I don't mean that as a "not one of those girls" but like genuinely it makes me depressed tiktok trends idk why so I deleted it
Or we just got to a new level of shallow. These ain't trends...these are just things that already existed. Pastel nails for summer? Waw, yes, that screams «new»...
I think that fandoms are closer to subcultures than aesthetics are now. Within the same fandoms you can have different aesthetics but a hobby or fandom that they are passionate about connects us more, like in a subculture. I.e. true crime community, crochet community, booktok, asmr community, streamer fans, kpop stans, anime fans, comic book community, bujo community, etc...
Also fandoms influence the way you present yourself to some degree, if you like kpop for example you're gonna try to replicate the makeup and clothing of your favourite group or singer
thissss i totally had this thought but didn't know how to explain it but yeah i feel like the fandoms i've been a part of are the closest thing to a subculture
People are looking for identity in superficial, very disposable ways. You won’t find yourself through a parasocial relationship online. You can like certain aesthetics as you do colors or seasons, but the truth lies in character when nobody is looking.
I agree to an extent. Your fashion can tell a lot about who you are and what you like. People have always shown their identity through clothes, as evidenced by how different clothing among Indigenous groups look down to small details. Even within similar groups, your own clothes would look nothing like someone else's because it would still have your own touch to it. Same as aesthetics in a way: there's as many ways to be goth as there are goths in the world. I don't think its as simple as making fashion your identity
Every part of internet culture is constantly accelerating. Talking about this in 10 months will feel like someone talking about advice dog spinoff reaction images as if they were still relevant
I think the reason why cottagecore and dark academia are different is because they fulfilled a desire, a need. To "just enjoy the simple things in a chaotic world" and "a place you can fit in", respectively. Painting your nails light blue doesn’t fulfill you in any way, it just gives you light blue nails
this! cottagecore and dark academia share more similarities with more classic subcultures because they're more than just a "look" and have communities built around them
People that love cottagecore and dark academia already dressed that way, and the aesthetics were ways to define and expand their style. They also came with an ethos, a desire to express something through fashion, be it the need to escape modernity and urban entrapment into nature, or the need to express an admiration for the pleasures of reading, libraries and studying. Other aesthetics are just that, a costume, nothing that has anything behind it.
Cottagecore and Dark Academia can be as shallow as liking the clothes and furnishing, as much as light blue nails can be someone one's simple enjoyment in a chaotic world. You're creating artificial separation to uplift your preferred aesthetic.
@@said8784 also you conveniently missed my point booboo 😘 if you didn't understand and you were wanting to have an honest conversation, you'd have asked. But you wanted to be disingenuous, and your response screams that to all of us. ❤️ Come back when you're ready to have an actual, honest, adult conversation sweetheart 👍
The pandemic probably accelerated this phenomenon and encouraged micro-trends by forcing all culture online. The internet used to be a secondary or tertiary way of interacting with culture. But if people get their local news, work, school, friend groups online, it’s hard for actual real life culture to develop outside the world created for us by The Algorithms
In a larger context/perspective, it's important to note that culture and trends throughout the last century are affected by more than just market and mutual agreement. Governmental agencies and NGO-type institutions such as the 3-letter intelligences, Tavistock Institute, Esalen institute, etc have studied and acted in different aspects of culture from the hippy movement to student riots and color revolutions. Timothy Leary has an interview where he says the CIA was primarily the cause of the counter-culture movement. Some good books about this are Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon by David McGowan and Tavistock Institute by Daniel Estulin. Not trying to turn the conversation over to this kind of topic, but while watching this I felt it would be good info to have in mind as a side of things.
I have noticed something: in the past people organized into their groups or subcultures around a hobby, something they do in their free time, like listening to rock/rock music, surfing, skating, reading, painting etc. Their fashion sense came from the real, substantial thing. I agree that the internet has done something to subcultures, in a way that the real subculture doesn't really exist. One can dress like a cottage core girl, but one doesn't need to know anything about it, the aesthetic is I guess the only thing that's enough. People don't do stuff connected to their subculture, but rather just post about their part in it, photos, guides (how to dress like that etc). It's just their "image", style, and they're actually just presenting the lifestyle to others rather than living it. In the past it was more about doing, enjoying, feeling, living your thing. Now it's more about presenting the subculture you belong to, without substantially feeling the "core" of it. I started writing my comment at the beginning of the video and you actually addressed many of my thoughts, great video! Especially the connection between aesthetics and selling the product. Edit: an endless number of styles (fruit girls) is weird to me and I don't think it's really useful for finding yourself. It's a bit delusional as you start with the idea of wanting to be special but end up all the same somehow. + Why do we need to have a name for normal human activities? (girl dinner - it's just a tasty snack, hot girl walk - it's just called being happy and grateful) I personally think it's unnecessary. You're not really discovering anything new. Btw it's the same with popular shows, remember when all the girls were crazy about Wednesday (black and dark and serious) and they're now hyped about Barbie (pink and fluffy)? I think that true style doesn't change as the wind blows
While I agree about the over-categorization that comes with specifying or attributing titles to walking and eating, I do think it helps some people. For example girl dinner is comprised of comfort or safe foods, which will otherwise be seen as childish. To see other people partake in a small thing such as a childish dinner, makes people feel safe, especially neurodivergent people who have a hard time with change and often eat safe foods. Of course it has a negative side where people take it and use it as a way to partake in unhealthy eating habits, the internet coining a term for such a mundane activity encourages people to do what they’d like to do to be happy.
@@yourlocaldemon2195 I think more people that partake in that particular trend just want to be a part of a popular term without all those more valuable aspects in mind. I too struggle a bit sometimes and eat comfort food, maybe even more than I think, I just never thought about finding a new, trendy term for it. I'm reflecting on the need to find a term for everything these days. My first impression is that some people might even feel bad when watching a video promoting that trend because in the video you can often see the romantic vibe, some nice aesthetic etc. and they aren't able to maintain that vibe even if they're actually doing the girl dinner thing.
@@marylynn259 huh, yeah thats a good point. I did list possible valuable assets of these trending terms but haven’t really taken into account if there ARE people who partake in it beyond a superficial level. I’ve also felt a level of guilt for not being able to involve myself in certain trends despite my conscious effort to not be bothered by it. Another point is that people who are neurodivergent and already are in neurodivergent algorithms online will probably already have this advice without being geared toward it through coining a term. All in all thinking through this I think I do agree with your initial statement since, while they may be empowering to some, genuine advice would be much better appreciated by those who do care beyond an artifical or materialistic level.
I think the naming has to do with search optimisation, when there are too many results for searching "fashion" or "dinner", these specific terms naturally evolve as a way to stand out and be found.
I remember the existence of ""Find your aesthetic" playlists on youtube and tiktok for the sole purpose of finding some identity you could adopt. It was interesting that the high of that phenomenon, at least on my side of the internet, was during the lock-down period where many were disassociating with their bleak and dreary life and instead trying to find joy, individuality, and community not in the people they couldn't talk to, but the aesthetics they shopped.
I feel like it's important to see that the driving forces of these are teenagers and even pre teens they are just searching for identity, belonging and an easy understanding of themselves
as a young metalhead I can confirm that subcultures are not dead, we don't get as much attention because yk all the og subcultures or countercultures aren't new anymore but they're still there thriving. We are not seen by the mainstream anymore but we are there :P
if you don't make money, capitalism likes to pretend you don't exist! fellow metalhead lesbian here, and those are two identities that are just fundamentally difficult to market to in our current culture, which is a blessing in some ways
I also love when people complain about not being aware of new subcultures and underground movements, like, yeah it's probably because their not a part of it. It only becomes known once it's main stream, and once it becomes main stream it's no longer underground
To answer your question: nope, no one outside of TikTok has heard of blueberry milk nails lol I’ve worn light blue polish for two decades, and this name for it was news to me.
I'm om tiktok for a few months now but I'm also out of it lmao, have no idea about tiktok trends at all 😂 i guess I'm on the right side of tiktok I just watch crochet videos and thrifty shit 😂😂😂 sometimes cats I guess 😂
@@jonahandthewolfit's basically the "Mediterranean summer holiday" aesthetic. It's romanticizing the "simple" Mediterranean life of wearing flowy clothing for the hot weather, visiting markets in a small Italian town and eating pasta afterwards. The clothes are often times quite basic and vintage(looking) and give off this "undone chic" look. That's the best way I can explain it. As people tend to add the colour red into this style (red lipstick paired with otherwise natural makeup or red summer dresses), it was coined "tomato" girl
online aesthetics are super cute, but i think they become a problem when people make themselves believe that they need to pick on and stick with it. people are multi dimensional and reminding myself of that makes me enjoy experimenting with vibes, makeup, aesthetics, and fashion.
Exactly. I LOVE making hyper-specific aesthetic pinterest boards and such, it genuinely brings me so much joy, but it's really just for fun, it's about expressing a certain look or feel. But what I don't get is ppl who think that they have to commit to a certain aesthetic or center their lives around it. "Tomato girl" or whatever is fun as an aesthetic for a pinterest board or an outfit or really anything that's specific to aesthetics, but why try to take it beyond that?
They also thrive best online. It’s easy to make your online persona fit an aesthetic. It’s harder to live in it. How many of us can really commit to a full wardrobe that is so limiting. All of us have pajamas or lounge clothes we wear. We all have junk drawers or messy closets or stacks of books and paper on our desks. What is shown online is so curated and manicured that even the careful nonchalance of “girl dinner” can’t be replicated in real life without intentional staging and manipulation to achieve the perfectly unkept look.
I think this is a very important comment. This stiff mindset also shows itself in activity wise, up to the point people start to judge you for having many hobbies and interest/being a multi tasker. Really. Need to stop with these shits and start thinking free.
Facets of "cottagecore," "cottagegoth,' "whimsigoth," "dark academia," and "goblincore" already described the kind of taste I've had as a "romantic goth" circa mid-90s/early 2000s. Not much has changed about the way I dress beyond it becoming more publicly acceptable and commercialized. 😅
@aofmual oh look. The Elder Goth is here to school the baby bats. Ya gonna tell us about seeing Souxie in person...again? How mad are you that Death was cast as a black woman? 90's goth is it's own specific fashion moment within the subculture. The only people who talk like you are ancient Gen X and baby boomer 80'd goths clinging to the bar at the goth club telling you about the time they had Czech absinthe.
Walking through target recently (as a goth) I was approached by an older woman 50’s-60’s (I’m 44) who said it was good to see someone with her same aesthetic… I’m seeing more older ladies being more comfortable with being themselves and wearing at least light goth wear… it’s refreshing to see
That's the thing, it's the algorithm, you don't ever hear about the trend existing until someone is making a critique of said trend/aesthetic! I'm not surprised if I see blueberry milk nails all over my explore section of instagram now after watching this video. But if I go up to a few genZ teens many of them will either have heard of blueberry milk nails or never heard of it and tell me a whole slew of micro-aesthetics that will plow my 25 y/o brain.
it's so EXHAUSTING to feel the need to confine to one aesthetic. People are not pintrest boards - we are multidimensional, thinking, breathing, unique, and should embrace and love our uniqueness. I am my own aesthetic, the aesthetic is me
Can i ask you something? (I'm being genuine here, not trying to be aggresive or sht, just so we are clear and you don't missunderstand me) When you like so many things that you simply cannot recognize who you are, because "picking" is not a choice for you, ¿What do you do? For a little bit of context, i do love a ton of aesthetics, -cores, and subcultures, and more. I love halloween, goth and punk movements, scene subculture and nightcore music, but i also love barbiecore, sanrio and kawaii culture, coquette+cottagecore, and many many more. I love LIFE, and i love so many many maaaany thing, i don't know who i am anymore, yes, i'm me, but WHAT *is* me? Is a very psicological/filosofical question now that i think about it, but i think that internet has literally helped to grew this problem on my insides, that was already there, but being online bc of depression only made it bigger. So i was asking myself this because i know a lot of girls, much younger than me, that feel the same. Maybe we really need to detox ourselves and be less time online.
@@liamvautier944What you are describing is loss of identity. The truth is only Christ can fill that hole in your heart. No amount of "aesthetics" or materialism will ever fill it. How do I know? I was once asking this question myself while being depressed (I was in my 20s at the time) until I found a relationship with God. Hope this helps.
@@liamvautier944 this is me to a T. I have been struggling with the "who am i?" question lately. I wouldn't even know how to describe myself as a character if I were to do a book report on my life.
@@liamvautier944 this is something I've thought long and hard about for a very long time, and have only recently kind of figured it out. i think it's innately human to want to have a community and to want to fit into somewhere specific, but once you realize and accept that it's not in the cards for you it gets easier. and I'm definitely not saying that because you like so many different things you belong nowhere, it's just that you need to find people who understand that and love you for you and all your interests. i think I've recently figured it out because my community my friends and the people i surround myself with don't need me to have a label or match something, they just love me for me. internet detox's are definitely good and needed because i often forget that it's not real. almost everything is fabricated and no one cares about my labels outside of my phone. they just want to know YOU. once you realize that literally NO ONE has a full sense of who they truly are, it gets easier. it's hard to figure it out and accept things for as they are, but i believe in you bestie
@@liamvautier944the very thing you can do is just to enjoy those "aesthetics" as they come and go. You aren't defined, nor limited, by an aesthetic appeal. You are the sum of your personality, hobbies, passions, education, relationships, values and flaws, and so much more. Liking a theme of something doesn't limit you to that one thing! Aesthetics are pretty superficial in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy them all! Dress cottagecore one day and goth the next! Have your bedroom be half-academia half-artsy! Tastes change over time, and it's not fair to yourself if you limit your interests to just one peg. Be yourself, and if it means liking 29 different aesthetics at once, show it off in the way you feel most comfortable in! Be you!
the worst thing is aesthetics just add up to the big problem of consumerism and fast fashion, at the end of the day YOU DON'T NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN EVERYTHING YOU SEE ONLINE👍
Yep. I would add that there’s almost a desperate need to become part of a community and a way to satisfy that is by literally buying into an aesthetic. And companies know that very well. Not to mention that not everyone is that well off financially to even AFFORD to buy into them. To me, aesthetics are meant to be taken as inspiration, not as emulation.
EXACTLY! On point. Its not a race to win every lap. You don't need to buy everything that is trending. Honestly feel bad for the people making one of those fast fashion items just to be found in a thrift store a week or a month later.
its so crazy to me how so many of these aesthetics visually and historically connect to real minority groups… and then said minority groups get shoved out of spaces THEY curated
Are you really surprised tho? It's ghetto until a white person gets ahold of it then it becomes trendy and ppl rename the aesthetic. The black/latino community hardly ever gets credit for the trends we start or popularize. And when you point that out you're called racist or divisive 😂 ETA: when white ppl get ahold of something popular in poc communities, the price shoots up. The mielle rosemary & mint hair oil is the perfect example
I agree. I think a good example with language trend is "yass, queen, slay" words being used as some buzzy new tiktok gen z slang. When in fact these words come from black ballroom culture used by poc queer people. And it's just frustrating to see that the same people who use these words on social media are homophobic/transphobic and get annoyed when real lgbt people use them 🙄🙄
@@nunyabusinessbih this is so real.i am indian but live in the us and i grew up getting bullied bc i used hair oil,ate indian food for lunch,etc. but now white ppl are all about hair oil,ayurvedaa,yoga,etc and labelling it as something new they created,or an aesthetic💀
I genuinely don’t understand how some people will buy clothes and then get rid of them within the following month ???? how????? I keep my clothes for years like I still wear shirts from middle school because they’re nice (I’m a senior now, I still fit in a lot of old clothes I have because middle school me preferred oversized things and I didn’t grow that much lol)
I’ve been noticing the fragmentation of the internet so much more lately! When all the Barbie marketing was going on, Barbie memes were pretty much 2/3 of my feed. But when I brought it up to my partner he was like huh I haven’t really seen anything about that movie. Like WHAT??!
Obviously there's fragmentation. Most every successful algorithm gives the user more of what has already captured their attention. It's the famous echo chamber, but it's not just about politics but literally everything.
The obsession with embodying a certain aesthetic has just gotten so absurd. The other day, I saw a reel about "how to study in a dark academia way." Like what does that even mean? It was just photos of candles and dark libraries and generic to bad studying tips. It wasn't satire, but I wish it was.
@@moomoocowslywhat the actual fuck people MAKE tutorials for entertainment, not to instruct????? People watch tutorials for entertainment???? Why?????? My autistic mind is blown. Like I guess I can't be that surprised, I watched makeup tutorials for looks I was never going to follow exactly back in the day, but even then I was attempting to get some sort of instruction I could fold into my own looks. People are fuckin wild man.
I mean by the title i would assume it was topics to study. Like DA often centre around Classics, history, ancient history, art, art history, archeology, languages, literature. And using pen and ink and books rather than laptops, using the library over the internet, DA characters in literature often studied long hours at night, in a group. So i would say there is a DA way to study maybe the video wasnt that good. Vs cottagecore study would be outside in a park or field, studying art, plants, literature but different authors to DA, cyberpunk would use the internet and laptop and so on
But why do you find it so ridiculous? If romanticized their studying can help someone actually study, why make fun of it? Sure, maybe the video is cringe or unhelpful to you, but maybe it helped someone who didn't want to study, and they put on a shirt and lit a candle or went to the library and got some shit done. You can find it ridiculous, but if it works for some people, why make fun of it?
ikr- this entire corner of tiktok videos and reels with “aesthetic” relating to academics is just a bit weird to me its ruining the minds of young students which makes them think they need to fit in a certain “aesthetic” to be a good student lmao
You think they believe they have to look a certain way to be a good student ? Are you sure they actually believe they can't be a good student without these aesthetic tips, or do they just do it to make their life more fun ? I'm all for capitalist criticism, but let's not remove agency from students either, I'm not sure they're such slaves to aesthetics that they can't realise that it's for entertainment or just putting something extra in their life
Back in high school, I really cared for my "aesthetic" as a metalhead. I wear strictly black and band shirts 100% of the time. Now, at 25, I can listen to black metal and wear that goddamn hello kitty shirt because I don't need to have an aesthetic to prove I'm a metalhead. It just feels free knowing I don't have to be restricted to an aesthetic.
In highschool people are just starting to figure out how they fit into the broader society and aesthetics are a way to do that. By 25 you have a much better idea of your own identity.
PC Nerd here. Looking like a nerd used to be so important to me. And it was ugly. It was ugly glasses (I need them, I just wear ones that are better fitting my face today) and graphic tees and ratty jeans and hoodies. And not taking care of my hair. Today, at 30, I know I can wear that stylish blouse and still know I am a goddamn motherfucking nerd and will never not be one. Like my PC doesn't unbuild itself just because I wear beautiful clothes.
This! Belonging to a subcutlure (especially musical and/or political ones) is generally so much more than just the outfit, and it's fun wearing what the fuck I want these days. Aesthetics are fun as a means of inspiration but some of these seem exhausting.
Exactly! It's important to signal what you're into when you're in high school. You see a kid wearing the shirt of a band you like then you might have other shared interests as well? Who knows, you might end up being friends for life? Now that you're an adult you've internalized your love of metal. You don't have to prove your loyalty after you're a decade in. When I was fourteen I looked punk as fuck. Ten years later I looked much less extreme, but I was letting Lamb of God play my basement.
In my opinion the true subculture I’ve seen recently has been pro physical media/piracy/right to repair, the reaction against subscription models and planned obsolescence, it doesn’t really have a name but I’ve seen it throughout film/tv/music/video games/technology
Partially circular economy, doughnut economics, solar punk maybe? Though subscription models can also fit under both CE or DE ..... anything "X as a service"(SaaS etc) . But it depends on the purpose and values underpinning it
Ive been talking abt this with my friends for forever 😭😭 subcultures were abt community and liking the same things including fashion. But now it’s all the same stuff it’s all abt consumerism and not even making friendships or having values behind what you’re wearing
as someone who refuses to download tiktok i feel so old every time i hear a new -core or -girl that's trending. like my immediate reaction was "what the fuck is a tomato girl" ????? LMAO
It's just sunburnt makeup look, they keep renaming it and thinking they did something LOL Update: it's basically a Mediterranean girl summer aesthetic or girls who travel abroad for summer
I'm a cultural anthropologist and i find always find your videos very thought provoking and well written. you have a very anthropological way of thinking, and i appreciate the history and research you bring to your videos. You have inspired me for several papers, so i always look forward to your videos. I was just discussing this same topic with my friend, so what a great moment to hear your thoughts!
this is kind of a random question but what jobs are there for cultural anthropologists? i’m asking because a while ago i thought that i’d want to get a degree for cultural anthropology or history, but when i looked into it more i heard a lot about how there aren’t many job opportunities. and i’m still very interested in it but realistically i don’t think i could pursue it, so i was just wondering what your experiences are with it.
can we talk about how 'trends' don't exist anymore? thin eyebrows were a trend, aline dresses were trendy (etc) in history. These trends would last 10 years or so. Trends now last WEEKS. That's not a trend. I don't even know what to call it.
Something so funny to me when amazing creators make incredibly detailed video essays and then end it with “uh yeah I don’t really have much else to say”
what i’ve always noticed about subcultures vs aesthetics is the diminishing effect of community. subcultures were made to be communal, made to have this team-like structure to them where someone can find comfort in similarities within people that don’t fall into the mainstream. there’s this sense of space that one can surround themselves with of familiarity and alikeness. on the other hand, you’ve got aesthetic culture which is primarily competitive and a lot more individualistic-even if people don’t expect it to be. you’ve got people competing for the newest style in that particular aesthetic, or a sense of urgency to stand out in the culture to become almost like the epitome or “spokesperson” of that aesthetic, the desire to become the first person that people think of when it comes that aesthetic. and given it’s more materialistic, the competition of owning the most ____core items is something i’ve noticed growing steadily these days which obv is related to fast fashion and overconsumption as a whole
I feel like now aesthetics are just too much now 😭 There are aesthetics for EVERYTHING. Like things that don't need to be an aesthetic or have repurposed an already existing aesthetic and just re-named it. And the majority of trending ones are just short-term so now fast fashion can market off of them really quickly, easily and with extremely bad quality
the suffix -core is used so much to the point that even if it's the stupidest idea it'll sound as if there's something redeeming about it didnxjndnx 'friedchickencore' 💀
Society feels like just evolved backwards, back when subcultures were created to go against mainstream and corporations and now it just a silly aesthetic just to feel cool and being capitalized off. Like I don't even know what is a tomato girl?? how many more aesthetic are gonna be there??
The history of vaporwave absolutely BLEW MY MIND!! I had no idea it was a Marxist alt-history experimental art movement I’m absolutely floored. Your research is always top notch but you really blew me away here, this is so so good
As a member of the vaporwave community I was very confused about the lack of substance in the way the mainstream internet looked at the genre, as this weird retro memes with aesthetic vibes. Vaporwave is very political, and full of abstraction. It's like punk but using capitalism as your brush or musical instrument. And that's what I loved about it.
@@helio7249I feel the same way - I'm not as into Vaporwave as I used to be but it was never as shallow as just "meme music" and its a little surprising to find out that's how it was and still is viewed by the mainstream. You don't even have to look that far to find the more esoteric or political Vaporwave if you just start looking.
This is a retcon. The "wave" part of vaporwave just comes from the New Wave genre of music from the 80s. A handful of different "Wave" genres have sprung up since then, Coldwave, darkwave, ect. It's a signifier of a genres 80s influence.
Y’all vaporwave can be all of the above at the same time!!! It obviously was resonant with a lot of people and it seems like that was likely because of it being multidimensional in essence… The aesthetics of something can speak to the deeper meaning without the viewer being consciously aware of it and that doesn’t detract from the validity of it…
The way these trends and aesthetics come and go so quickly is why i try to keep all my clothes for as long as possible. Undoubtedly they will fit into the newest aesthetics again at some point. Call it "hoardcore".
your point about romanticizing one’s life having potential to become self-surveillance is something I’ve recognized in my negative reaction toward “romanticization” as a trend, but haven’t been able to articulate for so long. thank you for saying this point out loud !!!!!
28:30 Girl dinner also normalizes that eating is more important than being perfect. Don't have the energy to cut carrots tonight? That's okay. Those PB crackers mean that you fed yourself instead of going hungry. Proud of you! ❤️ It's something we do in the disability and neurodiverse communities, too, and we were doing it long before the phrase girl dinner hit social media.
As a neurodivergent person, I find food management takes up like a third of my total brain processing power. I like how girl dinner is a rejection of cooking, which is traditionally "women's work".
“Girl dinner”, “girl walk”, and all the other “girl girl girl” is women telling on themselves that they don’t think of themselves as adults. Like omg how to you even adult fr?
In my opinion micro trend from clothing has morphed into micro trends in makeup, particularly with makeup products. There’s always a new product that you need despite the product not very innovative in the first place and you probably have a similar product already. So instead of needing a new dress you absolutely need, it’s now a blush.
(Haven’t finished the video yet but saw your comment but…) Yeah I see that especially with “influencers” saying OH YOU NEED THIS NEW BLUSH TO GET THE P E R F E C T NATURAL ~CLEAN GIRL~ DEWY LOOK. WEAR THIS NEW BLUSH TO LOOK BLURRED AND SNATCHED THIS BLUSH IS PERFECT FOR THE *LATTE* GIRL AESTHETIC X WAS M A D E FOR _insert whatever new trending aesthetic_ And I’m like *b r u h* CHILL THE FUCK OUT I’ll just do the makeup I want and with what I can afford. I’m not going to *constantly* keep up with this and I don’t have to lmao. Despite what influencers and corporations are telling me.
What about fandoms, beyond music? I feel like fandoms are an interesting subculture dynamic. Writing and reading fan fiction, editing videos, consuming media that is siminal to the fandom
I hadn’t even considered this but yeah! In some fandoms it’s not even just the singular core piece of media, there’s associated media (think the ubiquity of superwholock), music genres/artists and even style elements that are popular amongst fans, and that people include in their everyday lives outside of fandom. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been clocked as a Magnus Archives fan for my glasses chain, for example
There's been a lot written about fandom as subculture, going back about 50 years now. You may want to read Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins, which is a seminal work on fan studies, including and especially fan fiction.
Like Twilight-core. But also, the other way around, like how much is the aesthetic dictating the media consumption and interests? like someone who never listened to emo or goth music before starts to because they like the e-girl/boy aesthetic, or starts reading Plato because they're into dark academia. I don't know if that actually happens at all in real life though, but in social media I definitely see it, some accounts you can actually see the change from one aesthetic to the other, maybe it's just the keep pumping out new content for views, either way it's kinda crazy
To add something, I also feel like part of the reason why we gravitate toward romantizing our lives is that it helps us cope with what we're individually dealing with. For example, when I'm having a low day, I'll ask to go on an evening or afternoon drive with my mom and I'll put on a Spotify playlist that makes me feel like I'm at the falling action of a movie, and that the rising action part where things get better is going to happen soon. It cheers me up a little. :)
I was gifted the strawberry dress for my college graduation and I still love it so much. My connection to that dress goes beyond any core or aesthetic.
as a regular young person outside of tiktok NONE of this is known to me lol it's honestly so crazy that these things become so popular as to influence businesses like Popeyes and I've never heard of them
@@andyacosta2395right? ✋️💀 I'm clinically online (tho just RUclips) and seeing all these things that are "trending" yet I have no idea they exist sure does make me feel old. Tho, ion mind being out of the loop. I've never had a craving to be in the "know" lol
tiktok has the most vicious attention model of any app ever - they want u on the app as long as possible as often as possible, which means that people spend hours or days immersed in these topics without them ever moving to other apps or the real world!!! even if you're a relatively online person you can COMPLETELY miss these "huge" events bc they stay totally contained on tiktok
After realizing that I didn’t fit a single aesthetic- my vibes were all over the place, just like any average human- me and my friends made up “mecore” which is just… you. It’s literally just you, that’s it, that’s the vibe. No matter what ur feeling or wearing or consuming or however u show up, you always fit into mecore
Omg I fucking love that Me core ❤ Edit: literally I am letting that term marinate in my mind. Ofc I know what it's like to just do you and find your own personal style, but something about defning it as 'mecore' is really solidifying and beautiful
The biggest difference I have noticed as someone who wears lolita fashion (a Japanese fashion subculture) is that definitely a lot more people are aware of the style and on the internet it seems like more people wear it. But somehow this isn’t really reflected in our in-person meets. I feel like a lot of people wear subculture clothing only for social media now, which makes me kinda sad
@@natesenft5376In most cases, yes. The ones who do dress lolita all the time are called “lifestyle lolitas”. In my case, I only wear lolita occasionally because it’s just mostly not practical for the weather and you’ll get judged.
@@corycianangel6321 the impraticality of some styles is wath keeps me a "non-aesthetical" person, like, i don't have the time or patience to do makeup and dress nice every day, i just have a lot of trifthed clothes and I wear whatever when I go out. I can't be bother to chose a style and wear it every day, unless the style is "random core"
@@natesenft5376 Lolita fashion is usually not intended for every day wear, because it has quite an upkeep with all the details. That’s why we meet up for teapartys or fashion walks! I have no problem with people just dressing up in their own home but it’s kinda sad that these occasions to dress up get somewhat lost :)
I love this topic. I'm in my 40's now, but when I was in high school, I fully embraced the first-wave (Sunny Day Real Estate, The Promise Ring, Piebald, Fugazi) emo trends- thrifted grandma cardigans, t-shirts from the 70's, cords, minimal makeup, and thick-framed glasses. It took years for that style to morph and become hyper-commercialized, so for the first few years, it felt like I belonged to an exclusive club. The way that things shift so quickly now is boring to me, honestly. It's way too easy to shop the trends, there is no curation involved. To boot, it's awful for the environment- thank you for saying as much in your video. That being said, I think that recent Gen-Z styles are the most fun that I have seen in a long time- probably because the 90's and early 2000's are back and that was my heyday. Love that grunge era, and instead of researching new trends, I personally have just been revisiting thrift stores to emulate more mature versions of some of my old looks.
I miss that early Emo culture from the late 90s/early 00s. It’s like night and day to what kids see as emo nowadays, or even what emo was 15 years ago. It was more nerdy and indie. Wish it would come back
I worry about the impact of internet girl aesthetics on mental health. It's all fun and games if you are able to enjoy it all lightheartedly, but many of us are too insecure for that. Emotionally over investing in it, comparing ourselves to others, pondering our identity & look, our self-worth tied up in it, not to mention the compulsion to either validate ourselves by sharing our own aesthetic content on social media, OR feeling inferior for not sharing our own content on social media, or not feeling as pretty as the girls online, or not feeling as enough in comparison. Like damn.
As a goth I can definitely say that subcultures aren't dead. Right now, the goth scene is having a massive resurgence. And it's not just randoms who think wearing black makes you goth, it's people falling in love with the music and getting involved in whatever way they can. There are so many new bands coming out that it's impossible to keep up (some of my favorites are Vandal Moon, Vision Video, Drab Majesty and Rosegarden Funeral Party), and many classic bands are getting back together and making music again. There are so many events and concerts and clubs popping up, many of which are full of people who've just discovered it. It's amazing and seeing the scene I love so much bloom again feels euphoric.
Thanks so much for the new sounds, as someone who loves shoegaze, cold wave and the old 80s gothic stuff, I'm glad new bands are coming out or coming back!
As someone who doesn’t use tiktok, instagram etc. it’s wonderful to get updated about what’s going on on all these platforms. You deliver a compact yet detailed summary that is very well researched and presented. Thank you for your content!🙌🏻 Plus I honestly laughed out loud about the term „onion girl“. Sounds absurd to me😄
Sameeeee Tiktok is the thing where I feel like I am completely missing out and completely NOT missing out on anything by not having it at the same time I feel uneducated on all these internet trends and digital culture, but then I feel so fulfilled and happy I don't have it at the same time like no thank you lol
I use these parts of the internet but don't get sent this microtrend stuff by the algorithms, I think because I don't buy anything. I've never had money in my life to follow trends even if I wanted to. I also think I live in an area that doesn't have a ton of money in general so you don't see as many people here following trends- most people are dressed in things from Walmart, Marshalls, and the thrift store. The whole part on aesthetics crossing over into fast fashion was very interesting to me, it's something I would've never even thought about as it just doesn't exist in my day to day.
the health goth aesthetic is alive and well in the underground techno scene. It's a useful aesthetic for those spaces because it allows for movement/dancing/partying for way too long, while still being comfy, and looking "dark" to fit the club atmosphere. Even in Berlin where people dress way less casual than here in the US, the trend can be seen, just more often paired with an overcoat instead of a sweatshirt
i'm a proud strawberry girl😭 while i know not many of these aesthetics/trends have a real community built within them, at least i'm happy that my experience has been a positive one and i've managed to find more strawberry friends to simply interact, chat, and show out little strawberry finds to! especially when said community ranges from teenagers to old ladies sharing their collection of a lifetime and such. I find it cute that something so small like a fruit can lead you to finding amazing people through style.
i will always always say that sticking to one aesthetic is so incredibly boring, we are human and we are multi dimensional for one aesthetic to be able encapsulate your whole personality is not possible!!!! be free from the shackles and wear any aesthetic u want imo
something about the hyperspecific microtrends like the blue nails or the strawberry dress is that like... it's one thing. it's not even "this week pastels are in" or "this summer we're wearing fruit prints", it's "get this one specific product, take a picture of yourself wearing it for the trending hashtag, then move on". just the pressure of having to buy a specific thing to be trendy, instead of giving a broader space to do something in.
I’ve always been interested in the connection between euphemisms of health/nutrition and trends. For example, “blueberry milk” vs “light blue” might speak to our waning ability to get substantive nutrition while enjoying our lives. To combine the two in an aesthetic, I think, helps us FEEL like we’re doing both when in reality, we’re being entirely screwed.
wait this is such a good point. access to fresh produce has become a status symbol, and flavored milks evoke japanese kawaii imagery as another status symbol (access to this "exotic", healthy/skinny culture). blueberry milk nails (and all similarly named trends) are a way to claim the status associated with healthy living, without needing the funds to actually pull it off ...god i hate late-stage capitalism
Not on tik tok but I have “indulged” in “aesthetics” as a form of escapism for several years. Mainly the “Fall” or “cozy-spooky” aesthetic which includes autumn landscapes, scented candles, coffee/tea, pumpkins, and watching Hocus-Pocus. It’s been a form of escapism from these hotter dryer smoke-fire summers.
me too !! I really only like the seasonal-specific ones ? Only thing I’ve actually bought “from” tiktok over 3ish yrs is a milk frother (still works & obsessed) bc I wanted more warm drinks 🤷♀️
I remember the "types of girls" phenomenon being really strong schoolyard talk even before I was really on the internet- I remember being nine years old (2009) and feeling an identity crisis because I couldn't decide if I was a girly girl, a sporty girl, a goth girl or a tomboy. And if I couldn't choose then?? how could I be a girl?? wild
i remember each year was different too - one year i would be deemed a “girly girl” then the next a “tomboy” by my peers. very wild that they cared so much about
My advice to people looking to break out of the aesthetic subculture/microtrend cycle is to basically come up with your own by identifying your personal style. Take a look at the trends and aesthetics you've liked most in the past, and the pieces you've worn the longest or enjoyed wearing the most, and try to find some shared characteristics. It helps to give it a fun name :) I came up with the term Swamp Goth for the way I dressed in the early 2010s and it's still pretty accurate. When you have a good idea of the big-picture things you gravitate towards like colour pallettes, sillhouettes and general vibes then it gets easier to maintain a wardrobe and still keep current with macro trends (ex. swapping skinny jeans for loose fit) without completely rebranding yourself every 6 months.
This is what everyone has always done as we’ve outgrown our early 20s and matured into the person we’re gonna be, except we usually don’t try to name it. It’s just being yourself.
The older I get (I’m 39), the more I appreciate that adage “everything old is new again”. Nothing about the current popular aesthetics is really that new-everything humans create is always in conversation with or referencing something that came before. We’re just people peopling, doing what we do as a social species.
The algorithm is so boring. Like even on RUclips the "new to you " button just shows my FY page from last month... I want to have my thoughts challenged and I get so exited when a new RUclipsr goes viral. Your videos are super thought provoking and I love them. ❤️
One good overlap of aesthetic, subculture, and praxis is solarpunk! Most solarpunk spaces online and in person (at least the ones I've been in) really foster community, mutual aid, sustainability, all while simultaneously creating a very heterogenous aesthetic prioritizing eco-friendly things and creative mending
I was browsing through a local goth/metal/punk shop and overheard a group of teenagers talking about if a piece of clothing fit the "rockstar girlfriend" aesthetic, felt weird
I like the "idea" of an aesthetic but when it comes to actually incorporating a specific aesthetic into my daily fashion routine its too time consuming and not very cost effective. So i usually stick to whatever ive in my wardrobe.
I think what I love most about these micro identities and aesthetics is the curation of images required to give off the intended “vibe.” It’s really archival in a way? When it isn’t taken too seriously I think the best part about these aesthetics is just making something visually appealing and enjoying the process of curation
I am one of the people outside of tiktok with pretty much all of my fashion and trend news coming straight from Mina. honestly, the only time I've encountered any of the -cores or -girls in the wild was an academic presentation on cottagecore last year at a folklore conference. it was a good presentation but the questions from the academics unfamiliar with this group of young people interested in the aesthetics of their field of study were even better. immediately started questioning the politics (and lack thereof) behind it. hilarious stuff.
I agree, Mina. I feel that during the pandemic, these aesthetics were almost being shoved in my face by dominating my feed and being adopted by my peers. It was almost as if my fighting my depression and financial difficulties while trying to survive the pandemic was never enough, and that I should have prepared healthier meals, done yoga, acquired new skills, been more productive, shedded some weight, glowed up, etc. What a rachet world!
Having to be a teen right now on TikTok seems overly stressful. I’m so glad I was able to find my personal style, voice, and interests before. it seems like there’s this force of all different types of aesthetics on TikTok and as a girl you have to pick one or constantly reinvent yourself until you find the perfect aesthetic. Meanwhile, I think it’s just a trap for girls because there’s no way one person can fit into one box, their entire life and slap a pretty sticker on it. It just continues to set unrealistic expectations for young women.
omg for sure, I also think about all the younger kids and how i've seen little girls follow these trends and how messed up it will probably be for them thinking that's what they need to do :( just breaks my heart because if it's giving teens whiplash, i can't imagine how startled a younger audience is taking in all of this kind of influence at once
I mean in my personal experiences I did connect with certain aesthetics and it certainly changed my life for the better, but I could understand how someone didn’t want to relate to any of them and have to choose because of social or peer pressure
@aofmual I mean people dress from time periods like 1780s, 1880s, etc. so why can't they do 1980s. At this point that was 40 years ago and the trend cycle is about average 20 years, it makes sense that it's back. I've seen older people love it when they run into younger people dressed in 1940s even though it's very clear they were not alive during that time period. If someone appreciates the styles of a certain era, they can dress like that as a personal style. There are some wonderful historically dressed youtubers out there. Although the one difference I will agree on, with more recent decades like the 80s and 90s, we see that popularity with more fashion trends for short periods of time rather than people passionate about fashion history.
The beauty of aesthetics is that they can serve as guidelines that help you find a look you like. I think the main problems come when people make aesthetics fundamental to their identity which keeps them from finding their specific style or dressing outside of the aesthetic. Personally I like soft and chic aesthetics like Mermaidcore, cottagecore, and Barbiecore.
I remember in the late 90s when expensive brands started showing grunge looks on their runways. It was very ironic because for so many of the bands (including nirvana), they brought their clothes from second-hand shops because that's all they could afford.
I dyed my hair green/blue for seapunk back in 2016. I've tried lots of aesthetics...art hoe, health goth... I didn't even realise they had names. Current fav is solarpunk 🌞 🌿 I think it's more than a look, it's a meeting point to dream and create a beautiful and fair future
I always thought it was funny that when I was in middle school, most people were like “don’t label me.” But now people can’t function without being a “gothic vampire water fairy.”
If it's enjoyable to them, so what? Metal heads make their whole personality about liking metal, poeple never really mentioned it. But a girl enjoys it, woo
@@luanasilva7341 Do metal heads though? They like the music, the community and yes, perhaps the aesthetic. But OG subcultures were about community first and foremost and that is completely lacking in modern aesthetics which center around shallowness, materialism and who has the most likes. A goth or metal head often sticks with their preferred music/subculture for decades whereas these microtrends are out after max. a year. You can't tell me both are the same. People can absolutely have fashion-y hobbies, I did too with J-Fashion back in the 2010s but let's not pretend it's not simply (often unsustainable) consumerism. And consumerism can and should be criticized to there you have an answer to "so what".
@@luanasilva7341 honestly i agree, idk why people get so up in arms about people simply enjoying fitting into an aesthetic, sure it's fine if you don't want to, but also why does it bother some people so much, if you're genuinely happy fitting into an aesthetic and don't feel like you have to fit into it, good for you, i'm happy for you that you found your thing! i feel like it's just the thing to hate anything that gen z does at this point and it's sad, nobody cared until gen z started doing it and using the word "core" now it's a huge problem apparently
@@jasperjazzie no one even said it's a whole problem?, and also, it's because subcultures always had a bit more than just visuals to them. Sure, fashion was a huge part in most of them, lolita for example, but not in such an unfullfilling and limited way
@@luanasilva7341 It's funny to me that not only you disregard the fact that metal heads are a subculture that's simply based on music, while you also say it in a way that implies that women aren't metal heads :)
I’ve always felt weird about lifestyle becoming a trend. It’s one thing if it encourages you to do something good for yourself, like going on a walk or cleaning your house more, but like you said, it causes self surveillance. You either realize what you’ve always done has a name (good or bad) or you feel the pressure to do something more or differently than before because you think everyone else is and it just becomes mentally exhausting.
Youth isn’t just a concept that signifies all that you mentioned, it is a state of being. We were all young once. It’s a factual state for anyone who grows old. Who watches their body break down and their time near to an end. Youth is beautiful not just because of looks but because it is freeing and taken for granted. It would be interesting to hear you interview older creators. One thing youth doesn’t have is gratitude.
I find myself engaging with both internet aesthetics *and* subcultures, and there’s quite a clear difference! I consider myself goth, although I’m relatively new to the scene. I first checked it out because I was drawn to the people and the fashion, but then stayed for the music. Post-punk and goth rock have been in my headphones constantly since I discovered it! It gives me common ground with other goths that I meet, and I have some lovely goth friends (even if I am too young for most clubs and other goth spaces) At the same time, my aesthetic varies with how I feel day to day. It’s an artistic statement, not an identity. Today I wore pastel patchwork jeans and a crop top with a colorful graphic, and last week I wore fishnets and teased hair with Siouxsie Sioux eyeliner. No matter what I’m wearing, I’m still goth because I listen to the music!
I'm not sure if someone had said it already but i just wanted to add that The suffix "-core" comes from the Hardcore subgenre of Punk music that appears in the mid to late 70s.
Amongst gen z there’s such a pressure to commit to an aesthetic lmao. Even the ‘that girl’ aesthetic which focuses on being your best self has a certain minimalist aesthetic to it. The aesthetic for being ‘that girl’ should depend on the person right? But no.
its also very white isn't it? there is also the 'clean girl' the 'downtown girl' and i love the dt one its just that its so white centric. doesn't that say something about a side of gen z culture now
@@moomoocowslyliterally! i dont have tiktok and im still in high school so most of my classmates do. when i tell them i dont they just say "ah good for you, sometimes i spent too much time on there" and thats IT. i might miss trends or whatever but no one is gonna force me to get tiktok or judge me for not having it lmao.
@@moomoocowsly True, someone should not allow themselves to dictate outside events. If they are, that's their own choice and personal reasons. What environment you are in also plays a huge role too.
@@lesbiangoddess290 As a none american, I can't relate to that as we don't view things out of skin color. The Americanized way of seeing these trends is very odd to me.
i think that it’s also worth noting how this phenomenon of aesthetics popping up all the time is partly a result of how separate people have become because of the internet, working from home, and growing economic inequality that seperates us physically. to be remarkable on the internet, where a lot of people socialize these days, you have to stand out hence pandering to certain aesthetics or striving for a more “extreme” look. also kids have never been more isolated, i think pandering to these various groups is a natural avenue to feel seen. i think people are genuinely looking for connection and if they refine their search engine or aesthetic just enough, they might find people who understand them.
i just have to say Mina, this may just be your best and most captivating vid yet! i was so sad when the video ended and i really enjoyed listening to your research!!
the past year I've joined a more established fashion subculture that completely changed the way I consume fashion. I purposefully plan these outfits and save money for specific pieces. even though I'm browsing fashion websites for inspiration, I'm only buying a single piece once every few months. impulse buying is just not a thing because the fashion is so specific and expensive. I have taken these concepts to my regular wardrobe as well. I only shop for clothes when I need a specific piece, like a white shirt, and I won't buy anything unless it is the perfect white shirt.
For me it's just kinda scary how these trends and aesthetics come and go so fast just so we are incentivized to buy things. I couldn't do it, I hate being limited by a label
I'm crying at the Popeye's Girl Dinner promotion because I have literally survived on side dishes well before Girl Dinner was even a thought. I think its so funny bc truuuuue
I think that’s why Girl Dinner became such a trend though, because so many of us were already doing it then had a moment of “wait you too?” and gave it a name
It's funny because it's so unapologetically shameless. I swear, you can't have shit for more than two seconds before some gotdamned corporation tries to monetize it.
I plan on sewing the majority of my clothes. I was never interested in aesthetics and I feel my identity is better expressed through creating things only I can wear and personalized exclusively to my tastes and avoiding at least half of the moral pitfalls of buying clothes.
I think it's worth to mention that I think most people who identify with an aesthetic group only do so in that digital space, and I rarely see it bleed into real life. Like they would buy the products, take pictures of it for their online platforms, but they look like everyone else in real life, or they actually rarely sport that aesthetic in real life. I see this in the UK anyway, US might be different. I think it is particularly more true with fashion aesthetics than it is for like home aesthetics, which does not seem to blow up as easily.
this is a really good point as to why many of these aesthetics are distinct from subcultures. there was usually some sort of irl aesthetic commitment for a subculture - eg it's hard to hide scene rainbow feather bangs or a goth mohawk. additionally, these kids had to rep their respective groups as often as possible or else risk being labeled "posers". it's much easier to throw on a bimbocore dress in your room for tiktok & then change into your actual clothes before stepping outside. the only barrier to entry is financial; there's very little irl social risk involved
i don’t have tik tok and i am always unaware of things until i watch your videos. like i didn’t know blueberry milk nails or the smoothie from the la store. but even without having tik tok my friends mention things like tomato girl or girl dinner so i can never escape aesthetics
tbh on the girl-dinner thing, for me and a lot of other recovering ED sufferers, it has actually helped to break down some of the barrier to actually feeding ourselves. Far from encouraging my ED, it encourages me to eat *something*. Even if it's messy or "unhealthy" or doesn't really make sense together as a proper "meal". I can trick my brain into letting me eat by calling it Girl Dinner and stuffing a bunch of random things on a plate, rather than skipping meals bc the thought of having to prepare and cook and put together a meal is overwhelming and off putting. The more time I spend thinking about my food, the more likely those thoughts are to start spiraling into unhealthy ED territory. On bad days it really helps to just throw together a Girl Dinner from whatever I can find that seems moderately appetising and eat it without thinking about it too hard. It's helped me get my calories up and eat more often, even if the meals themselves aren't super big. I've been able to start reconnecting to my body's hunger signals and cravings after years of ignoring them. Seeing people bash it for encouraging EDs has been quite painful bc it's genuinely helped me and my friends so much, and frankly a LOT of the criticism has come from people who admit they've never struggled with it themselves. It just feels like another way people try to shame us for not functioning "normally"
Yeah when it comes to getting over struggles sometimes a very specific personal method that seems to work pops up, which would sound odd if you were to explain it to someone, but what matters is that it helps. Good luck on your journey dealing with erectile dysfunciton
I personally don’t like to label myself or limit myself to one style either, but one thing I like about these “ cores “ is that it allowed the community to see and accept different styles that are sometimes unusual to that specific community or country.
Omg i had no idea the art hoe started like that, i like these videos that remind me to investigate the things i like and be more critical, not just adopt immediately everything i like without knowing the history.
I think hopping from one trend/ fashion style to another is normal to a degree - sometimes you need to try a bunch of things to find out who you are (and then do it on purpose, as the Dolly Parton quote goes). What concerns me more is that due to how social media works today, you're much more pressured to buy things. Thinking back on dark academia and cottagecore on tumblr and pinterest, you could be part of the aesthetic by sharing moodboards of books and candles and putting together outfit collages, maybe post a selfie of your new corduroy pants. With tiktok however I feel like there is more focus on sharing your face and your life, so to belong you need to have these items, and have enough of them to last the duration of the trend (correct me on this if I'm wrong since I don't have tiktok myself). Which is not only bad for the environment, but I also wonder what impact that has on young people who are in this process of discovering themselves and trying to belong but being unable to participate.
This is my new favorite video of yours, actually is a topic i was question myself as a Lolita (Lolita fashion), i remember that the fashion had an enormous community, so many activities, brands, and new people on their way to be part of and it was beautiful finding communities around the world. Nowadays i see in some aesthetics (coquette, balletcore, e-girl) elements of Lolita fashion beings used as part of their closets, in mi pov these isn’t at all bad,they just don’t appreciate the quality of textiles, all the process behind the create these unique pieces and yes! you can find the replica on famous fast fashion brands. It just hits different like the only proposed to be part of an aesthetic is just to fit, while (in my case Lolita) it was a challenging to wear it in public and a lot of learning of the background and anatomy of what composed the fashion.
over worrying and thinking of others perceptions of yourself has overgrown the height of awareness i have towards my self image and i think that while i do love aesthetics i have now grown to have a bittersweet relationship towards them because for me i really want to find my self identity to make long lasting friendships instead of self absorption of aesthetic
When the first aesthetics popped up on Instagram I thought they were super fun and an easy way to dive into different styles. Now they just feel way too niche, ephemeral and curated to even spark a bit of identification with. Apart from the fact that they are almost instantly used to sell you stuff because of course you can't throw together a look from the stuff you have at home. I don't know how accurate this is, but I also get the feeling that no one can possibly stick to one aesthetic. They are so limiting and specific to a way of living that I can't see anyone doing it for longer than a few weeks maybe. Most of them require so much time, space and resources that I feel like they could only cater to either school kids with zero responsibilities or rich people.
![Quando Rondo - Grow Up [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8zFnCg3BO4Q/mqdefault.jpg)
aesthetics are so fun but also so limiting. i cannot commit to a single vibe
omg literally plus I'm so boring fashion-wise
@@moomoocowsly i think my fashion patterns have been dictated more by life stages than by 'aesthetics,' though they obviously form an aesthetic trend in my life. for example, my style changed a lot moving from being a university student to being in the workplace. even as a university student, in my first year i was wearing exclusively thrifted clothing because that was all i could afford, and focused on comfort, then later delved into 'style' and bought clothing that was new. over time i've slowly discovered what i want to wear, and found out it's literally anything with the colours blue and orange combined
That's the thing: mix and match!!! never encage yourself with a particular aesthetic :3
You don’t have to commit, that’s the fun of it! Personality I think of my vibe like a multifaceted gem☺️
@@moomoocowslythey mean something that changes daily, one day it's "cottagecore" the other "Barbie" and so on, the difference is that people are trying to choose one and make it their lifestyle, at some point caring more about how they are seen especially on the internet instead of themselves
''Does the regular person outside of TikTok even know what Blueberry Milk nails are?''
Nope. I was today years old when I learned about Blueberry Milk nails, Glazed Donut nails, Naked nails and the Tomato Girl aesthetic. Thank you Mina. I would never know otherwise.
Literally same, i'm a girl and its too exhausting for me. And I don't mean that as a "not one of those girls" but like genuinely it makes me depressed tiktok trends idk why so I deleted it
Lol same
Im literally on tik tok 24/7 and hadnt heard of them😭😭
I bought a "Tomato Girl" red dress online thinking it was the brand's name! Then I discovered it was a trend's name
Or we just got to a new level of shallow. These ain't trends...these are just things that already existed. Pastel nails for summer? Waw, yes, that screams «new»...
"Over categorization can lead to self surveillance" is such an intelligent observation, mina. I adore your videos.
yes definetley... this is why i am so aware of it... my only subculture/aesthetic is my relgion: LANAISM
@@farrahfrandson girl...
@@farrahfrandsonthe racist…
LANAISM FOREVER @@River-io3dc
im actually a women of color youre the racist for sucummbing to ideals of a what a black woman should be... I AM A LANAIST AND PROUD@@Myneighbourdokja
I think that fandoms are closer to subcultures than aesthetics are now. Within the same fandoms you can have different aesthetics but a hobby or fandom that they are passionate about connects us more, like in a subculture. I.e. true crime community, crochet community, booktok, asmr community, streamer fans, kpop stans, anime fans, comic book community, bujo community, etc...
this is SUCH a good point and should be talked about more. I absolutely feel like I identify with certain fandoms as subcultures than anything else.
THIS is the comment i was looking for
Also fandoms influence the way you present yourself to some degree, if you like kpop for example you're gonna try to replicate the makeup and clothing of your favourite group or singer
Thanks for saying this, you clarified my thoughts.
thissss i totally had this thought but didn't know how to explain it but yeah i feel like the fandoms i've been a part of are the closest thing to a subculture
People are looking for identity in superficial, very disposable ways. You won’t find yourself through a parasocial relationship online. You can like certain aesthetics as you do colors or seasons, but the truth lies in character when nobody is looking.
Oooof. Very well said. A lot of ppl need to hear this haha
So true
I agree to an extent. Your fashion can tell a lot about who you are and what you like. People have always shown their identity through clothes, as evidenced by how different clothing among Indigenous groups look down to small details. Even within similar groups, your own clothes would look nothing like someone else's because it would still have your own touch to it. Same as aesthetics in a way: there's as many ways to be goth as there are goths in the world. I don't think its as simple as making fashion your identity
YEAH
There is nothing wrong with openly having a hobby
I have a feeling that “girl dinner” is going to be the “pizza is bae” of the 2020’s
Tbh I doubt it'll last more than the month 💀
Hopefully forever 21 doesn’t start selling girl dinner graphic tees
Every part of internet culture is constantly accelerating. Talking about this in 10 months will feel like someone talking about advice dog spinoff reaction images as if they were still relevant
@@maxwellversedDon't give them ideas!
Yeees that whole weird 'touch my butt and buy me pizza' saying that was everywhere a couple years ago
I think the reason why cottagecore and dark academia are different is because they fulfilled a desire, a need. To "just enjoy the simple things in a chaotic world" and "a place you can fit in", respectively. Painting your nails light blue doesn’t fulfill you in any way, it just gives you light blue nails
this! cottagecore and dark academia share more similarities with more classic subcultures because they're more than just a "look" and have communities built around them
People that love cottagecore and dark academia already dressed that way, and the aesthetics were ways to define and expand their style. They also came with an ethos, a desire to express something through fashion, be it the need to escape modernity and urban entrapment into nature, or the need to express an admiration for the pleasures of reading, libraries and studying. Other aesthetics are just that, a costume, nothing that has anything behind it.
Cottagecore and Dark Academia can be as shallow as liking the clothes and furnishing, as much as light blue nails can be someone one's simple enjoyment in a chaotic world. You're creating artificial separation to uplift your preferred aesthetic.
@@said8784 wow, you just made a ton of assumptions. None of which were even remotely correct. 🤣
@@said8784 also you conveniently missed my point booboo 😘 if you didn't understand and you were wanting to have an honest conversation, you'd have asked. But you wanted to be disingenuous, and your response screams that to all of us. ❤️
Come back when you're ready to have an actual, honest, adult conversation sweetheart 👍
The pandemic probably accelerated this phenomenon and encouraged micro-trends by forcing all culture online. The internet used to be a secondary or tertiary way of interacting with culture. But if people get their local news, work, school, friend groups online, it’s hard for actual real life culture to develop outside the world created for us by The Algorithms
In a larger context/perspective, it's important to note that culture and trends throughout the last century are affected by more than just market and mutual agreement. Governmental agencies and NGO-type institutions such as the 3-letter intelligences, Tavistock Institute, Esalen institute, etc have studied and acted in different aspects of culture from the hippy movement to student riots and color revolutions. Timothy Leary has an interview where he says the CIA was primarily the cause of the counter-culture movement. Some good books about this are
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon by David McGowan and Tavistock Institute by Daniel Estulin. Not trying to turn the conversation over to this kind of topic, but while watching this I felt it would be good info to have in mind as a side of things.
I have noticed something: in the past people organized into their groups or subcultures around a hobby, something they do in their free time, like listening to rock/rock music, surfing, skating, reading, painting etc. Their fashion sense came from the real, substantial thing. I agree that the internet has done something to subcultures, in a way that the real subculture doesn't really exist. One can dress like a cottage core girl, but one doesn't need to know anything about it, the aesthetic is I guess the only thing that's enough. People don't do stuff connected to their subculture, but rather just post about their part in it, photos, guides (how to dress like that etc). It's just their "image", style, and they're actually just presenting the lifestyle to others rather than living it.
In the past it was more about doing, enjoying, feeling, living your thing. Now it's more about presenting the subculture you belong to, without substantially feeling the "core" of it.
I started writing my comment at the beginning of the video and you actually addressed many of my thoughts, great video! Especially the connection between aesthetics and selling the product.
Edit: an endless number of styles (fruit girls) is weird to me and I don't think it's really useful for finding yourself. It's a bit delusional as you start with the idea of wanting to be special but end up all the same somehow.
+ Why do we need to have a name for normal human activities? (girl dinner - it's just a tasty snack, hot girl walk - it's just called being happy and grateful) I personally think it's unnecessary. You're not really discovering anything new.
Btw it's the same with popular shows, remember when all the girls were crazy about Wednesday (black and dark and serious) and they're now hyped about Barbie (pink and fluffy)? I think that true style doesn't change as the wind blows
While I agree about the over-categorization that comes with specifying or attributing titles to walking and eating, I do think it helps some people. For example girl dinner is comprised of comfort or safe foods, which will otherwise be seen as childish. To see other people partake in a small thing such as a childish dinner, makes people feel safe, especially neurodivergent people who have a hard time with change and often eat safe foods. Of course it has a negative side where people take it and use it as a way to partake in unhealthy eating habits, the internet coining a term for such a mundane activity encourages people to do what they’d like to do to be happy.
@@yourlocaldemon2195 I think more people that partake in that particular trend just want to be a part of a popular term without all those more valuable aspects in mind. I too struggle a bit sometimes and eat comfort food, maybe even more than I think, I just never thought about finding a new, trendy term for it. I'm reflecting on the need to find a term for everything these days. My first impression is that some people might even feel bad when watching a video promoting that trend because in the video you can often see the romantic vibe, some nice aesthetic etc. and they aren't able to maintain that vibe even if they're actually doing the girl dinner thing.
@@marylynn259 huh, yeah thats a good point. I did list possible valuable assets of these trending terms but haven’t really taken into account if there ARE people who partake in it beyond a superficial level. I’ve also felt a level of guilt for not being able to involve myself in certain trends despite my conscious effort to not be bothered by it. Another point is that people who are neurodivergent and already are in neurodivergent algorithms online will probably already have this advice without being geared toward it through coining a term. All in all thinking through this I think I do agree with your initial statement since, while they may be empowering to some, genuine advice would be much better appreciated by those who do care beyond an artifical or materialistic level.
@@yourlocaldemon2195 I agree with you, you have some good points!
I think the naming has to do with search optimisation, when there are too many results for searching "fashion" or "dinner", these specific terms naturally evolve as a way to stand out and be found.
I remember the existence of ""Find your aesthetic" playlists on youtube and tiktok for the sole purpose of finding some identity you could adopt. It was interesting that the high of that phenomenon, at least on my side of the internet, was during the lock-down period where many were disassociating with their bleak and dreary life and instead trying to find joy, individuality, and community not in the people they couldn't talk to, but the aesthetics they shopped.
I feel like it's important to see that the driving forces of these are teenagers and even pre teens
they are just searching for identity, belonging and an easy understanding of themselves
as a young metalhead I can confirm that subcultures are not dead, we don't get as much attention because yk all the og subcultures or countercultures aren't new anymore but they're still there thriving. We are not seen by the mainstream anymore but we are there :P
I think they were referring to the birth of new subcultures, not necessarily that old subcultures don’t have new members.
if you don't make money, capitalism likes to pretend you don't exist! fellow metalhead lesbian here, and those are two identities that are just fundamentally difficult to market to in our current culture, which is a blessing in some ways
this video is just rowan ellis's video "the infantalisation of millennial women" reduced reused and recycled
came from underground got back in underground
I also love when people complain about not being aware of new subcultures and underground movements, like, yeah it's probably because their not a part of it. It only becomes known once it's main stream, and once it becomes main stream it's no longer underground
To answer your question: nope, no one outside of TikTok has heard of blueberry milk nails lol I’ve worn light blue polish for two decades, and this name for it was news to me.
half the phrases she said I didn't know it existed and "tomato girl" was just bizarre
Yeah, I had no idea what was going on for most of the video 😅 But I'm okay with that.
@winter9741 what is that?
I'm om tiktok for a few months now but I'm also out of it lmao, have no idea about tiktok trends at all 😂 i guess I'm on the right side of tiktok
I just watch crochet videos and thrifty shit 😂😂😂 sometimes cats I guess 😂
@@jonahandthewolfit's basically the "Mediterranean summer holiday" aesthetic. It's romanticizing the "simple" Mediterranean life of wearing flowy clothing for the hot weather, visiting markets in a small Italian town and eating pasta afterwards. The clothes are often times quite basic and vintage(looking) and give off this "undone chic" look. That's the best way I can explain it. As people tend to add the colour red into this style (red lipstick paired with otherwise natural makeup or red summer dresses), it was coined "tomato" girl
online aesthetics are super cute, but i think they become a problem when people make themselves believe that they need to pick on and stick with it. people are multi dimensional and reminding myself of that makes me enjoy experimenting with vibes, makeup, aesthetics, and fashion.
The fact that we have to remind ourselves that we’re multifaceted makes me want to off myself
@@avasava7720 girl chilllll 😭
Exactly. I LOVE making hyper-specific aesthetic pinterest boards and such, it genuinely brings me so much joy, but it's really just for fun, it's about expressing a certain look or feel. But what I don't get is ppl who think that they have to commit to a certain aesthetic or center their lives around it. "Tomato girl" or whatever is fun as an aesthetic for a pinterest board or an outfit or really anything that's specific to aesthetics, but why try to take it beyond that?
They also thrive best online. It’s easy to make your online persona fit an aesthetic. It’s harder to live in it. How many of us can really commit to a full wardrobe that is so limiting. All of us have pajamas or lounge clothes we wear. We all have junk drawers or messy closets or stacks of books and paper on our desks. What is shown online is so curated and manicured that even the careful nonchalance of “girl dinner” can’t be replicated in real life without intentional staging and manipulation to achieve the perfectly unkept look.
I think this is a very important comment. This stiff mindset also shows itself in activity wise, up to the point people start to judge you for having many hobbies and interest/being a multi tasker. Really. Need to stop with these shits and start thinking free.
Facets of "cottagecore," "cottagegoth,' "whimsigoth," "dark academia," and "goblincore" already described the kind of taste I've had as a "romantic goth" circa mid-90s/early 2000s. Not much has changed about the way I dress beyond it becoming more publicly acceptable and commercialized. 😅
@aofmual oh look. The Elder Goth is here to school the baby bats. Ya gonna tell us about seeing Souxie in person...again? How mad are you that Death was cast as a black woman?
90's goth is it's own specific fashion moment within the subculture. The only people who talk like you are ancient Gen X and baby boomer 80'd goths clinging to the bar at the goth club telling you about the time they had Czech absinthe.
Walking through target recently (as a goth) I was approached by an older woman 50’s-60’s (I’m 44) who said it was good to see someone with her same aesthetic… I’m seeing more older ladies being more comfortable with being themselves and wearing at least light goth wear… it’s refreshing to see
As someone who is not on TikTok, I have never heard of ‘tomato girl’, ‘blueberry milk nails’ or ‘girl dinner’ 😭
That's the thing, it's the algorithm, you don't ever hear about the trend existing until someone is making a critique of said trend/aesthetic! I'm not surprised if I see blueberry milk nails all over my explore section of instagram now after watching this video. But if I go up to a few genZ teens many of them will either have heard of blueberry milk nails or never heard of it and tell me a whole slew of micro-aesthetics that will plow my 25 y/o brain.
girl dinner was a big thing on twitter too and honestly was really fun - at least in fandom circles
@@sophie4228 girl dinner 😋 *insert a death scene of your favorite character because you like to torture yourself*
As someone also not on TikTok I STILL hear of all this weird TikTok stuff
I liked the way girl dinner let me be a girl when I was hungry, even though I had to be a guy the rest of the time.
it's so EXHAUSTING to feel the need to confine to one aesthetic. People are not pintrest boards - we are multidimensional, thinking, breathing, unique, and should embrace and love our uniqueness. I am my own aesthetic, the aesthetic is me
Can i ask you something?
(I'm being genuine here, not trying to be aggresive or sht, just so we are clear and you don't missunderstand me)
When you like so many things that you simply cannot recognize who you are, because "picking" is not a choice for you, ¿What do you do?
For a little bit of context, i do love a ton of aesthetics, -cores, and subcultures, and more.
I love halloween, goth and punk movements, scene subculture and nightcore music, but i also love barbiecore, sanrio and kawaii culture, coquette+cottagecore, and many many more.
I love LIFE, and i love so many many maaaany thing, i don't know who i am anymore, yes, i'm me, but WHAT *is* me?
Is a very psicological/filosofical question now that i think about it, but i think that internet has literally helped to grew this problem on my insides, that was already there, but being online bc of depression only made it bigger.
So i was asking myself this because i know a lot of girls, much younger than me, that feel the same.
Maybe we really need to detox ourselves and be less time online.
@@liamvautier944What you are describing is loss of identity. The truth is only Christ can fill that hole in your heart. No amount of "aesthetics" or materialism will ever fill it. How do I know? I was once asking this question myself while being depressed (I was in my 20s at the time) until I found a relationship with God. Hope this helps.
@@liamvautier944 this is me to a T. I have been struggling with the "who am i?" question lately. I wouldn't even know how to describe myself as a character if I were to do a book report on my life.
@@liamvautier944 this is something I've thought long and hard about for a very long time, and have only recently kind of figured it out. i think it's innately human to want to have a community and to want to fit into somewhere specific, but once you realize and accept that it's not in the cards for you it gets easier. and I'm definitely not saying that because you like so many different things you belong nowhere, it's just that you need to find people who understand that and love you for you and all your interests. i think I've recently figured it out because my community my friends and the people i surround myself with don't need me to have a label or match something, they just love me for me.
internet detox's are definitely good and needed because i often forget that it's not real. almost everything is fabricated and no one cares about my labels outside of my phone. they just want to know YOU. once you realize that literally NO ONE has a full sense of who they truly are, it gets easier. it's hard to figure it out and accept things for as they are, but i believe in you bestie
@@liamvautier944the very thing you can do is just to enjoy those "aesthetics" as they come and go. You aren't defined, nor limited, by an aesthetic appeal. You are the sum of your personality, hobbies, passions, education, relationships, values and flaws, and so much more. Liking a theme of something doesn't limit you to that one thing!
Aesthetics are pretty superficial in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy them all! Dress cottagecore one day and goth the next! Have your bedroom be half-academia half-artsy! Tastes change over time, and it's not fair to yourself if you limit your interests to just one peg. Be yourself, and if it means liking 29 different aesthetics at once, show it off in the way you feel most comfortable in! Be you!
the worst thing is aesthetics just add up to the big problem of consumerism and fast fashion, at the end of the day YOU DON'T NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN EVERYTHING YOU SEE ONLINE👍
Finally, someone said
Yep. I would add that there’s almost a desperate need to become part of a community and a way to satisfy that is by literally buying into an aesthetic. And companies know that very well. Not to mention that not everyone is that well off financially to even AFFORD to buy into them.
To me, aesthetics are meant to be taken as inspiration, not as emulation.
EXACTLY! On point. Its not a race to win every lap. You don't need to buy everything that is trending. Honestly feel bad for the people making one of those fast fashion items just to be found in a thrift store a week or a month later.
its so crazy to me how so many of these aesthetics visually and historically connect to real minority groups… and then said minority groups get shoved out of spaces THEY curated
Exactly this!
Are you really surprised tho? It's ghetto until a white person gets ahold of it then it becomes trendy and ppl rename the aesthetic. The black/latino community hardly ever gets credit for the trends we start or popularize.
And when you point that out you're called racist or divisive 😂
ETA: when white ppl get ahold of something popular in poc communities, the price shoots up. The mielle rosemary & mint hair oil is the perfect example
@@nunyabusinessbihsi
I agree. I think a good example with language trend is "yass, queen, slay" words being used as some buzzy new tiktok gen z slang. When in fact these words come from black ballroom culture used by poc queer people. And it's just frustrating to see that the same people who use these words on social media are homophobic/transphobic and get annoyed when real lgbt people use them 🙄🙄
@@nunyabusinessbih this is so real.i am indian but live in the us and i grew up getting bullied bc i used hair oil,ate indian food for lunch,etc. but now white ppl are all about hair oil,ayurvedaa,yoga,etc and labelling it as something new they created,or an aesthetic💀
I genuinely don’t understand how some people will buy clothes and then get rid of them within the following month ???? how????? I keep my clothes for years like I still wear shirts from middle school because they’re nice (I’m a senior now, I still fit in a lot of old clothes I have because middle school me preferred oversized things and I didn’t grow that much lol)
You’re my kind of ppl🫶🏻 the type of ppl i feel safe around hope u’re having a great day so far🤍
Same I'm 25 and have some items from middle school and high school
Especially grown adults who don't get taller or bigger like kids do. It's perfectly reasonable to wear clothes for years.
I’ve been noticing the fragmentation of the internet so much more lately! When all the Barbie marketing was going on, Barbie memes were pretty much 2/3 of my feed. But when I brought it up to my partner he was like huh I haven’t really seen anything about that movie. Like WHAT??!
Hahah, try watching “alpha male” videos for a couple days and witness the transformation of your feed!
Obviously there's fragmentation. Most every successful algorithm gives the user more of what has already captured their attention. It's the famous echo chamber, but it's not just about politics but literally everything.
I think boy internet is a thing too
The obsession with embodying a certain aesthetic has just gotten so absurd. The other day, I saw a reel about "how to study in a dark academia way." Like what does that even mean? It was just photos of candles and dark libraries and generic to bad studying tips. It wasn't satire, but I wish it was.
@@moomoocowslywhat the actual fuck people MAKE tutorials for entertainment, not to instruct????? People watch tutorials for entertainment???? Why?????? My autistic mind is blown. Like I guess I can't be that surprised, I watched makeup tutorials for looks I was never going to follow exactly back in the day, but even then I was attempting to get some sort of instruction I could fold into my own looks. People are fuckin wild man.
I mean by the title i would assume it was topics to study. Like DA often centre around Classics, history, ancient history, art, art history, archeology, languages, literature. And using pen and ink and books rather than laptops, using the library over the internet, DA characters in literature often studied long hours at night, in a group. So i would say there is a DA way to study maybe the video wasnt that good. Vs cottagecore study would be outside in a park or field, studying art, plants, literature but different authors to DA, cyberpunk would use the internet and laptop and so on
But why do you find it so ridiculous? If romanticized their studying can help someone actually study, why make fun of it? Sure, maybe the video is cringe or unhelpful to you, but maybe it helped someone who didn't want to study, and they put on a shirt and lit a candle or went to the library and got some shit done. You can find it ridiculous, but if it works for some people, why make fun of it?
ikr- this entire corner of tiktok videos and reels with “aesthetic” relating to academics is just a bit weird to me
its ruining the minds of young students which makes them think they need to fit in a certain “aesthetic” to be a good student lmao
You think they believe they have to look a certain way to be a good student ? Are you sure they actually believe they can't be a good student without these aesthetic tips, or do they just do it to make their life more fun ? I'm all for capitalist criticism, but let's not remove agency from students either, I'm not sure they're such slaves to aesthetics that they can't realise that it's for entertainment or just putting something extra in their life
as someone who is not on tiktok- no, we have no idea what any of these are 😭 didn’t know what “tomato girl” or “blueberry milk nails” were before this
As someone who IS on tiktok, I have never heard of those either lol. As Mina mentions in the video, the algorithm can very A LOT for person to person.
Back in high school, I really cared for my "aesthetic" as a metalhead. I wear strictly black and band shirts 100% of the time. Now, at 25, I can listen to black metal and wear that goddamn hello kitty shirt because I don't need to have an aesthetic to prove I'm a metalhead. It just feels free knowing I don't have to be restricted to an aesthetic.
In highschool people are just starting to figure out how they fit into the broader society and aesthetics are a way to do that. By 25 you have a much better idea of your own identity.
PC Nerd here. Looking like a nerd used to be so important to me. And it was ugly. It was ugly glasses (I need them, I just wear ones that are better fitting my face today) and graphic tees and ratty jeans and hoodies. And not taking care of my hair.
Today, at 30, I know I can wear that stylish blouse and still know I am a goddamn motherfucking nerd and will never not be one. Like my PC doesn't unbuild itself just because I wear beautiful clothes.
This! Belonging to a subcutlure (especially musical and/or political ones) is generally so much more than just the outfit, and it's fun wearing what the fuck I want these days. Aesthetics are fun as a means of inspiration but some of these seem exhausting.
Exactly! It's important to signal what
you're into when you're in high school. You see a kid wearing the shirt of a band you like then you might have other shared interests as well? Who knows, you might end up being friends for life?
Now that you're an adult you've internalized your love of metal. You don't have to prove your loyalty after you're a decade in. When I was fourteen I looked punk as fuck. Ten years later I looked much less extreme, but I was letting Lamb of God play my basement.
Same
I didn't have an aesthetic back then, but I listened to old pop and rock songs because I love them, not for the sake of showing them to people.
In my opinion the true subculture I’ve seen recently has been pro physical media/piracy/right to repair, the reaction against subscription models and planned obsolescence, it doesn’t really have a name but I’ve seen it throughout film/tv/music/video games/technology
yes. so relevant since there is so much to pay for today. it needs to stop
Partially circular economy, doughnut economics, solar punk maybe? Though subscription models can also fit under both CE or DE ..... anything "X as a service"(SaaS etc) . But it depends on the purpose and values underpinning it
This has been my lifestyle for a while now I didn't know it was a subculture
I never pay for video games or books now 😭
As someone from the hacker community, I am so happy to see it too! (Edit: hacker in the old MIT sense of the word, not cyber criminal)
The most I've done is modded my 3ds and burned a few movies, but I'm doing my part!! 🫡
Ive been talking abt this with my friends for forever 😭😭 subcultures were abt community and liking the same things including fashion. But now it’s all the same stuff it’s all abt consumerism and not even making friendships or having values behind what you’re wearing
as someone who refuses to download tiktok i feel so old every time i hear a new -core or -girl that's trending. like my immediate reaction was "what the fuck is a tomato girl" ????? LMAO
as a addictive tiktok user, i have never come across tomato girl on my for you page LOOOL
It's just sunburnt makeup look, they keep renaming it and thinking they did something LOL
Update: it's basically a Mediterranean girl summer aesthetic or girls who travel abroad for summer
@@gabriellerodriguez3039 OHH gotcha LMAO
I had never heard of a tomato girl lol. But I'm a geriatric millennial who isn't on TikTok 😂
@@meganrogers3571 look man I struggle with the social media apps I have so getting ANOTHER one? Goodbye I will have JOMO- the joy of missing out
I'm a cultural anthropologist and i find always find your videos very thought provoking and well written. you have a very anthropological way of thinking, and i appreciate the history and research you bring to your videos. You have inspired me for several papers, so i always look forward to your videos. I was just discussing this same topic with my friend, so what a great moment to hear your thoughts!
that must be part of why i loooove Mina! never thought of it this way. I’m on my to becoming an anthropologist! in grad school now
also a cultural anthropologist here ! another reason why I looooove Mina!!
i'm a cultural anthro major and concur totally!! i've heard her videos be brought up by my classmates as well
this is kind of a random question but what jobs are there for cultural anthropologists? i’m asking because a while ago i thought that i’d want to get a degree for cultural anthropology or history, but when i looked into it more i heard a lot about how there aren’t many job opportunities. and i’m still very interested in it but realistically i don’t think i could pursue it, so i was just wondering what your experiences are with it.
Jajaja 11:40
can we talk about how 'trends' don't exist anymore? thin eyebrows were a trend, aline dresses were trendy (etc) in history. These trends would last 10 years or so. Trends now last WEEKS. That's not a trend. I don't even know what to call it.
I call them Shifts
A “blink”, maybe?
Weren’t they called micro trends?
Sounds just like that one popular mean girl at high school coming up with a new reason to stand out and be different from the rest.
it's called a fad!
Something so funny to me when amazing creators make incredibly detailed video essays and then end it with “uh yeah I don’t really have much else to say”
what i’ve always noticed about subcultures vs aesthetics is the diminishing effect of community. subcultures were made to be communal, made to have this team-like structure to them where someone can find comfort in similarities within people that don’t fall into the mainstream. there’s this sense of space that one can surround themselves with of familiarity and alikeness.
on the other hand, you’ve got aesthetic culture which is primarily competitive and a lot more individualistic-even if people don’t expect it to be. you’ve got people competing for the newest style in that particular aesthetic, or a sense of urgency to stand out in the culture to become almost like the epitome or “spokesperson” of that aesthetic, the desire to become the first person that people think of when it comes that aesthetic. and given it’s more materialistic, the competition of owning the most ____core items is something i’ve noticed growing steadily these days which obv is related to fast fashion and overconsumption as a whole
I feel like now aesthetics are just too much now 😭 There are aesthetics for EVERYTHING. Like things that don't need to be an aesthetic or have repurposed an already existing aesthetic and just re-named it. And the majority of trending ones are just short-term so now fast fashion can market off of them really quickly, easily and with extremely bad quality
the suffix -core is used so much to the point that even if it's the stupidest idea it'll sound as if there's something redeeming about it didnxjndnx
'friedchickencore' 💀
Society feels like just evolved backwards, back when subcultures were created to go against mainstream and corporations and now it just a silly aesthetic just to feel cool and being capitalized off. Like I don't even know what is a tomato girl?? how many more aesthetic are gonna be there??
i discovered 'romcom core' and 'snackcore' the other day😭
Corecore
I’m tired of hearing the *core* and *aesthetic*
The history of vaporwave absolutely BLEW MY MIND!! I had no idea it was a Marxist alt-history experimental art movement I’m absolutely floored. Your research is always top notch but you really blew me away here, this is so so good
As a member of the vaporwave community I was very confused about the lack of substance in the way the mainstream internet looked at the genre, as this weird retro memes with aesthetic vibes. Vaporwave is very political, and full of abstraction. It's like punk but using capitalism as your brush or musical instrument. And that's what I loved about it.
@@helio7249I feel the same way - I'm not as into Vaporwave as I used to be but it was never as shallow as just "meme music" and its a little surprising to find out that's how it was and still is viewed by the mainstream. You don't even have to look that far to find the more esoteric or political Vaporwave if you just start looking.
It wasnt tho. Check out other videos about its history.
This is a retcon. The "wave" part of vaporwave just comes from the New Wave genre of music from the 80s. A handful of different "Wave" genres have sprung up since then, Coldwave, darkwave, ect. It's a signifier of a genres 80s influence.
Y’all vaporwave can be all of the above at the same time!!! It obviously was resonant with a lot of people and it seems like that was likely because of it being multidimensional in essence…
The aesthetics of something can speak to the deeper meaning without the viewer being consciously aware of it and that doesn’t detract from the validity of it…
The way these trends and aesthetics come and go so quickly is why i try to keep all my clothes for as long as possible. Undoubtedly they will fit into the newest aesthetics again at some point. Call it "hoardcore".
omg "hoardcore" - i love it! 😂 and same with my clothes!
I really resonate with this "aesthetic" haha
count me in!
LMFAOOO.... as long as they're neatly tucked away in a plastic bin somewhere XD XD
i mean there's already a 'cluttercore' aesthetic 😂
It's wild how if you're not on tik tok or not on a specific part of tik tok how these trends can come and go before you ever even hear about them
your point about romanticizing one’s life having potential to become self-surveillance is something I’ve recognized in my negative reaction toward “romanticization” as a trend, but haven’t been able to articulate for so long. thank you for saying this point out loud !!!!!
same here!!
28:30 Girl dinner also normalizes that eating is more important than being perfect. Don't have the energy to cut carrots tonight? That's okay. Those PB crackers mean that you fed yourself instead of going hungry. Proud of you! ❤️ It's something we do in the disability and neurodiverse communities, too, and we were doing it long before the phrase girl dinner hit social media.
As a neurodivergent person, I find food management takes up like a third of my total brain processing power. I like how girl dinner is a rejection of cooking, which is traditionally "women's work".
As someone from the neurodiverse and poor community, I appreciate that being broke and poor has finally been validated as a type of aesthetic.
My therapist blew my mind when she told me to eat a slice of bread and some lunch meat, why did it have to be layered in a sandwich.
“Girl dinner”, “girl walk”, and all the other “girl girl girl” is women telling on themselves that they don’t think of themselves as adults.
Like omg how to you even adult fr?
@@tanizaki live a little.
In my opinion micro trend from clothing has morphed into micro trends in makeup, particularly with makeup products. There’s always a new product that you need despite the product not very innovative in the first place and you probably have a similar product already. So instead of needing a new dress you absolutely need, it’s now a blush.
(Haven’t finished the video yet but saw your comment but…) Yeah I see that especially with “influencers” saying OH YOU NEED THIS NEW BLUSH TO GET THE
P E R F E C T NATURAL ~CLEAN GIRL~ DEWY LOOK.
WEAR THIS NEW BLUSH TO LOOK BLURRED AND SNATCHED
THIS BLUSH IS PERFECT FOR THE *LATTE* GIRL AESTHETIC
X WAS M A D E FOR _insert whatever new trending aesthetic_
And I’m like *b r u h* CHILL THE FUCK OUT I’ll just do the makeup I want and with what I can afford. I’m not going to *constantly* keep up with this and I don’t have to lmao. Despite what influencers and corporations are telling me.
What about fandoms, beyond music? I feel like fandoms are an interesting subculture dynamic. Writing and reading fan fiction, editing videos, consuming media that is siminal to the fandom
I hadn’t even considered this but yeah! In some fandoms it’s not even just the singular core piece of media, there’s associated media (think the ubiquity of superwholock), music genres/artists and even style elements that are popular amongst fans, and that people include in their everyday lives outside of fandom. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been clocked as a Magnus Archives fan for my glasses chain, for example
There's been a lot written about fandom as subculture, going back about 50 years now. You may want to read Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins, which is a seminal work on fan studies, including and especially fan fiction.
True!
Like Twilight-core. But also, the other way around, like how much is the aesthetic dictating the media consumption and interests? like someone who never listened to emo or goth music before starts to because they like the e-girl/boy aesthetic, or starts reading Plato because they're into dark academia. I don't know if that actually happens at all in real life though, but in social media I definitely see it, some accounts you can actually see the change from one aesthetic to the other, maybe it's just the keep pumping out new content for views, either way it's kinda crazy
SILENCE! Please dont give the tiktok people any more groups to take from. I dont need to see anything i love become a core.
To add something, I also feel like part of the reason why we gravitate toward romantizing our lives is that it helps us cope with what we're individually dealing with. For example, when I'm having a low day, I'll ask to go on an evening or afternoon drive with my mom and I'll put on a Spotify playlist that makes me feel like I'm at the falling action of a movie, and that the rising action part where things get better is going to happen soon. It cheers me up a little. :)
Love this ❤
I was gifted the strawberry dress for my college graduation and I still love it so much. My connection to that dress goes beyond any core or aesthetic.
as a regular young person outside of tiktok NONE of this is known to me lol it's honestly so crazy that these things become so popular as to influence businesses like Popeyes and I've never heard of them
Literally, it makes me feel like a boomer
@@andyacosta2395right? ✋️💀 I'm clinically online (tho just RUclips) and seeing all these things that are "trending" yet I have no idea they exist sure does make me feel old. Tho, ion mind being out of the loop. I've never had a craving to be in the "know" lol
tiktok has the most vicious attention model of any app ever - they want u on the app as long as possible as often as possible, which means that people spend hours or days immersed in these topics without them ever moving to other apps or the real world!!! even if you're a relatively online person you can COMPLETELY miss these "huge" events bc they stay totally contained on tiktok
Yeah I don't use tiktok or instagram and hearing about some of this is like peeking into a whole different world
YES lol it does, glad I'm not alone@@andyacosta2395
After realizing that I didn’t fit a single aesthetic- my vibes were all over the place, just like any average human- me and my friends made up “mecore” which is just… you. It’s literally just you, that’s it, that’s the vibe. No matter what ur feeling or wearing or consuming or however u show up, you always fit into mecore
This is so cute
Omg I fucking love that
Me core ❤
Edit: literally I am letting that term marinate in my mind. Ofc I know what it's like to just do you and find your own personal style, but something about defning it as 'mecore' is really solidifying and beautiful
literally, people are simulating LIVING and it's scary ah 😳
i do this with myself but just.. with my name. its cooler that way i feel
The biggest difference I have noticed as someone who wears lolita fashion (a Japanese fashion subculture) is that definitely a lot more people are aware of the style and on the internet it seems like more people wear it. But somehow this isn’t really reflected in our in-person meets. I feel like a lot of people wear subculture clothing only for social media now, which makes me kinda sad
how does this even work? Do they buy clothes that they only wear online and just dress basic irl?
@@natesenft5376In most cases, yes. The ones who do dress lolita all the time are called “lifestyle lolitas”. In my case, I only wear lolita occasionally because it’s just mostly not practical for the weather and you’ll get judged.
@@natesenft5376with fast fashion it’s easy to buy a lot of crazy clothing just for photoshops even if you aren’t in the subculture or wear it out
@@corycianangel6321 the impraticality of some styles is wath keeps me a "non-aesthetical" person, like, i don't have the time or patience to do makeup and dress nice every day, i just have a lot of trifthed clothes and I wear whatever when I go out. I can't be bother to chose a style and wear it every day, unless the style is "random core"
@@natesenft5376 Lolita fashion is usually not intended for every day wear, because it has quite an upkeep with all the details. That’s why we meet up for teapartys or fashion walks! I have no problem with people just dressing up in their own home but it’s kinda sad that these occasions to dress up get somewhat lost :)
I love this topic. I'm in my 40's now, but when I was in high school, I fully embraced the first-wave (Sunny Day Real Estate, The Promise Ring, Piebald, Fugazi) emo trends- thrifted grandma cardigans, t-shirts from the 70's, cords, minimal makeup, and thick-framed glasses. It took years for that style to morph and become hyper-commercialized, so for the first few years, it felt like I belonged to an exclusive club. The way that things shift so quickly now is boring to me, honestly. It's way too easy to shop the trends, there is no curation involved. To boot, it's awful for the environment- thank you for saying as much in your video. That being said, I think that recent Gen-Z styles are the most fun that I have seen in a long time- probably because the 90's and early 2000's are back and that was my heyday. Love that grunge era, and instead of researching new trends, I personally have just been revisiting thrift stores to emulate more mature versions of some of my old looks.
I miss that early Emo culture from the late 90s/early 00s. It’s like night and day to what kids see as emo nowadays, or even what emo was 15 years ago. It was more nerdy and indie. Wish it would come back
I worry about the impact of internet girl aesthetics on mental health. It's all fun and games if you are able to enjoy it all lightheartedly, but many of us are too insecure for that.
Emotionally over investing in it, comparing ourselves to others, pondering our identity & look, our self-worth tied up in it, not to mention the compulsion to either validate ourselves by sharing our own aesthetic content on social media, OR feeling inferior for not sharing our own content on social media, or not feeling as pretty as the girls online, or not feeling as enough in comparison. Like damn.
Amen
As a goth I can definitely say that subcultures aren't dead. Right now, the goth scene is having a massive resurgence. And it's not just randoms who think wearing black makes you goth, it's people falling in love with the music and getting involved in whatever way they can. There are so many new bands coming out that it's impossible to keep up (some of my favorites are Vandal Moon, Vision Video, Drab Majesty and Rosegarden Funeral Party), and many classic bands are getting back together and making music again. There are so many events and concerts and clubs popping up, many of which are full of people who've just discovered it. It's amazing and seeing the scene I love so much bloom again feels euphoric.
ooo thanks for the recommendations! gonna go listen to those right now.
Thanks so much for the new sounds, as someone who loves shoegaze, cold wave and the old 80s gothic stuff, I'm glad new bands are coming out or coming back!
mina the FIT!!! the HAIR!! your content is always thoughtful and worth complimenting but we must acknowledge the look
As someone who doesn’t use tiktok, instagram etc. it’s wonderful to get updated about what’s going on on all these platforms. You deliver a compact yet detailed summary that is very well researched and presented. Thank you for your content!🙌🏻
Plus I honestly laughed out loud about the term „onion girl“. Sounds absurd to me😄
Sameeeee
Tiktok is the thing where I feel like I am completely missing out and completely NOT missing out on anything by not having it at the same time
I feel uneducated on all these internet trends and digital culture, but then I feel so fulfilled and happy I don't have it at the same time like no thank you lol
I use these parts of the internet but don't get sent this microtrend stuff by the algorithms, I think because I don't buy anything. I've never had money in my life to follow trends even if I wanted to. I also think I live in an area that doesn't have a ton of money in general so you don't see as many people here following trends- most people are dressed in things from Walmart, Marshalls, and the thrift store. The whole part on aesthetics crossing over into fast fashion was very interesting to me, it's something I would've never even thought about as it just doesn't exist in my day to day.
the health goth aesthetic is alive and well in the underground techno scene. It's a useful aesthetic for those spaces because it allows for movement/dancing/partying for way too long, while still being comfy, and looking "dark" to fit the club atmosphere. Even in Berlin where people dress way less casual than here in the US, the trend can be seen, just more often paired with an overcoat instead of a sweatshirt
Ah cool!
I was gonna say that it looks like most of the techno folks I see at raves
I literally wrote my college essay on the history of aesthetics and subcultures and why they exist and matter so much😂
can I read it haha
Same may i read ittt
Would you mind sending us the link to read your essay, please? I'm very interested ☺️
I'd love to read it
share the doc lmaoo
i'm a proud strawberry girl😭 while i know not many of these aesthetics/trends have a real community built within them, at least i'm happy that my experience has been a positive one and i've managed to find more strawberry friends to simply interact, chat, and show out little strawberry finds to! especially when said community ranges from teenagers to old ladies sharing their collection of a lifetime and such. I find it cute that something so small like a fruit can lead you to finding amazing people through style.
💫 🍓💫
I HAVE A BEADED STRAWBERRY FROM GUATEMALA AND IT WAS ONLY FIVE DOLLARS
I have a friend named ichigo(: which means strawberry in Japanese. But it's so funny because she doesn't like strawberries 😂♡
@@toriseiko3126that's such a cute name
i will always always say that sticking to one aesthetic is so incredibly boring, we are human and we are multi dimensional for one aesthetic to be able encapsulate your whole personality is not possible!!!! be free from the shackles and wear any aesthetic u want imo
And have cloths that you will never be using because it is not trendy . Congrats
Your pfp is from that one Lamp Album cover!! I really love that album! I'm glad that I came across someone that also likes it ❤
w lamp pfp
something about the hyperspecific microtrends like the blue nails or the strawberry dress is that like... it's one thing. it's not even "this week pastels are in" or "this summer we're wearing fruit prints", it's "get this one specific product, take a picture of yourself wearing it for the trending hashtag, then move on". just the pressure of having to buy a specific thing to be trendy, instead of giving a broader space to do something in.
I’ve always been interested in the connection between euphemisms of health/nutrition and trends. For example, “blueberry milk” vs “light blue” might speak to our waning ability to get substantive nutrition while enjoying our lives. To combine the two in an aesthetic, I think, helps us FEEL like we’re doing both when in reality, we’re being entirely screwed.
wait this is such a good point. access to fresh produce has become a status symbol, and flavored milks evoke japanese kawaii imagery as another status symbol (access to this "exotic", healthy/skinny culture). blueberry milk nails (and all similarly named trends) are a way to claim the status associated with healthy living, without needing the funds to actually pull it off
...god i hate late-stage capitalism
can we appreciate Mina's style?
I worship at the alter of Mina-core
we MUST appreciate Mina's style 🙏🙏🙏
She is a fashion ICON
Always !!!
I
OH MY GOD FINALLY someone mentions that modern “internet speak” is just AAVE half the time 😭 i cringe whenever someone calls it “tiktok language”
!!!
What does aave mean? Sorry, I'm not a native speaker.
@@waldhexe7484 aave is short for African American Vernacular English.
!!
And AAVE is the PC way to refer to it. We still call it ebonics where I'm from ahaha.
Not on tik tok but I have “indulged” in “aesthetics” as a form of escapism for several years. Mainly the “Fall” or “cozy-spooky” aesthetic which includes autumn landscapes, scented candles, coffee/tea, pumpkins, and watching Hocus-Pocus. It’s been a form of escapism from these hotter dryer smoke-fire summers.
me too !! I really only like the seasonal-specific ones ? Only thing I’ve actually bought “from” tiktok over 3ish yrs is a milk frother (still works & obsessed) bc I wanted more warm drinks 🤷♀️
With companies pushing Christmas earlier and earlier you bet I celebrate spooky season. 🎉😂
Isnt that just normal living? Which is wonderful in itself
Every day I practice gratitude for the fact I'm not on TikTok and able to see all this shit because it sounds exhausting lmao
I remember the "types of girls" phenomenon being really strong schoolyard talk even before I was really on the internet- I remember being nine years old (2009) and feeling an identity crisis because I couldn't decide if I was a girly girl, a sporty girl, a goth girl or a tomboy. And if I couldn't choose then?? how could I be a girl?? wild
i remember each year was different too - one year i would be deemed a “girly girl” then the next a “tomboy” by my peers. very wild that they cared so much about
Love you styled like My Generation and how we grew up in your Videos
I'm a guy and I still remember that, where all the girls had to have a "type". But for some reason the guys didn't.
My advice to people looking to break out of the aesthetic subculture/microtrend cycle is to basically come up with your own by identifying your personal style. Take a look at the trends and aesthetics you've liked most in the past, and the pieces you've worn the longest or enjoyed wearing the most, and try to find some shared characteristics. It helps to give it a fun name :) I came up with the term Swamp Goth for the way I dressed in the early 2010s and it's still pretty accurate. When you have a good idea of the big-picture things you gravitate towards like colour pallettes, sillhouettes and general vibes then it gets easier to maintain a wardrobe and still keep current with macro trends (ex. swapping skinny jeans for loose fit) without completely rebranding yourself every 6 months.
Swamp Goth reminds of that witch in American Horror Story (season Coven) that lived in the swamp. She was mu favourite character 😊
I'm still trying to find my style, and watching some tips here helps me
This is what everyone has always done as we’ve outgrown our early 20s and matured into the person we’re gonna be, except we usually don’t try to name it. It’s just being yourself.
So basically make your own Microtrend lol
@@cm-yu6gu yeah but the idea is to wear things you genuinely like so you don't feel the need to abandon it for the new thing every 4 months
The older I get (I’m 39), the more I appreciate that adage “everything old is new again”. Nothing about the current popular aesthetics is really that new-everything humans create is always in conversation with or referencing something that came before. We’re just people peopling, doing what we do as a social species.
Thank you so much for the solidarity in mentioning a lot of things reduced to internet talk and streetwear is black/black gay culture
The algorithm is so boring. Like even on RUclips the "new to you " button just shows my FY page from last month... I want to have my thoughts challenged and I get so exited when a new RUclipsr goes viral. Your videos are super thought provoking and I love them. ❤️
One good overlap of aesthetic, subculture, and praxis is solarpunk! Most solarpunk spaces online and in person (at least the ones I've been in) really foster community, mutual aid, sustainability, all while simultaneously creating a very heterogenous aesthetic prioritizing eco-friendly things and creative mending
I was browsing through a local goth/metal/punk shop and overheard a group of teenagers talking about if a piece of clothing fit the "rockstar girlfriend" aesthetic, felt weird
totally get that
sometimes I just want an outfit to put a vibe to me and portraying an aesthetic can be soo fun
it's like being a character
@@sophie4228 as a stand in for actually having a character?
@@Thorenhard I'm so sorry other people actually have style, hope you recover from this agonizing experience (if you survive)
Omg Vaporwave being inspired by Karl Marx is not what I expected to learn today 🤣
I like the "idea" of an aesthetic but when it comes to actually incorporating a specific aesthetic into my daily fashion routine its too time consuming and not very cost effective. So i usually stick to whatever ive in my wardrobe.
I agree - I find aesthetics are a good way to brainstorm outfits based on what I already own.
I think what I love most about these micro identities and aesthetics is the curation of images required to give off the intended “vibe.” It’s really archival in a way? When it isn’t taken too seriously I think the best part about these aesthetics is just making something visually appealing and enjoying the process of curation
I am one of the people outside of tiktok with pretty much all of my fashion and trend news coming straight from Mina. honestly, the only time I've encountered any of the -cores or -girls in the wild was an academic presentation on cottagecore last year at a folklore conference. it was a good presentation but the questions from the academics unfamiliar with this group of young people interested in the aesthetics of their field of study were even better. immediately started questioning the politics (and lack thereof) behind it. hilarious stuff.
I agree, Mina. I feel that during the pandemic, these aesthetics were almost being shoved in my face by dominating my feed and being adopted by my peers. It was almost as if my fighting my depression and financial difficulties while trying to survive the pandemic was never enough, and that I should have prepared healthier meals, done yoga, acquired new skills, been more productive, shedded some weight, glowed up, etc. What a rachet world!
Having to be a teen right now on TikTok seems overly stressful. I’m so glad I was able to find my personal style, voice, and interests before. it seems like there’s this force of all different types of aesthetics on TikTok and as a girl you have to pick one or constantly reinvent yourself until you find the perfect aesthetic. Meanwhile, I think it’s just a trap for girls because there’s no way one person can fit into one box, their entire life and slap a pretty sticker on it. It just continues to set unrealistic expectations for young women.
omg for sure, I also think about all the younger kids and how i've seen little girls follow these trends and how messed up it will probably be for them thinking that's what they need to do :( just breaks my heart because if it's giving teens whiplash, i can't imagine how startled a younger audience is taking in all of this kind of influence at once
I mean in my personal experiences I did connect with certain aesthetics and it certainly changed my life for the better, but I could understand how someone didn’t want to relate to any of them and have to choose because of social or peer pressure
@aofmual I mean people dress from time periods like 1780s, 1880s, etc. so why can't they do 1980s. At this point that was 40 years ago and the trend cycle is about average 20 years, it makes sense that it's back. I've seen older people love it when they run into younger people dressed in 1940s even though it's very clear they were not alive during that time period. If someone appreciates the styles of a certain era, they can dress like that as a personal style. There are some wonderful historically dressed youtubers out there. Although the one difference I will agree on, with more recent decades like the 80s and 90s, we see that popularity with more fashion trends for short periods of time rather than people passionate about fashion history.
The beauty of aesthetics is that they can serve as guidelines that help you find a look you like. I think the main problems come when people make aesthetics fundamental to their identity which keeps them from finding their specific style or dressing outside of the aesthetic.
Personally I like soft and chic aesthetics like Mermaidcore, cottagecore, and Barbiecore.
I remember in the late 90s when expensive brands started showing grunge looks on their runways. It was very ironic because for so many of the bands (including nirvana), they brought their clothes from second-hand shops because that's all they could afford.
I dyed my hair green/blue for seapunk back in 2016. I've tried lots of aesthetics...art hoe, health goth... I didn't even realise they had names. Current fav is solarpunk 🌞 🌿 I think it's more than a look, it's a meeting point to dream and create a beautiful and fair future
I always thought it was funny that when I was in middle school, most people were like “don’t label me.” But now people can’t function without being a “gothic vampire water fairy.”
If it's enjoyable to them, so what?
Metal heads make their whole personality about liking metal, poeple never really mentioned it. But a girl enjoys it, woo
@@luanasilva7341 Do metal heads though? They like the music, the community and yes, perhaps the aesthetic. But OG subcultures were about community first and foremost and that is completely lacking in modern aesthetics which center around shallowness, materialism and who has the most likes. A goth or metal head often sticks with their preferred music/subculture for decades whereas these microtrends are out after max. a year. You can't tell me both are the same. People can absolutely have fashion-y hobbies, I did too with J-Fashion back in the 2010s but let's not pretend it's not simply (often unsustainable) consumerism. And consumerism can and should be criticized to there you have an answer to "so what".
@@luanasilva7341 honestly i agree, idk why people get so up in arms about people simply enjoying fitting into an aesthetic, sure it's fine if you don't want to, but also why does it bother some people so much, if you're genuinely happy fitting into an aesthetic and don't feel like you have to fit into it, good for you, i'm happy for you that you found your thing!
i feel like it's just the thing to hate anything that gen z does at this point and it's sad, nobody cared until gen z started doing it and using the word "core" now it's a huge problem apparently
@@jasperjazzie no one even said it's a whole problem?, and also, it's because subcultures always had a bit more than just visuals to them. Sure, fashion was a huge part in most of them, lolita for example, but not in such an unfullfilling and limited way
@@luanasilva7341 It's funny to me that not only you disregard the fact that metal heads are a subculture that's simply based on music, while you also say it in a way that implies that women aren't metal heads :)
I’ve always felt weird about lifestyle becoming a trend. It’s one thing if it encourages you to do something good for yourself, like going on a walk or cleaning your house more, but like you said, it causes self surveillance. You either realize what you’ve always done has a name (good or bad) or you feel the pressure to do something more or differently than before because you think everyone else is and it just becomes mentally exhausting.
Youth isn’t just a concept that signifies all that you mentioned, it is a state of being. We were all young once. It’s a factual state for anyone who grows old. Who watches their body break down and their time near to an end. Youth is beautiful not just because of looks but because it is freeing and taken for granted. It would be interesting to hear you interview older creators. One thing youth doesn’t have is gratitude.
Beautifully said ❤
I find myself engaging with both internet aesthetics *and* subcultures, and there’s quite a clear difference! I consider myself goth, although I’m relatively new to the scene. I first checked it out because I was drawn to the people and the fashion, but then stayed for the music. Post-punk and goth rock have been in my headphones constantly since I discovered it! It gives me common ground with other goths that I meet, and I have some lovely goth friends (even if I am too young for most clubs and other goth spaces) At the same time, my aesthetic varies with how I feel day to day. It’s an artistic statement, not an identity. Today I wore pastel patchwork jeans and a crop top with a colorful graphic, and last week I wore fishnets and teased hair with Siouxsie Sioux eyeliner. No matter what I’m wearing, I’m still goth because I listen to the music!
@aofmual I’m glad you think so! If I can bring someone a little bit of joy or nostalgia by wearing what I love, it’s all the more wonderful :)
Aside from this comprehensive video essay, THAT DRESS IS STUNNING! And you, Mina Le, is also stunning with it.
I'm not sure if someone had said it already but i just wanted to add that The suffix "-core" comes from the Hardcore subgenre of Punk music that appears in the mid to late 70s.
Yep, she mentions it in the video :)
Amongst gen z there’s such a pressure to commit to an aesthetic lmao. Even the ‘that girl’ aesthetic which focuses on being your best self has a certain minimalist aesthetic to it. The aesthetic for being ‘that girl’ should depend on the person right? But no.
its also very white isn't it? there is also the 'clean girl' the 'downtown girl' and i love the dt one its just that its so white centric. doesn't that say something about a side of gen z culture now
@@moomoocowslyliterally! i dont have tiktok and im still in high school so most of my classmates do. when i tell them i dont they just say "ah good for you, sometimes i spent too much time on there" and thats IT. i might miss trends or whatever but no one is gonna force me to get tiktok or judge me for not having it lmao.
@@moomoocowsly
True, someone should not allow themselves to dictate outside events.
If they are, that's their own choice and personal reasons. What environment you are in also plays a huge role too.
@@lesbiangoddess290 As a none american, I can't relate to that as we don't view things out of skin color. The Americanized way of seeing these trends is very odd to me.
i think that it’s also worth noting how this phenomenon of aesthetics popping up all the time is partly a result of how separate people have become because of the internet, working from home, and growing economic inequality that seperates us physically. to be remarkable on the internet, where a lot of people socialize these days, you have to stand out hence pandering to certain aesthetics or striving for a more “extreme” look. also kids have never been more isolated, i think pandering to these various groups is a natural avenue to feel seen. i think people are genuinely looking for connection and if they refine their search engine or aesthetic just enough, they might find people who understand them.
the sad thing is having to spend money to get that connection :(
i just have to say Mina, this may just be your best and most captivating vid yet! i was so sad when the video ended and i really enjoyed listening to your research!!
the past year I've joined a more established fashion subculture that completely changed the way I consume fashion. I purposefully plan these outfits and save money for specific pieces. even though I'm browsing fashion websites for inspiration, I'm only buying a single piece once every few months. impulse buying is just not a thing because the fashion is so specific and expensive. I have taken these concepts to my regular wardrobe as well. I only shop for clothes when I need a specific piece, like a white shirt, and I won't buy anything unless it is the perfect white shirt.
For me it's just kinda scary how these trends and aesthetics come and go so fast just so we are incentivized to buy things. I couldn't do it, I hate being limited by a label
I'm crying at the Popeye's Girl Dinner promotion because I have literally survived on side dishes well before Girl Dinner was even a thought. I think its so funny bc truuuuue
I think that’s why Girl Dinner became such a trend though, because so many of us were already doing it then had a moment of “wait you too?” and gave it a name
A lot of Brits (myself included) becoming enraged by our beloved 'picky tea' being rebranded as girl dinner 😂
At Cracker Barrel, it was called the country vegetable plate! Mostly side dishes containing meat available.
It's funny because it's so unapologetically shameless. I swear, you can't have shit for more than two seconds before some gotdamned corporation tries to monetize it.
I have a lot of digestive issues that make it hard to eat at a lot of places but sides are usually my go to.
I plan on sewing the majority of my clothes. I was never interested in aesthetics and I feel my identity is better expressed through creating things only I can wear and personalized exclusively to my tastes and avoiding at least half of the moral pitfalls of buying clothes.
I think it's worth to mention that I think most people who identify with an aesthetic group only do so in that digital space, and I rarely see it bleed into real life. Like they would buy the products, take pictures of it for their online platforms, but they look like everyone else in real life, or they actually rarely sport that aesthetic in real life. I see this in the UK anyway, US might be different. I think it is particularly more true with fashion aesthetics than it is for like home aesthetics, which does not seem to blow up as easily.
this is a really good point as to why many of these aesthetics are distinct from subcultures. there was usually some sort of irl aesthetic commitment for a subculture - eg it's hard to hide scene rainbow feather bangs or a goth mohawk. additionally, these kids had to rep their respective groups as often as possible or else risk being labeled "posers". it's much easier to throw on a bimbocore dress in your room for tiktok & then change into your actual clothes before stepping outside. the only barrier to entry is financial; there's very little irl social risk involved
Mina, this makeup, the hair and dress on you is everythinggg, you look so beautiful 😍😊
i don’t have tik tok and i am always unaware of things until i watch your videos. like i didn’t know blueberry milk nails or the smoothie from the la store. but even without having tik tok my friends mention things like tomato girl or girl dinner so i can never escape aesthetics
i live for mina’s hair growth! so healthy so shiny ✨
this dizzying array of memes and aesthetics gives me a great appreciation for being ancient and out of touch.
Same, being naive can also give you personal advantages.
tbh on the girl-dinner thing, for me and a lot of other recovering ED sufferers, it has actually helped to break down some of the barrier to actually feeding ourselves. Far from encouraging my ED, it encourages me to eat *something*. Even if it's messy or "unhealthy" or doesn't really make sense together as a proper "meal". I can trick my brain into letting me eat by calling it Girl Dinner and stuffing a bunch of random things on a plate, rather than skipping meals bc the thought of having to prepare and cook and put together a meal is overwhelming and off putting. The more time I spend thinking about my food, the more likely those thoughts are to start spiraling into unhealthy ED territory. On bad days it really helps to just throw together a Girl Dinner from whatever I can find that seems moderately appetising and eat it without thinking about it too hard. It's helped me get my calories up and eat more often, even if the meals themselves aren't super big. I've been able to start reconnecting to my body's hunger signals and cravings after years of ignoring them. Seeing people bash it for encouraging EDs has been quite painful bc it's genuinely helped me and my friends so much, and frankly a LOT of the criticism has come from people who admit they've never struggled with it themselves. It just feels like another way people try to shame us for not functioning "normally"
Yeah when it comes to getting over struggles sometimes a very specific personal method that seems to work pops up, which would sound odd if you were to explain it to someone, but what matters is that it helps. Good luck on your journey dealing with erectile dysfunciton
I personally don’t like to label myself or limit myself to one style either, but one thing I like about these “ cores “ is that it allowed the community to see and accept different styles that are sometimes unusual to that specific community or country.
Omg i had no idea the art hoe started like that, i like these videos that remind me to investigate the things i like and be more critical, not just adopt immediately everything i like without knowing the history.
I think hopping from one trend/ fashion style to another is normal to a degree - sometimes you need to try a bunch of things to find out who you are (and then do it on purpose, as the Dolly Parton quote goes). What concerns me more is that due to how social media works today, you're much more pressured to buy things.
Thinking back on dark academia and cottagecore on tumblr and pinterest, you could be part of the aesthetic by sharing moodboards of books and candles and putting together outfit collages, maybe post a selfie of your new corduroy pants. With tiktok however I feel like there is more focus on sharing your face and your life, so to belong you need to have these items, and have enough of them to last the duration of the trend (correct me on this if I'm wrong since I don't have tiktok myself). Which is not only bad for the environment, but I also wonder what impact that has on young people who are in this process of discovering themselves and trying to belong but being unable to participate.
great point
I may be part of the problem bc I now want to be part of the 'bright young things' core
This is my new favorite video of yours, actually is a topic i was question myself as a Lolita (Lolita fashion), i remember that the fashion had an enormous community, so many activities, brands, and new people on their way to be part of and it was beautiful finding communities around the world. Nowadays i see in some aesthetics (coquette, balletcore, e-girl) elements of Lolita fashion beings used as part of their closets, in mi pov these isn’t at all bad,they just don’t appreciate the quality of textiles, all the process behind the create these unique pieces and yes! you can find the replica on famous fast fashion brands. It just hits different like the only proposed to be part of an aesthetic is just to fit, while (in my case Lolita) it was a challenging to wear it in public and a lot of learning of the background and anatomy of what composed the fashion.
over worrying and thinking of others perceptions of yourself has overgrown the height of awareness i have towards my self image and i think that while i do love aesthetics i have now grown to have a bittersweet relationship towards them because for me i really want to find my self identity to make long lasting friendships instead of self absorption of aesthetic
When the first aesthetics popped up on Instagram I thought they were super fun and an easy way to dive into different styles. Now they just feel way too niche, ephemeral and curated to even spark a bit of identification with. Apart from the fact that they are almost instantly used to sell you stuff because of course you can't throw together a look from the stuff you have at home.
I don't know how accurate this is, but I also get the feeling that no one can possibly stick to one aesthetic. They are so limiting and specific to a way of living that I can't see anyone doing it for longer than a few weeks maybe. Most of them require so much time, space and resources that I feel like they could only cater to either school kids with zero responsibilities or rich people.