I kinda made a tweet related to this a while ago and people just started projecting their interpretations on my little opinion even though it had nothing to do with what they were saying (although not wrong), so I thought I would just elaborate what I was trying to mean in just 280 characters.
What is an “aesthetic”?
As stated by Shanspeare on youtube:
“(An aesthetic) is a perceptive, sensitive [or] (something) pertaining to sensory perception.”
Meaning, it is a tool used to curate how you are perceived, via one or more of the five senses, by other people. As weird as it may sound, there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, the need perceived is in our biology.
Since the beginning of time, the need to be perceived by others as non-threatening was the key to surviving complex, changing environments, and not be killed. Swain et al in “Exploring the Evolution of Perception: An Agent Based Approach” state:
“Perception is central to the survival of an individual for many reasons, especially as it affects the ability to gather resources. Consequently, costs associated with perception are partially shaped by resource availability.”
Basically, positive perception allowed you to easily integrate into a system and get access to food, shelter, social interaction and protection. The article continues:
“Possessing greater sensory input is always valuable as it gives a better model of the surrounding world.”
From my interpretation, the more one appealed to the senses of others, the more in tune they were or the more they found their place in the world. And it makes sense because finding your identity and a community is central to human existence and one way to do that is through our clothing.
Now what's the issue?
It’s an obsession - Thank you social media
In the tweet I made, I mentioned that people are so obsessed with achieving how they are perceived by other people, that they are incapable of fully enjoying special moments, since they’re so caught up in fitting into an “aesthetic”. There’s nothing wrong with recording memories (give or take) or showing how beautiful the world is from different perspectives (lord knows we need need to be reminded in these times), however, the rise in content creation and the need to possibly “go viral” has really poisoned these intentions, and it’s sad. I got this opinion from always seeing people on tiktok wanting to REDO THEIR PROPOSALS to make it “aesthetically pleasing” and content creators saying that the need to make content ruins how they interact with people. For example this video by @joshomz:
Now because there’s an obsession..
It’s become capitalist-consumerist playground
Now there’s nothing wrong with being a consumer. We’re all consumers almost all the time whether we like it or not. HOWEVER, capitalism has gotten its grubby little hands all over human nature, causing higher rates of consumption over the last 10 years!
Let’s not pretend we don't see try-on hauls all over or social media where people buy over 30 articles of clothing from fast fashion companies just to feed their obession with an aesthetic. They put these aesthetics under categories on their websites so they’re easier to find and easier to buy boatloads of. Since trends are always overturned, many people choose to throw out all those articles just to fit trending aesthetics; and these companies know it and use it their advantage, which has terrible repurcussions like underpaying workers just to get more profit. Just another day of corporate exploiting our insecurities.
Remember, perception is highly important. So if you’re not able to do the most to ensure that people associate you with an aesthetic through clothing, you don’t have much of an identity (thank you social media); VERY classist in my opinion. It's ironic because in reality, the hyperfixation on an aesthetic causes a loss of personality. People’s entire personality just doesn’t budge from what defines one aesthetic, and they expect the same, which is annoying.
Which makes my next point..
If not (this) aesthetic, then what else?
It needs to be reiterated that HUMANS ARE NOT ONE DIMENSIONAL ARCHETYPES. We’re dynamic, constantly growing and all very different, and I think that this new age of '“aesthetic culture” flattens the complexity of style and the possibility of individuality. It’s fine to dress in one aesthetic one day, and another the next or even mix them, however, social media does not often make this digestible. As much as belonging to a community of like minded people is crucial for social survival, some people take this too far, making an aesthetic very secluded and exclusionary, which I also think is due to the need to be easy to find and have higher chances of virality and imitability. People are often bullied online if they don’t label themselves accordingly, especially if they don't commit and fit to the aesthetic completely. It’s a lot of pressure, especially considering that aesthetics were not really meant to be accessible.
Which brings me to..
Gatekeep, gaslight, not girlboss whatsoever.
Throughout history, the most pleasing ideal is that which is furthest from dark skin; a white person. It’s a given that whiteness is considered the most “aesthetically pleasing” image, so this is deeply rooted in almost ALL aesthetics whether you like it or not. Like I said previously, these aesthetics are very exclusionary and it’s mainly due to this. Again @joshomz explains his experience with this as he replies to a mean comment in this video:
Social media is not accustomed to seeing black people or POC in spaces that were not built with their images, therefore these groups are excluded and deemed unsuitable for certain aesthetics (See my post on the IG baddie aesthetic). Social media platforms see this, know this, and do not push them into the algorithm as creators. This is why under most searches on Pinterest there are not many black or POC people.
Of course it doesn’t stop there.
White women have been put on a pedestal as the highest form of pure feminine for ages. This comes from slavery where white slave owners would uphold their wives’ white innocence and purity by keeping her covered and preventing her from breast feeding while exaggerating the hypersexuality and aggression of enslaved black women by making them wet nurses and keeping them in the fields almost naked.
So there’s a skewed idea of what feminity in more femme aesthetics should look like, which discriminates against femme men, non-binary, trans people etc. as they do not fit the standard, which can trigger gender dysphoria for these people. Add black to the front of any of those labels and it’s so much worse. And don’t even talk about if you throw in “plus-sized” in there because the internet is extremely against any people from that group infiltrating any aesthetic.
The internet is not a welcoming space, unfortunately. And it’s sad.
Wrapping up
All in all, there are so many genres of fashion and media that are too amazing and unique to resist dappling in many of them, however be mindful of their undertones and your reason for following them. They should be used to express the many parts of yourself and to highlight your identity, not to obsessively satisfy people’s perception of you to the point where you miss the things that are truly important.
Remember to enjoy and stay true to yourself. Thank you so much for reading my brain vomit. Tell me what you think in the comments and subscribe for more posts like these!
