#and people are arguing that the aesthetic makes the subculture?

[adlamu]

me every time i see [insert alt subculture (which definitely came about as part of their respective iconic, identifiable music) here] discourse across any of the three socials i actively use:

[melatonin-melanin]

jirai kei as a trend and the inherent ableism and racism present within it

if you've been present in any japanese fashion or vtuber spaces for the past few years, chances are you've most likely heard of jirai kei. it's gotten major media attention in japan, and inevitably its popularity has spread overseas. what is still misinterpreted about it, however, is that jirai kei is a fashion style. jirai kei is a stereotype, as well as a subculture that features fashion elements. as opposed to the fashion aspects, the focus of the subculture is mental illness, and many people use the jirai tags and labels to find those with similar struggles and interests. you can learn more about the recent history of jirai kei as a stereotype here, and the fashions associated with jirai kei here.

jirai kei as a stereotype is bad for a multitude of reasons, but there are many people who seem to think that there's nothing wrong with the trend itself. i've seen many arguments in favor of it, ranging from "if brands are using it, that must mean the term isn't that bad" to "plenty of japanese girls are using it to only refer to the fashion, and they don't actually lash out at others or self-harm." its usage by brands and everyday people are true, and that much cannot be argued. the problem comes from assuming that, because it's something widespread in japan, it can't possibly be as bad as people make it out to be. if this trend were to come from anywhere else, i'm almost certain that people would immediately question the morality of it for several reasons. this is going to be a long post, so i hope you have some time.

TW for mentions of self-harm, alcohol and drug abuse, and child sex trafficking below the cut.

a brief rundown of jirai kei's origins

to start, jirai kei's original coinage before the trend has existed since around the 90s. it was used by misogynistic men to refer to women who they believed exhibited signs of emotional instability. this was applied to completely harmless traits, and the criteria for someone being a landmine has drastically changed over the years. for example, the first common identifier was simply "a girl who looks put together." this sexist usage still extends to present times, but now it's often conflated with the current aestheticized definition of the term.

the source of the current iteration of jirai kei

the modern-day jirai kei stereotype comes almost entirely from a gang known as the toyoko kids, who reside in kabukicho. this gang contains many members ranging from ages 9 to 24 who have run away from their homes and families. they have been known for several activities, but the most publicized ones are cutting themselves in public circles, papa katsu (underage prostitution), heavily drinking, and overdosing on over-the-counter medications. majority of the gang members also wear japanese alternative fashions, with girly kei being the fashion that's most often present in the jirai kei stereotype.

where does the ableism come in?

the rise of the aesthetic trend peaked somewhere in 2020, where a "landmine makeup challenge" gained popularity online and resulted in various people attempting to mock and mimic the stereotype for clout. people would wear girly fashion, act "wild" or "crazy" on camera, and, at worst, pretend to cut their wrists or even use makeup to create fake self-harm scars. i don't believe i need to explain why faking self-harm for views is ableist. however, the ableism is also present in the supposed "lighter" aspects of the trend, particularly its sudden association with girly fashion.

during the height of jirai kei's popularity in japan, many brands had begun to sell pink x black girly coordinates, advertising them as jirai kei fashion. it's incredibly important to note that girly as a fashion has existed for several years prior, and that multiple people had already been wearing clothing that's abruptly being labeled jirai. as a result, you have all of these random people minding their business suddenly being labeled as "crazy psycho bitches" because of the clothes that they wear. as if that isn't enough, some brands went as far as to promote the more dangerous aspects of the stereotype as well. with attempts to pander to girls who are deemed "yandere" and "highly explosive," many shops, online influencers, and companies had directly and indirectly capitalized on the suffering of the toyoko kids by encouraging people to cut their wrists, manipulate their partners, binge drink, and lash out at others to engage in the "full landmine experience."

mental illness in japan is almost never taken seriously because it's seen as a personality flaw rather than something that needs treatment. the jirai kei trend only set back any progress made for mental health acknowledgement in society, as people perceived as landmines began to be harassed for wearing girly fashion. more girls were approached by men on the street trying to scout them for prostitution, and people gave away their wardrobe because "others assumed they were troublesome" for wearing it. from another perspective, the anti-recovery nature of the trend has also taken lives. some people who felt that they identified with the term had fully embraced the lifestyle that was commercialized and promoted as something "cute and fun," resulting in more people running away from home to be like the toyoko kids. these people, who have essentially been failed by the system, are simultaneously fetishized and shunned for the fact that they're struggling.

well, what about the racism?

the racism present in the jirai kei trend, from what i've seen, mainly comes from overseas communities. the perception that many people have of jirai kei tends to have its roots in orientalism. if you've ever witnessed how people tend to glorify japan in almost every context, this shouldn't be too surprising. what's concerning, however, is that much of this glorification of jirai still goes unacknowledged by the western j-fashion community.

when jirai kei gained popularity in japan's mainstream, people mistook the name of the stereotype for the name of the fashion. this mindset also translated over to western spaces without a second thought. as a result, when jirai kei as a stereotype was formally introduced to overseas j-fashion communities, some were confused and oddly adamant. it seemed like people thought, "there's no way that japan would endorse something so horrible. there has to be different explanations!" regardless of whether this idea was conscious or subconscious, it had begun what people now call "jirai discourse" in the community. many arguments were made in favor of using jirai kei to refer solely to girly fashion, as opposed to recognizing its origins and continuous usage as a derogatory term. an especially common viewpoint that's perpetuated is that jirai kei has been reclaimed or is in the process of being reclaimed, which is something that has several things wrong with it.

problems with thinking that jirai is "reclaimed, so it's fine to use"

firstly, reclamation is subjective. the assumption that the entirety of a minority group makes the unanimous decision to reclaim a term is frankly just implausible. even more popular words that are thrown around more casually nowadays are still debated in some circles on whether or not they should be used. for a term like jirai kei, something fairly recently coined and undoubtedly controversial in most contexts, the mere idea of reclamation amongst anyone would have to take a much longer time, and that's only if the stereotype starts getting taken seriously.

secondly, the only people who have the right to consider reclamation are the people who are directly affected by the usage of this term, which would be feminine-presenting native japanese people who are mentally ill. people overseas have argued in favor of reclaiming the term despite not being a part of the group that the term is actually used against. this is not something where you can take apart the criteria and suddenly claim that you're also affected by jirai kei's usage. for a comparison that may be easily understood, that's like if a nonblack woman tried to advocate for the reclamation of the "mammy" stereotype, which stereotypes and therefore only affects the perception of black women. just because both groups consist of women, that doesn't mean they have the exact same experience with the stereotype in question, even if they happen to resonate with some aspect of it. unless you've grown up in japan as someone afab and/or feminine-presenting and have struggled with mental health, it's nearly impossible to fully identify with the extent of jirai kei's harm because it's occurred in such a specific set of circumstances to a specific group of people. the only thing that should be done in this case is doing your research on the affected group, which you can do by looking into the history of the toyoko kids and some of the individual stories of the members. that way, you can at least attain a better understanding of their perspectives and connect the effects of jirai kei to their struggles.

lastly, it is not reclaiming to simply use the term for yourself. this tends to be where the idea of jirai kei being reclaimed comes from, because many japanese girls on social media use the term to refer to themselves as well. in these instances, there are typically two separate reasons: one, the person is pretending to be a landmine for clout; or two, they genuinely identify with the derogatory meaning of the term. the latter is often the case, since there's not many other ways for people in japan who are mentally ill to find groups for themselves. when it comes to reclamation, it's important to remember that it's not simply using a word that was used against a group that you're a part of. reclaiming is about actively working to change a term's meaning into a neutral or positive context for the benefit of the group. none of these girls are doing that. there's no big effort in japanese landmine spaces to move the perception of being a landmine away from things like girly kei fashion, idol fan culture, or toxic behaviors, which leads me to the final section of this post.

it is not anyone's job to push for the "reclamation" of jirai kei.

i put reclamation in quotes because, although some genuinely may not have ill intentions, many people come off as having a "white savior" mindset as opposed to actually wanting to reclaim the term in any sense (which, as mentioned before, is not the right of just anyone), and it's usually for the sake of enjoying girly fashion without feeling bad for incorrectly calling it jirai kei. one of the defenses often used to propose that being seen as a landmine can actually be a good thing is that the people who do self-harm and abuse substances are simply "bad apples" in the landmine community. if they're not treated as the dirty underside, then they're seen as things to be pitied and sympathized with, but with the quick disclaimer of "don't worry though, not all landmines are like this!"

not only is this incredibly ableist, but this assumption being made by mainly white influencers is also rooted in the historical development of racism against asian people, particularly in the united states. if you've heard of the model minority myth, one of the biggest issues with it is that it heavily generalizes asian people as being well-mannered, good-natured, and upstanding citizens. as a result, anyone who seems to fall out of this generalization is deemed an "untrustworthy foreigner" and appears as nonexistent through a romanticized lens. this exact situation can be applied to how people tend to treat the issues surrounding the jirai kei trend. the japanese girls who are faking and/or making fun of mental instability for the sake of online popularity are suddenly being glorified as these ideal representations of jirai kei to be palatable to the western world. meanwhile, the people who are considered by many to be part of the lowest rungs of society and are actually getting this term thrown at them pejoratively are treated as an afterthought and not representative of what people overseas want jirai kei to mean. it's even to the extent where native japanese people using girly kei or being uncomfortable with jirai kei are immediately assumed to be faking their ethnicity or their japanese-speaking skills, something that many foreigners have actually done in an attempt to claim authority over jirai kei's usage. since the reality of the trend is so uncomfortable to many, people think that it's best to simply disregard it or dumb down its impact when that changes nothing. what has avoiding the topic of discrimination and fetishization ever done for anyone?

the last thing i want to point out is that, even if reclamation of the term was in progress, it would not be happening the way that some seem to think it is. if the term was being reclaimed, we would not have people (both overseas and in japan) still acting like the stereotype for tons of likes, namely by taking pictures of themselves in girly kei next to cans of pink monster while sitting on the sidewalk with someone handing them money. that is an actual image i've seen, and if that doesn't tell you that there's a problem, i'm not sure what else will.

[rivetgoth]

Seeing someone try to cheekily bad faith argue against goth being a music based subculture with “but that would exclude deaf and hard of hearing people from being goth since they can’t listen to music” is soooooo wild to me. No it literally does not. I KNOW Deaf and HoH people who go to concerts and clubs. There are Deaf and HoH people who love music. There are tons of posts on r/goth from Deaf and HoH goths: “I think it would be pretty cruel of a community to strip me of an identity I've held since I was conscious because of a physical disability, and I will continue to call myself goth. However, when I see this question, I don't think it's really in consideration of deaf people in general, and a way for the Instagoths to justify taking a culture and making it something it isn't. I refuse to be a catalyst to justify your Killstar partnership.”

Saying “Deaf and HoH people can’t be goth” feels significantly more ableist than suggesting that a community that was built around a shared love of a specific kind of art… should remain as such, rather than be about fast fashion and corporate commodification, lol. Goth spaces that are inclusive to disabled people have always existed. Deaf goths exist. Commodifying gothness and watering it down to be purely a marketable aesthetic does literally fucking nothing to make it MORE inclusive to disabled people, and the post I saw this in response to was specifically about goth as aesthetic making it LESS welcoming to goths of color due to the way mainstream commodification always = glorification of whiteness/paleness, whereas within an underground music subculture there’s space for marginalized goths to exist and be celebrated... It just so obviously reveals how little this person knows about the community—Goth being centered around the music doesn’t mean all we do is like. Sit and quietly listen to songs anyway. There’s so many facets of the community that someone can partake in without decentering the music. This would be obvious if someone actually partook in the subculture and made an active effort to celebrate marginalized goths and their actual tangible history within the community, rather than making up hypothetical gotchas online to justify the existence of Killstar.

[saintmachina]

How do you still interact with dark acadenia despite all its internet shallowness?

It has been strange to see a subculture (in the truest sense of the word, a community bonded through internet and irl groups who share values, interests, artistic inspirations, and style) flattened into a disposable microaesthetic like "clean girl" or "mob wife". I don't know if that's the precise shallowness you're referring to here, but yeah, it's weird so see a "dark academia" category of Shien or what have you. We used to have more substantive dark academia communities, even on the internet, ones that embodied a lifestyle and not just a certain color palette or style of clothing. However, this happens to most subcultures once they become profitable marketing categories, from punk to goth and beyond. In our current capitalist system, especially when we're so atomized from each other and so beholden to lightning-speed social media trends, it's inevitable.

That said, there are a lot of new generation dark academics keeping that subculture alive, and contributing essays and novels to the community, and creating gorgeous photography, and making cooperative art, and rightfully critiquing the subculture's baked-in whiteness and cisheteronormativity and eliteness (I would argue that dark academia has always been queer and always been self-aware of the poisoned cup of elitism, although I was grant you that it's always been troublingly dominated by white artists and influencers). There's been a boom in traditionally published dark academia and dark academia-influenced novels, for example, as that first generation grows older and publishes their own responses to the genre. That also contributes to a more natural evolution of the art form.

And like, if you talk to five different people in the subculture they will define it in different ways, but I still think there are people out there fascinated by the interplay of decadence and ruin, beauty as terror, the highs and lows ambition can lead us to, art of art's sake, and the mindful preservation of history.

However, I also think it's natural that a lot of that original wave of dark academics have moved into other subcultures like vintage fashion or burlesque or generalized aesthete communities, or have graduated from their own academic season of life and moved on to write their own books, or pick up other hobbies and interests. Circle of life!

[jfashion-confessions]

I don't understand the back and forth between Jirai. As a mentally ill adult with BPD as well as other illnesses. I don't understand trying to claim a slur I wouldn't be called as a western who lives IN the west. No one in the west randomly uses that SLUR because its japanese. English speakers still don't jot their english with random Japanese. English speaker would call me: Crazy, lunatic, unhinged, attention seeking, someone they gotta tiptoe around / walk on eggshells around, mental, a "amber heard", a danger like jodi arias. the list goes on and on... I've heard hurtful and dismissive comments about my mental health or even just heard this about others who are mentally ill, because not everyone knows my status. But my point is the "feed back" and dismissive and belittling comments are always in english. I just find when I see younger folks arguing its a slur they like or they wanna reclaim it doesn't sit right with me. We don't get called those things. We get called ENGLISH words. I've never heard it in my life until the subculture became more popular in the west in 2020/2021. And since probably 2023 I've seen it become more popular. But even still I don't *hear* the word enter normal peoples vocab. I also don't really like calling it a lifestyle, because mental health isn't a lifestyle. It's a condition. I don't want to glamorize mental health, it should be seen just like any other health condition. Just like allergies, or physical illness something else. The difference between education and awareness and glamorizing is awareness gives you better understanding of the disorder. Glamourising makes people wish they were disordered or don't want to seek treatment because thats their "thing". We all struggle and have bad days, some stuff will set us off, sometimes stuff is difficult. But thats not "jirai" to struggle. I like the term "dark girly" as someone who's got bpd and psychosis because it also removes my mental health from the fashion. Dark girly addresses the aesthetic, motifits and beautiful (dark and rich) colors I see. Jirai can't be divorced from its original context, or the sex trafficking or other aspects of its shady history and inevitable trauma it's created. I also don't like negative stereotypes being connected with mental health. I can recognise for japanese young women / women this slur has preduices and that culture is not as open with mental health. It's more judgemental, views it as a private affirm. (and yes, as a western I can see the relatable because I had parents who were in this same conservative mindset of we don't share bad things. Don't talk about your suffering, don't talk to a therapist. Stop! But, I'm an adult now & as a western I have more access to getting help, but also being able to openly speak about my issues and find spaces were I can do so without stigma or judgement. I'm not aware if japan has this so much. Culturally speaking I'm an outsider, so my awareness is ignorant.) For reclaiming the slur too, I find it really strange because the west has a lot of different cultures in it, and i'm sure all of them have their own slurs for mentally unwell people and society beliefs with mental health and how its shameful & yet I don't see westerns grabbing those slurs and being like 'you know what! I'm this too, I'm reclaiming all of this." I just feel like Jirai is being claimed by misguided youngsters. But I really wish the back and forth could stop and I realize I'm fueling the debate to. So I'm sorry.

.

[tokyodolldiaries]

here are some of my most controversial (???) gyaru opinions bc i physically cannot stop myself from yapping

watching other people do para para is so cringe inducing to me that i typically avoid that aspect of gal entirely. (￣▽￣||) (however, on a boozy night out, i can and do enjoy the music)

i don’t particularly find reiwa gal very interesting or dynamic. also the fact that a lot of this generation of egg models take shein sponsorships doesn’t sit particularly well with me

that being said, i do like and respect the fact that there are so many versions and substyles of gal. i think we shoot ourselves in the foot when we argue over semantics and police what is and isn’t “””real””” gyaru

that trend of non-gals “trying gyaru make up for the first time” doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother other gaijin gals. i remember watching a video where a gal was saying it was culturally appropriative which feels like a bit of a gross overreaction. so long as they’re not claiming to be authorities on the topic what’s wrong with them playing around with the make up???? how do you think people get into the subculture in the first place??

going off of that: i do wish that newer gals realized that gyaru isn’t just a dramatic droop and “coconut girl” aesthetics. don’t get me wrong, those things can very much be involved. but something about it feels very…. like…. instagram-ified

that kogyaru group of 10 year olds is gross. i don’t like it and i don’t wanna pretend to like it just bc the song is trending. it doesn’t feel like a group of young girls authentically experimenting with their style like young girls do/should be able to do. it feels like the orchestration of the adults in their lives. it’s exploitative and disgusting

we should be able to have honest and constructive convos about the ways in which gyaru did and sometimes still does appropriate african american culture. just because something wasn’t done in malice (or was done out of ignorance) doesn’t give it a pass

in regards to most gyaru make, i personally believe that white liner/white shadow can go a lot farther than a droop when it comes to making a look “read” as gal

[liberalfartsdegree]

Apart from this excellent article by Maia Hibbet from The Baffler (link to JSTOR), have any of you fine people run into interesting writing on the rise of neo-temperance movements in the US? Particularly among queer people? The anti-alcohol culture (though, interestingly, far less anti-other drugs?) turn in queer discourse--which articulates itself as a turn against queer places, like gay bars--is super interesting. People online have chalked it up to a generational divide, especially attributing it to young people who came of drinking age (socially, less so than legally) during the Pandemic, but I'm not sure that's it.

Hibbet argues that there are a number of "carceral" strains (though she underscores that "carceral feminism" isn't a sub-category of feminism but is rather a way of naming that feminism already works) in contemporary mainstream discourse, particularly following the MeToo movement. Her analysis points to a really keen insight, I think, that the MeToo movement became reactionary (even though it didn't originate there) as mainstream feminist movements often do. She points out that governmentality and other kinds of performing self-surveillance are part of this [carceral] feminist aesthetic/politic.

HOWEVER I'm still really interested in the rapid emergence of temperance movements in queer spaces, which often OPPOSE themselves to mainstream feminist discourses. Just anecdotally, some of the most vocal people speaking against the gay bar are the ones performing a kind of queerness most openly--punk/goth looking people who are cultivating gender non-conformity. I've noticed a lot of overlaps with "accessibility discourses"--with the caveat that the people citing "the gay bar" as an inaccessible space often do so from a point of personal distaste.*

SO ANYWAY--has anyone written about this? It's not my field but I'm desperately curious. I run a lecture series and we get some complaints because it's hosted in the back room of a bar (the lecture is free, no one is required to buy a drink, and the bar has NA options). About 50% of the complaints are from christian colleagues with children, the other 50% are from young queer people who are mad that our series isn't somewhere "sub free."

Gay people in my computer, what gives?

*Perhaps this isn't fair on my part. In my VERY LIMITED experience, it seems like it's a lot of white trans people who are concurrently very vocal about neurodivergence who are at the forefront of this kind of temperance movement. This is curious to me--in my mind, punk, goth, and trans subcultures share a kind of anarchic "you do you" attitude with respect to alcohol and other substances, not a prohibitive [carceral?] approach. The overlap with accessibility discourse here that I've seen is that alcohol makes spaces inaccessible for people who don't drink--it comes to mean that these spaces are loud, smelly (this comes up surprisingly often, as someone with a lot of smell sensitivities!), and also bad for sober/recovering people. BUT ALSO none of the people saying this talk about themselves as being in recovery/sober--the sober queer is this discursive figure--this generation's "bi-curious straight girl at the gay bar making out for attention." Are these just people to get mad at, except queer discourse now is so sanitized that we can't get mad at people so instead we sublimate that urge into babying them?

[brafry]

Potentially my most controversial opinion to date:

While yes, goth is a music based subculture, and you must listen to goth music to be goth, I would also argue that there *is* a goth fashion/look.

Listening to goth music doesn't make your outfit suddenly goth.

THIS is goth. Big hair, flowy fabrics, white face paint, etc.

THIS is not goth. It's super cute, don't get me wrong, but it's not GOTH.

If you listen to goth music, by all means, call yourself goth all day. However, don't call your look goth if it isn't. You look silly.

And let me make myself clear: the outfits that people wear that aren't goth but claim to be are typically really cute! I love an edgy, e-girl, grunge aesthetic. It's just not goth.

For example, I believe in punk ideology. Punk is an ideology-based subculture, so technically, I'm punk. However, no one in their right mind would ever say I *look* punk, and they're right. AND THAT'S OKAY!!

There's no shame in listening to one kind of music and dressing another. There's even power in that. Let's just make sure words continue to mean something.

[daisyachain]

On the topic of steampunk, we might be far enough from the 2008-2012 mainstream emergence to look back on it as a completed cycle and try and diagnose why all that happened. You could say it was one of the last full English-language subcultures (integrated music, literature, aesthetic, ideology, public discussion) to have its moment before the post-social media proliferation of microcultures. Off the top of my head, you could see the last wave crest in the 2010s with: the Atlanta-based trap scene, the west-coat hipster agglomeration, and then intercontinental shut-in steampunk.

This is speaking from the location of shut-in central, so there are probs other mainstream waves that I'm missing, but, defining mainstream as something that might reach a resident of Nothing, Nowhere, you could argue that it's less than mainstream. Grime? Big in the UK, not so much across the Anglosphere. Soundcloud/mumble rap? Influential on a younger generation, doesn't quite have the same established cross-media cultural complex associated with it as trap....as far as I'm aware..........feel free to chime in on what I've missed.........

Back to steampunk, it didn't absorb into/influence the mainstream the way that trap and hipster scenes did. The key crossover has been the visual aesthetic associated with the movement rather than the music or ideology--your average person most likely saw something with gears in an online store without ever hearing the kind of associated corset cabaret or reading China Mieville (I also haven't read China Mieville). That seems to leave it as a subculture without a centre, a recurring visual motif still apparently going strong without any kind of emotional/philosophical backing for good or for bad. Still, it's not just gears, begging the question: how on earth can steampunk music exist, if it's not experimental noise?

The basis of steampunk is alternate history and alternate technology: could the tools around which 'modern' life is structured have been developed using a different underlying technology, and would that difference in technology have altered the way that the massive historical distortion of the Industrial Revolution played out? If steam technology (implemented ~1800) were the basis of transport development rather than the internal combustion engine (~1860), would the suite of technologies that followed have skipped out on important developments such as electrified appliances/digital computing/etc.?

There are works published through the 20th century that could fit with the idea, but the genre and terminology come up alongside cyberpunk--not after it, since The Anubis Gates (1983) predates the broader discussion of cyberpunk that followed Neuromancer (1984). The genre builds in anglo sci-fi/fantasy spaces through the '80s before having a mainstream breakthrough in the late 00s.

Steampunk looks back and melds Industrial/Victorian aesthetics with modern ideas right after the goth rock scene emerges. Hard to say whether steampunk was born out of goth aesthetics, but there is some interplay between the subcultures. Goth rock looks back to the romantic impulses of the 19th century, seeking a heightened emotional world that reacts to modern science and commerce the way that Romantics reacted to Enlightenment science and physiocracy/early capitalism.

On the other hand, steampunk seeks to place those modern ideas within the past, not rejecting the clarity of 'modern' ideas for the mystery of magic, but rather making 'modern' ideas seem more compelling by dressing them up in antiquated aesthetics. A car? Banal. A steam-powered car? Cool. A steam-powered car with a carriage body? Cooler. Steampunk renders the ordinary alien, making it appealing to romantic impulses without discarding enlightenment ideology*

*Heavy caveat.

To try and sum it up: steampunk is about how people/societies unfamiliar with 'modern' ways of living would react to and interact with modern technology. It's about how technology shapes patterns of movement, thought, and living, and how a mix-up in the order of technological development could throw off the social order that we're familiar with. Or, it can be about how the tendency for a society to organize in certain ways will manifest itself no matter what technology is available to use, and how familiar patterns might emerge with distinctly unfamiliar technology. Did the Industrial Revolution shape us*, or did we* shape the Industrial Revolution? Was the single defining era of social and technological development (NOT IN A GOOD WAY) set in stone, or was it an accident of chance?

The caveat is that the use of the Industrial Revolution as the focal point for steampunk stories means that most of them ignore, elide, or positively portray the imperialist war, torture, murder, chattel slavery, genocide, and theft carried out by European states to fund industrial developments (with some exceptions, e.g. Everfair). Most steampunk stories are written by upper/middle-class Anglophone US or British writers, imagining the implementation of alternate technologies within white/European/English society to create an alternate version of the author's personal sphere. Rather than looking at the integrated systems that enabled/drove technological development, steampunk has a habit of considering technological discovery as pure chance and then going from there.

An offshoot/parallel evolution of Anglosphere steampunk is Japanese steampunk, which I don't have as much experience with. Taking a surface-level look with Miyazaki and Anno, steampunk aesthetics come out in stories where destructive industry is encroaching on pre-industrial areas. These works are less focused on the consequences of different technologies or different paths of development so much as they are focused on the impact of technological development in general--industrialization is industrialization, whether by steam, gasoline, genetic engineering, or anything else. Rather than standing in for an alternate historical path, steampunk creations are used to more clearly mark the line between 'old' and 'modern', isolation and integration, pre-Perry and post-.

Side note: I'd classify dieselpunk/biopunk/dungeonpunk as steampunk, while cyberpunk stays separate. Cyberpunk asks: how will our current society shape the implementation of future technologies (i.e. if space ships and time travel are invented in a highly stratified, monopolistic commercial society, would they ever be used for good)? Steampunk+ asks: how would our current society have come about with different technologies? One takes the present as given and looks forward, the other looks backward and tries to alter or erase the present.

Now that that's out of the way: what are the actual artifacts of steampunk that we have? Why are they steampunk?

The word 'steampunk' comes about to describe literature, but it's steampunk construction projects that are the proof of concept for this movement. They show what could have been accomplished by chance with technology available in the time preceding 'modern' developments. More importantly, they're physical hobbies with a defined, challenging-but-not-impossible endpoint and they're a fun thing to do that you can show off to your friends. Unlike some subcultures where you must 'be', steampunk is something you can 'do.' I'd bet that it's the building aspect of the subculture that has kept it alive this long, when the aesthetic/ideological part of the subculture can come into/fall out of fashion. People get into baking or woodworking in a much longer-term and fulfilling way than they get into black leather. For the most part.

Steampunk literature, then, is a harder part of the movement to pin down. Earlier works like The Anubis Gate and The Difference Engine are more on the social scifi/speculative fiction side of things while later (kids') books like the Alexander Pryor series/Leviathan/hell, even RQG use the technology to facilitate old-fashioned rip-roaring adventure. There is a pretty even split between steampunk books that lean into the alternate history/specfic part of the genre and books that use the concept to replicate the aesthetics of pulp without seeming outdated. I say confidently. The thorny questions of tech and society that drove early steampunk die off in favour of looking cool, leaving a relatively slim canon. For all its flaws, there remains a consistent stream of specfic cyberpunk coming out through the 21st century in a way that doesn't happen with steampunk.

Steampunk fashion is pretty self-explanatory: it takes the stripped-down pre-injection-moulding look of early machinery and applies it to everything, with a healthy injection of bronze spray paint. The griminess of faded dyes, coal smoke, or ink illustrations is applied over a fairly colourful moment in fashion history in a sort of offshot of the Victorian goth movement. Not much to say here apart from corsets, gears, and goggles, fashion is fashion.

Last thing, music. Where the lit/aesthetic starts in the 1980s, the music develops more into the late 90s and 00s. Steampunk-associated music tends to use the cello, upright bass, harpsichord, violin, and other 'classical' or 'classy' instruments; tends to have operetta-type vocals (clean, enunciated, sung spoken-word), tends to have a straightforward 4/4 rhythm coming out of goth rock. By using acoustic instruments and avoiding guitar (acoustic or electric) and drums, it follows the same alt-history philosophy where post-80s (big, glitzy, synthy) songwriting is implemented with non-pop instruments.

In contrast to the regressive tendencies of steampunk lit, steampunk music has a female presence and draws from third-wave feminist readings of Victorian social mores. Associated artists like Emilie Autumn try to apply modern conceptions of liberation to characters in their lyrics who chafe against the strictures of the steampunk era. Alternately, bands like Steam Powered Giraffe or Whatever The Hell That Obscure Guy Was That Sheetghosting Mentioned (I Forget) use steampunk contraptions in their stage shows, integrating the technological rather than ideological steampunk into their music.

So: (anglophone) steampunk has a philosophy of 'what if?' set out mostly by 1980s sci-fi, an aesthetic that develops in conversation with the new romantics/goth scene, a crafting subculture that is mostly disconnected from the ideology of steampunk due to functioning as a fun hobby, and a lit scene that doesn't really get off the ground due to a lack of willingness by majority-white authors to engage with the foundations of our world. Because you can't go too far into 19th century alt history without running into imperialism and slavery, the genre in general has turned away from substance and towards style. The thread that connects the various iterations/expressions of steampunk is the desire to recreate a familiar song/society/contraption with an unfamiliar technology, a wish to re-evaluate the current/accepted/modern by pulling it apart and recreating it from its constituent bits, but mostly a desire to dress up cool and imagine if you were a guy in a top hat who made eight hundred thousand pound sterling from your father's cousin's exploitation of people in an unimaginably cruel suffering machine

[puppipound]

Gonna preface this with: tumblr discourse isn't real and can't hurt you...

Here's some two-cents on the stupid goth/punk as a music-based subculture discourse coming from someone who's clocked about a decade in a DIY scene, along with some info for those actually genuinely interested in pursuing a relationship with your local scene rather than arguing about things you have no knowledge of online. Your local scene is always looking for new people!

I'm not presenting myself as an expert here but I'm pretty knowledgeable due to my time involved. Under the cut I've got a rundown on how easy it is to break into your local scene instead of arguing online.

THE REALITY IS:

Preface: I don't want to discourage people and this isn't gatekeeping! Join your scene! A lot of these scenes are actually dying due to commodification and gentrification and they're always looking for new people! I have pals in hardcore bands who actually LOVE seeing tiktok kids at shows because there's a new generation of people interested!

One thing you'll discover if you become involved in your local scene is that it's most often entirely DIY based! Everyone is welcome and venues go out of their way to be accessible to everyone, including disabled folks, people of colour and queer people, so if you've spent time at even one show, you'd know "gatekeeping" isn't about keeping things pure, it's because we're trying to keep brands and instagoths/punks from gentrifying long-standing communities dedicated to the arts! What newbies and dweebs on here should understand is that going to shows, community-building and meeting like-minded people is what goth and punk are about. Not spending exorbitant amounts of money on clothes to look like you participate. Regardless of the community's political alignment (no, punk and goth are not one monolithic political opinion and if you got off the internet you'd figure that out pretty quick), the music is what brings people together, and often allows outcasts to find a community that brands simply cannot replicate.

The answer is: if you want to be a goth or a punk you have to listen to goth or punk music. This doesn't mean you can't listen to other things; you don't even have to dress the part at all to be in the scene! My partner plays in local goth bands and wears jeans and tees and that's about it. Because goth and punk are and have always been music-based, they require you to be involved in the music, and simply put, allowing people to believe it's an "aesthetic" gives way for brands to commodify an entire community. It jeopardizes the sincerity of art! And that sucks ass!

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

If you're curious but don't know where to begin: your best friends for community-building, DIY and meeting people are your local thrifts, all ages and adult venues, queer clubs, zine-making nights, art shows, indie movie theatres, bookstores, record stores, Etsy, military surplus, vintage stores and I can't stress this enough, Instagram small businesses. Personally, my battle jacket is made up of patches I bought and also made myself, alcohol paint I got from the local art store, safety pins from the sewing store, chains from broken old belts and jewelry, studs from a small business, pins from small businesses and friends and the jacket itself was thrifted. My first battle vest I made when I was 15 was thrifted and almost all of my patches were hand-painted!

The best places to find shows are social media, posters on the street and at record stores, and asking around! There's a reason people you'll hear the term 'ask a punk' about the location of DIY venues; meet some people in the scene and most of them will be open to helping out. My first few shows I went to as a teenager I found on Facebook and through older friends.

This isn't to glorify scenes, they have their own independent issues varying city-to-city, but I promise you you will always find someone who's willing to help you out. What a real gatekeeper looks like is someone who's unwilling to give you a chance because of your identity, whether that be age, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation etc.

THE MUSIC

As I said, people are here first and foremost because of the love of the music. Here's some YT playlists I've put together if you'd like to explore what goth and punk actually are (it's literally not an aesthetic)! Some of this can be found on Spotify, and pretty much always on record/tape/CD!

(Thought I'd mention that maybe a couple of these bands have controversial politics; I do not condone it but regardless of politics they're critical to the history)

PS - I'm not a genre purist, sue me. These playlists include a lot of bands who might not fall under the traditional goth category, just songs that are critical to the subculture.

GOTH (including deathrockers, proto-goth, rivetheads, trad goths, new-wavers, post-punks, mod goths and more)

PROTO-GOTH - music important to the evolution of what became goth in the very late 70s as we know it! Starting with 30s delta blues up to 1980!

EARLY GOTH - the earliest days of goth, mostly focusing on late 70s post-punk, deathrock, new wave and early industrial through to the mid-ish 80s, some people call it proto-goth but I personally consider it first wave (it's all labels anyway!)

GOTH NINETIES - the 90s had a resurgence of goth subculture through industrial, industrial metal and a continuation of deathrock. Other genres begin to find an interest in darker material and take influence from goth bands.

MOD GOTH - the 00s to the present! This is super, super broad and should have something for everyone. There's a lot of modern music with goth influences.

I'm continuing to add to these playlists as I've made them for this post! Check back later and there'll be more.

PUNK (including hardcore punks, no-wavers, trad punks, proto-punks, dispunks and more)

For this I'm going to give you my personal punk playlist - it's such a broad genre with a million subgenres that I can't really cover it all in one post! The playlist is biased as I have my personal faves (including digihardcore, post-hardcore, skramz, no wave, electropunk, d-beat, noise rock and NYC '77). If you have questions about it DM me!

I REALLY hope this means something to someone, because I promise you there's places IRL where you don't have to argue about what makes you a fashion punk or not! If you're interested in the scene, start with the music and then go touch grass. It's music-based first and foremost; never mind the Dolls Kill bullshit.

[ravensvirginity]

The way people think Raven being goth or German is essential to her character as if it wasn’t barely mentioned and she never even was goth before the tv show (and goth is a music based genre! Not a white girl wearing a black shirt and skirt)

RAVEN IS NOT GERMAN is this a thing people are saying now??? Raven is not German. She has never been German. Arella is certainly meant to be canonically white but she's never given any specific ethnicity.

(Raven was actually German in Bombshells which is a very non canon Elseworlds but she was a German Jew during the Holocaust specifically. I think Raven being Jewish through her mom's side could be cool but I don't think Bombshells did a great job of it it was just kind of weird. Anyway, this has no bearing on canon Raven, who as I said, is not German.)

Yeah, I think you could even argue that she wasn't really even goth in the TV show. Like she was designed to appeal to the goth aesthetic that was popular in 2003 and she's certainly a dark and gloomy character but she never wears any actual goth style clothing (because she only ever wears her superhero outfit) and doesn't listen to goth music. I could accept Raven being goth if they actually researched a subculture that makes sense for Raven's personality and gave her a nice design more in line with her original, just in a goth outfit. I don't think anyone really likes her current generic Tiktok alt look.

[shirtshinedplum]

For Your Beauty

This project was made for EA020 Nature, Culture, Society. We had two weeks from the day it was assigned to the showcase. The assignment was to create an art piece related to an environmental topic, so just incredibly broad. Everybody made something super unique and very cool. I really enjoyed seeing all their work.

Brainstorming ↓

The professor was encouraging, though not requiring, us to engage with the idea of "making the invisible visible." I was also thinking a lot about purity culture and the idea of purity in environmentalism. We had read an excerpt from Alexis Shotwell's book Against Purity where she argues that "purity" is impossible to achieve and dangerous to attempt. "Purity is never made simple. Aspirations to purity, are…misleading ad copy on one level and secret carcinogens as a cell boundary-crossing material reality on another." There is not even such thing as real purity, "there is no primordial state we might wish to get back to, no Eden we have desecrated, no pretoxic body we might uncover..."

Refining the Idea ↓

I came to the idea of sewing a sort of cottagecore dress and attempting to subvert the ideals of purity that exist within that subculture and reveal the hypocrisy present in the way these people present themselves.

Before I talk about cottagecore, I want to say that I did not really go deep into the subculture. I had been exposed to it online before and knew a bit about it and then did some surface level research focused around the look it presents, but I don’t know the nuances of this community and perhaps that is reflected in my analysis of it.

But anyway— Cottagecore is an aesthetic that idealizes rural life. I feel it draws especially from late 19th-century European pastoral life, but it pulls inspiration from multiple places and periods and is not trying to authentically recreate any past style. The aesthetic promotes the ideal of living simply, disconnecting from the internet, being self-sufficient, baking bread, and having traditional feminine and creative hobbies such as embroidery, pottery, painting, baking, etc.

Cottagecore seems to intersect with environmentalist messages, though believe it to be a coincidental byproduct of their want to return to simpler times as opposed to a deliberate want to live or promote a sustainable lifestyle (I'm sure there are people who are interested both in environmentalism and cottagecore and perhaps even picked up on the aesthetic for those environmental reasons, but I presume them to be in an extreme minority). Traditional rural living is more eco-friendly than modern city life: homemade goods, traditional crafts, growing your own food, reducing reliance on consumerism. Consumerism... that's what I'm especially interested when it comes to the cottagecore aesthetic. They idealize a time before rampant consumerism, a time before the internet, a slower, simpler time, just sitting down and reading a book or connecting with your environment. I see a lot of pictures of women collecting wildflowers, picking fruit from their gardens, going on picnics in the rolling countryside. But at the same time, this aesthetic originally gained and has maintained popularity on TikTok. An app that perhaps stands as the antithesis to that type of lifestyle. TikTok is fast-paced and trendy, obsessed with constant engagement and constant consumption. Also ads everywhere! Promoted videos, sponsorships, TikTok shop, undisclosed ads, sometimes it feels like everyone is trying to sell you something.

Look, I like the cottagecore aesthetic. I think it's super cute and, in the current landscape, I can't help but idealize that sort of pastoral living. But engaging in this trend isn't an escape from consumerism. It's driven by consumerism.

Cottagecore is an aesthetic. At its very core, it's about commodification and surface-level adoption. By engaging with it, you are feeding into an industry that exists to shape consumer desires and drive sales. So most people who are interested in this sort of aesthetic aren't really attempting to extricate themselves from our highly consumeristic culture, quite the contrary, they are purchasing products that align only with the image of living a life free from corporate overlords and late-stage capitalism.

Anyway, I've gotten away from the point a little bit. What I was focusing on in this project was the fashion industry. We all know how much fast fashion is ruining the planet and how incredibly exploitative it is.

Here is my extremely quick and condensed summary of ethical problems in the fashion and textile industries:

The fashion and textile industries are major contributors to pollution, resource depletion, and labor exploitation. Industrial monocropping and irrigation deplete soils of nutrients and heavy use of pesticides impacts the quality of the soil and the workers who apply it. Pesticide runoff contaminates water supplies and thus the health of humans, animals, and plants in the area. Even stuff that isn't immediately harmful or toxic accumulates in bodies and magnifies up the food chain. Not to mention just the sheer amount of water that cotton production requires.

Additionally, most fashion brands rely on cheap labor, child labor, and even slave labor in dangerous working conditions particularly in developing countries. These practices violate basic human rights and perpetuate cycles of poverty and exploitation in vulnerable communities.

Here are some links to get you started on further reading if you're interested: Sweatshop Facts — The World Counts; Modern slavery is on the rise. Fashion’s role remains steady — Vogue Business; Fast fashion: an industry built on exploitation — Collective Fashion Justice; The impact of textile production and waste on the environment (infographics) — European Parliament; Tons of water used in cotton production — The World Counts

All of this exploitation of people and Earth's resources contradicts the values of simplicity, authenticity, and connection to nature that cottagecore seems to represent. Perhaps cottagecore was born out of a genuine love and interest in the simple, the homemade, the vintage, and the sustainable, but it has fully been co-opted by commercial interests. Brands have capitalized on its appeal by pumping out mass-produced cottagecore-inspired goods (especially clothing) that not only do not align with those values but fully spit in their face. When purchasing this aesthetic, you are purchasing the idea that you believe in its 'core values.' You are purchasing the illusion of a connection to nature and authenticity while directly supporting practices that undermine those very values.

(I do feel it necessary to point out that there are people that exist who fall into the cottagecore aesthetic but do not engage in the capitalist side of it. However, they are by far not the majority. Like it or not, the aesthetic has been taken over by corporate interest and consumeristic behavior.)

Designing ↓

Cottagecore clothing is very old-world inspired. Milkmaid dresses, prairie dresses, ruffles, light colors, florals, that sort of arena. Because of the time constraint, I decided to incorporate a dress I had already made. A few summers ago I made a milkmaid dress (pattern: Mood Fabrics Anthea Milkmaid Dress). It's like the second real sewing project I did so the construction is kinda wonky, but it has the right sort of top for the look I'm going for, and with my other classwork, I didn't think I'd have time to sew a new top for this project.

For the skirt, I knew I wanted it to be floor length and was thinking sort of like a prairie dress skirt. I ended up going with another Mood pattern (The Heather Dress) though I really could have drafted it myself and I altered it so much anyway.

Going into this stage I knew I wanted the skirt to tell a story about its production. I was thinking sort of a story map style narrative wrapping around the skirt. I was inspired by story tapestries and children's storybook styles.

You can see more of my thought process and ideas below, but this idea had to be scrapped due to the time limit. There was just no way that I was going to be able to design and execute this whole story map idea in just a few days.

I pivoted to a different idea that you can see started to form on those pages. The idea of having the hem appear to have been dragged through mud or blood.

I really wanted to go with the look of having the hem soaked in blood representing the hidden cost behind beautiful garments. The blood of the human beings who work the cotton fields, who sew your clothes, who toil in the hazardous conditions under which our clothes are produced. A visceral reminder of the very real human suffering that produces innocent-looking clothing.

Now that I have made that aspect of the design the entire thing, I felt I needed to expand it a bit. I wanted hands grasping at you as if begging for help. The desperation and anguish felt by workers subjected to abysmal treatment in their work. Blooded hem and haunting images would contrast the pristine and innocent look of the bodice and upper skirt. The stark juxtaposition between our two positions. Their desperation against our indifference. You could extend a helping hand but choose not to, turning a blind eye to their suffering while enjoying the fruits of their exploitation.

Sewing ↓

I went to thrift stores looking for fabric. Reusing fabric from something else supports the message of the piece, but really my main motivation was that I'm cheap. I was looking for a light-colored fabric that matched the tone and weight of the dress I was using for the bodice. Having to match the bodice made the search more difficult, but luckily I was able to find something that works. For $2.99 I got a slightly stained king top sheet. The color goes surprisingly well with the bodice's shade of green, I think this is the best result I could have hoped for given the parameters.

I used my school's makerspace to sew. The machines are kind of crappy, I had quite a few issues with them which caused it to take longer than I could have done on my machine at home, but the job got done and honestly I'm just glad that I have access to a machine out here at all. The thing I will complain about though is the chalk. Like on one hand, thank you for putting chalk in the sewing makerspace. On the other hand, this room was not stocked by somebody who sews. They have blackboard chalk not tailor's chalk which is totally fine except that they only have colored chalk! I didn't look it up beforehand (which maybe is my fault but also I was using supplies in a sewing room) and it stained my fabric. I thought it would come out in the wash, but no. I don't have anything for laundry here besides detergent and baking soda, so when I go home I'll treat it properly and hopefully that will help.

I needed to lengthen the skirt pattern so it went all the way to the floor and then totally forgot until I had marked and was about to cut the fabric. Whoops. And then I didn't actually measure how much to lengthen it by and just guesstimated it. The main part of the skirt should have been longer and then the bottom panel much shorter. The entire skirt ended up about two inches too long. It drags on the floor much more than I would like it to. I could bring up the hem but I hate hemming skirts so much that I've just let it be.

Another thing about the pattern is that it wants you to gather SO MUCH. From the pictures, I did not anticipate the amount of gathering. It's such a pain, and honestly, I think it looks better with the amount I ended up doing instead of using all of the fabric. The problem is that I didn't realize what was going on until I was too far into the process. It would have been such a pain and cost me precious time to cut the fabric and rework it so there was the 'right' amount of gathering and the panel seams hit at the right place. So the placement of those seams is super wonky. I hoped that in the waves of the skirt they wouldn't be noticeable unless you were looking, but turns out that is not the case. Also this meant that there was all of that extra fabric now in the skirt's back panels. In order to install a zipper, I would have to cut those. But I'd have to cut them exactly the right amount and at the right angle. The skirt was taking much longer than I had planned to sew and at this point, there were only a few days before it was due. I decided screw all that tedious work, I've already done so much of it, I'll just use buttons and let the extra fabric (hopefully) cover up the slit in the skirt in a natural way.

I ran into a second problem with the gathering as well but in the opposite direction. The bottom panel is supposed to be as gathered as the top one but it's just so much fabric. I did technically have enough fabric to have 3 panels the size the pattern called for, but I hate hemming and I had the finished edges of the bedsheet right there and I was so frustrated with sewing at this point so I just cut one panel down the length of it. It turned out to be not enough fabric to gather almost at all. If I didn't have a deadline with this project, the gathering does mean enough to me that I think I would have spent the time to cut another panel and hem the whole thing, but unfortunately, that was not the scenario I was in so I just left it how it was. It doesn't look bad the way it is, I just think the shape of the skirt would have been a little bit better. Another factor to consider though is how that would impact the design on the skirt. I was a little worried about the amount of gathering impacting how well the design translated. So I guess it's good for me that I never had to decide how much gathering I wanted for the shape versus how much I could get away with and the design still be readable.

And then with the buttons!! The makerspace did surprisingly have a buttonhole AND button foot, but for some reason the buttonhole foot didn't really work. I've made them before on my machine at home and I watched a tutorial to make sure I wasn't forgetting something, I have no idea why it didn't work. I never took a picture of the failed attempts, but they were just not buttonholes. Instead, I just made them with a series of zigzag stitches. I mean, that's what the machine is doing with the buttonhole stitch anyway, what I did is just a little bit jankier.

Mudding ↓

I finished sewing the dress two days before the assignment was due which left me only one day to translate the design. I'm really glad I simplified it as much as I did and I still think it does a good job of getting the core message across.

Going into the final day I had to work on this, I was still fully planning on painting it. The original plan was for the design to be in 'blood' not mud. The problem is I don't own any paint and wasn't interested in spending any more money on this assignment. Obviously I first looked in the makerspace, but for some reason they don't have any paint?? I went to a few other spaces I thought might have some I could use but came up empty-handed. So I moved on to plan B. Actually, mud was my mother's idea. She suggested it one time when I was talking to her back in the brainstorming phase. It totally works. Mud is freely and widely available and still reads as very similar to the blood idea, only less shocking. So after dinner (yes, I spent all day searching for paint and trying to come up with an alternative without resorting to dirt), I went out in the pouring rain to some fields behind my college to collect dirt.

One important thing I had forgotten about the dirt around here is how sandy it is. The dirt where I grew up was pretty clay-y, that's what I'm used to, and I had just forgotten that dirt around here isn't like that. It's not like the sandy dirt was any kind of deal-breaker or anything, I just thought (1) rubbing it into the fabric will damage the fibers more than a dirt with more clay content and (2) it's probably gonna leave more little rocks and pieces of sand in it's wake.

But it was fine and also like 9 o'clock the night before it was due so I didn't dwell on it. Problem though, it's dark and raining outside, where am I going to do the dirty work? The answer: just in my dorm. My room had dirt and grit everywhere for like a week afterward.

Applying the mud was actually very easy. I first drew the design on the skirt with a light-colored washable marker and then made a mud slurry and really just slopped it on. On the edges and finer areas, I used a popsicle stick to get a harsher line. I also attempted a bit of an ombre effect going up. It was inconsistent, but I stand by the idea.

I draped my skirt over my floor lamp for this, which was a great idea if I do say so myself. The whole process from when I got home with the dirt to when I finished the skirt was maybe four hours and this was certainly the part I enjoyed the most.

Final Thoughts ↓

In the end, it actually turned out kinda okay. You can see in the pictures that I decided to button it at the front side instead of in the back like how it was originally supposed to be zippered. This means that one of the panel seams is right there in front, so not a fan of that. But overall, I'm happy with it. I took these pictures 6 weeks after I finished it and was pleased with how well the mud lasted. I was worried that because it was so sandy, it wouldn't stick as well to the fabric. It did come off some, as you can see, and if it was something I had worn or otherwise moved around more, it would have been a bigger deal, but as it was, I actually liked the way the dirt faded.

If you care, I got a 91% on the assignment, but it was cos my artist statement sucked not because of my actual piece.

....well, goodbye

February 2024

[mightyflamethrower]

America has gone completely nucking futz.

In the latest edition of UCLA’s queer student magazine, featuring so-called “Freaks,” students at the prestigious university cry for the acceptance of furries  and other fringe sexual preferences and identities into the larger LGBTQ movement.

The magazine, which can be read in its entirety online, begins with OutWrite magazine’s editor-in-chief claiming classmates in high school would openly bully a trans student as a “freak and a monster.” This edition of the queer student magazine is fashioned as a “love letter to the freaks: the queers, cringelords, furries, kinksters, and monsterf***ers alike,” the editor, Rainer Lee, writes. 

“Explore with us what it means to be human and beyond,” Lee writes. “Come be a freak.” 

In one essay titled, “For The Love of the Furries,” the author writes that he is “advocating for furries.” 

“The way anti-furry stigma manifests is strikingly similar to past and present sexually-motivated constructions of queerness as an illness and a cause of moral panic,” the student writes, adding that it’s a “bigoted generalization” to say being a furry is a fetish.

The OutWrite magazine is copyrighted by the Associated Students of UCLA’s Communications Board, the student government of UCLA, and is another example of its embrace of radical liberal ideology. First-year students at the university were recently encouraged to listen to the “Idigenae” podcast that discusses people identifying as “two-spirit” and “womxn.” The university has also come under fire for its medical school infusing diversity, equity, and inclusion into the curriculum, hosting a mandatory “Structural Racism and Health Equity” course where students read about wars of indigenous resistance including a massacre of white people by Native Americans to “imagine what liberation could look like.”

Another article in the OutWrite magazine argues that BDSM kinkiness — the common acronym for  bondage, discipline, dominance and submission — should be included in the larger LGBTQ+ movement. It argues that the pushback regarding exposing children to inappropriate material “reinforces the stigma of kinky people as dangerous deviants.”

“What difference does it make to see someone wearing a collar at Pride or see a parade float full of dominatrixes? The student writes. “The average viewer might take only a slight note of it, but it would make a world of difference to those involved in the kink community and those who want to be.”

The magazine includes a page that features a student who says he started “dressing like a freak to gain agency over the reason why the conservative Christrians I grew up with hated me.” Other students disclose suicidal thoughts that they attribute to the failure of society to accept them, a rejection that they say they are now choosing to embrace. 

One writer, a self-described immigrant person of color whose actual gender is unclear based on the writing, complains that the United States he or she arrived in reinforces “capitalistic, heteronormative patriarchal circumstances” and pushed him or her to embrace “Void Punk,” a “subculture that refutes normative society’s idea of what it means to be human and instead celebrates the idea of not being human.”

The author states that “Void Punk” was created for “marginalized communities” who decide that they “don’t need to feel human.”

“Created for marginalized communities who often face dehumanization by an oppressive, normative society, it is commonly expressed through aesthetics of the inhuman,” the author writes. “The rhetoric surrounding humanity is largely decided by oppressive forces who find it convenient to decide who gets to be human and who does not. Dehumanization is a familiar instrument of colonization and conquest, a forced cognitive dissonance that allows the oppressor to justify violence.”

“I don’t feel human, and I don’t need to feel human,” the author concluded. “Instead, of having the label of humanity shoved onto me, I will choose to be with other people and care for them by not virtue of the ideal of humanity but for the sake of shared experience and care for the living.”

Recent polling shows that nearly one out of every three people in Gen-Z identify as “LGBTQ,” a massive spike from previous generations. And while much of the magazine is devoted to the defense of “kink” in this community, the magazine paints a depressing picture of the mental state of many of its members. 

A Virginia school district also recently put a BDSM-supporting sex therapist in charge of deciding if books parents are complaining about are inappropriate for children, the Daily Wire previously reported

Though this embrace of radical gender ideology has become commonplace on college campuses, it has broken through to the highest levels of government. The Biden administration raised eyebrows when it hired a transgender-identifying cross-dressing man who once taught a spanking seminar at a Los Angeles kink conference, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The man, Sam Brinton, was fired after he was exposed for stealing multiple women’s clothing from airports. 

[libertineangel]

Hi! I just saw your reblog on the post about being yourself and aesthetics, and I am really curious about how you define "being yourself" /gen

Because when I "wasn't caring about what others thought" I wasn't putting as much effort into taking care of myself [washing hair, matching clothes, chicken-scratch handwriting] but when I started picking out things and trying to improve myself I genuinely felt alot better- but it wasn't who I was naturally.

I'm just curious if you mean being yourself as doing what comes naturally- or doing what makes you happy- for some people that may be aesthetic-izing[?] their life.

This isn't meant to be rude- sorry if it came off that way! Don't feel obligated to answer as well

It doesn't come off as rude at all, you have nothing to worry about!

Ultimately I think "being yourself" is inherently something only you can define - philosophers have argued over different concepts of the self for millennia, but the bottom line is that no one else can tell you who you are so it's up to you to decide what that means, whether you define it as what feels most natural or what you find most beneficial to your life is entirely your choice and no one else's.

The issue I was describing in that reblog is the tendency of modern social media (particularly TikTok, it must be said) to categorise and define forms of self-expression into clear-cut "aesthetics" with a whole load of arbitrary and ultimately hollow associations attached, all of which trend in and out of fashion and are expected to be picked up and discarded in accordance with whatever's popular at the time. Under that conception of aesthetic, modes of dress and particular interests are no longer just things people have but indicators of membership of a certain circle, symbols demonstrating an archetype to an audience, and therein lies the problem because they only hold meaning ascribed by the audience beholding them and the ideas fall apart without them.

Subculture worked because the clothes and such were indicative of music taste, which in turn often indicated to some degree personality and outlook on the world, all things that would persist in a vacuum without anyone to perceive them, but internet aesthetic culture reflects nothing but the aesthetic accounts whence they came, thereby rendering it a means of expression solely based in the shared perceptions of others and thus inherently not true to any conception of self.

[brehaaorgana]

Not necessarily. I think this is the problem with how generally people use the term "aesthetics," because like...yes, people can engage with and take inspiration from "aesthetics" (i.e. styles) without buying into specific beliefs. but also lots of "aesthetics" are fundamentally about an ideology and engaged with and reacted to as part of that ideology. Aesthetic doesn't blanketly mean subculture or style.

Art movement, as a term, inherently implies shared philosophical or artistic aims/goals among a group. And those philosophical goals can absolutely be specific political ideologies, among other things. Art movements usually have recognizable and defined aesthetic style qualities, but not all aesthetics are associated with an art movement. Some of those things are so fundamental to the style that removing them makes them....not really that aesthetic anymore.

So for example:

Both cottagecore and socialist realism revel in the image of idealized pastoralism, but the difference is that socialist realism has a purposeful political motivation in how and why it focuses on the peasant and the pastoral.

Cottagecore "aesthetic" is just generic pastoralism and could be of any political alignment (although it has some unavoidable social influences). But it's also generic enough visually that loads of disparate styles could fall under "cottage core."

By contrast, socialist realism has a much more defined visual look, and is inherently uh, well, socialist. If you remove socialism/communism from socialist-realism you no longer have socialist realism. You might have pastoralism, or social realism (which is different), or realism, or cottage core. But the political stance informs and defines the aesthetic of the movement. Parodying it is still engagement with the politics for what it is. Stripping it entirely makes it something else.

The vogue cottagecore photoshoot might look sort of in the same genre as the socialist realism posters, but it lacks the politics and thus also stylistically appears different. Lacking the politics also means it lacks the glorification of labor, the hearty peasants with big muscles, visible communal behaviors/community, pride/joy/satisfaction, and an emphasis on strength, production, and the state.

even if the vogue model was a painting, the result would still look somewhat misplaced next to socialist realism art featuring pastoral scenes. And even more misplaced next to any other socialist realist art:

Absolutely nothing in common, but both could be categorized by an aesthetic style. (Another example: Futurism is impossible to divorce from the rise of Italian fascism, misogyny, & nationalism. Like...the movement had a defining manifesto that talked about war being a "hygiene" of the world. Its aesthetic sensibilities aligned with their stated goals of glorifying war and violence.)

I do agree that subcultures develop across political spectrums and usually have associated aesthetics often by virtue of shared interests, creations, or necessary tools used by the subculture. There are some murky spots though, that I feel like...are more defined by shared politics or philosophy.

Like Rastafarianism has an associated aesthetic, it is a social movement, culture, and also a new religion movement.

...and yes, lots of people utilize the Rasta aesthetic and Reggae music, but divorce it from its politics, philosophies, and culture or subculture. I'd argue that Rastafarianism still fundamentally has all those things, though. What you get when you strip that all away but keep the visual signifiers is, in this case, cultural appropriation.

The "trustafarian" or the "impostafarian."

By contrast, (often youth) cultures of punks, goths, skaters, greasers, etc — don't have the same fundamental unifying philosophical/ideological basis. They might be counter-culture, but "culture" isn't directly synonymous with political belief. (Which to OP's point, is why some conservatives go hogwild for bands that politically hate them.)

Then there are like, examples which are somewhere in between these two examples. Like Pachucos had a very distinct aesthetic, they were a youth counter-cultural subculture, and their "politics" (insofar as they had shared politics) weren't just about pushing back against the general adult establishment. Instead their flamboyance, style, and unique cultural blending were a) part of the defining of the overall Chicano identity as one of blending, and b) intentionally resisting Anglo-American cultural hegemony and norms by asserting their own cultural/ethnic pride. Pachucos especially represented a larger newly forming identity (Chicano) that wasn't purely Mexican because it was too "American", but also wasn't Anglo-American either.

Pachuco aesthetics like the zoot suit wouldn't tell us if someone would be conservative or liberal, but it did get pushed further into being a political statement after the zoot suit riots. So it's like...somewhere in between. Was it an aesthetic only defined by agreed upon politics? No. But was it internally and externally perceived as making an identity statement via culture and dress that was inherently political in the face of racism? Yeah.

You get a spectrum of aesthetic reliance on politics. Some aesthetics are part of a movement or subculture which absolutely is reliant on a specific political, ideological, or philosophical belief, and removing that belief would be changing its visual qualities in some fundamental way. That's usually also cultural appropriation. That belief might not be specifically right or left wing. Other aesthetics associated with subcultures are less integrated with political or philosophical beliefs, and yeah, that does include "punk rock."

aesthetics lack any fundamental political stance; any aesthetic-based subculture can harbor both leftwing and rightwing sentiments. from punk to cottagecore, fashion and music and art are just aesthetics, and will be enjoyed by anyone of any belief, regardless of how progressive you think the community should be

[mandeepbainss]

Lecture 2: Influences on fashion trends 

There are four main things that influence fashion trends: Global issues, Subcultures and style tribes, Celebrity power and social media.

In todays world the three main global issues that impact fashion trends are the pandemic, the environmental world crisis and global politics. Over the course of the pandemic we saw an increase in demand for more comfortable clothes as people were at home and their needs had changed. After the pandemic this want for comfortable clothing didn't disapear however people began wanting a more elevated version of it as they were beginning to be let outside again which has led to streetwear becoming the in thing. The current cost of living crisis people are also turning to layering and warmer clothes as practicality of garments begins to become more important. Our lifestyles post-pandemic are being redrawn in radical ways, and consumers are taking ruthless reassessments of their wardrobe needs. Team this with financial insecurity, and reasons to buy are becoming more narrow – and more focused on an item’s use (WGSN White Paper 2020) An example of this is the rising popularity of the ugg boot. Having not been deemed stylish since the early 2000's they're making a return for their comfortability and warmth and the younger generation now seeing them as stylish again.

Subcultures arise from groups of people creating a bond over a shared interest. Subcultures often express their identity through the way in which they dress. An example of this would be the rise of the punk culture in the 70's. It was driven by young peoples anti establishment views and want to stand apart as individuals. The popularity of punk rock music only further fulled this aesthetic of torn up clothes and manipulated fabrics to create a statement. The Vivianne Westwood god save the queen t shirt is an iconic garment from this era where people used their fashion to create a statement.

During this lecture we were tasked with answering the following questions based on a given subculture the subculture I was tasked to research was goth.

. Did this subculture’s fashion style ever disappear from our      shelves?

No it never completely disappeared as people picked aspects of the goth aesthetic that they liked an incorporated it into their everyday style in a more toned down manner.

2. Is this subculture's style still part of youth culture today?

Not currently on a widespread scale however it has evolved and adapted into different things. For example in 2020 we saw the rise of the e-girl/ e-boy aesthetic that was derived from goth culture just not on such an extreme scale.

3. Explain how the subculture’s style has changed and evolved   over the years

Over the years the goth subculture has been watered down to be less extreme with many aspects still being considered cool and trendy but in a more modern way. For example chunky shoes and platform shoes have made a return and in the makeup space dark smokey eyeliner has began gaining more popularity.

In todays world we could argue that social media plays the largest role in what influences trends. The widespread movement to raise awareness about the climate crisis has led to people feeling the need to be more sustainable especially with their clothes as the fashion industry creates approximately 92 million tonnes of waste each year. Sustainability is defined as a societal goal that broadly relates to the ability of people to safely co-exist on Earth over a long time. This has lead to an increase in thrift shopping and vintage shopping which has intern lead to the revival of the y2k aesthetic as those are the clothes that people were giving away to charity shops that are now being rediscovered by the youth that are actively trying to reuse and recycle their clothes. The next 10 years will see the resale market grow much faster than traditional retail with secondhand clothing expected to be twice the size of fast fashion by the year 2030. In 2020, new users of Depop increased by 163% from the previous year, with a 200% growth in traffic and a 300% increase of sales. 

Style tribes also play a large role in influencing what brands are creating. Style tribes often arise in two ways either by people choosing to show loyalty to a brand or by wanting to copy the style of celebrities. Brands such as corteiz have a large following of loyal supporters and customers. Corteiz is a streetwear brand that has created a sense of exclusivity around itself as it only allows you to purchase from their drops If you sign up to get a password to their website. They've created havoc in the streets of London when they do pop up shops and events where they release the location only moments before they open creating a mad rush to get there first so people can purchase items before they sell out.

Celebrities have a huge impact on what fast fashion companies produce as they see it as an opportunity to recreate their outfits for a much more affordable price so that regular people can afford to dress like the celebrities they long to live like. Trends that begin like this would be considered trickle down trends as people higher up are influencing and inspiring the lower social class consumers to purchase the more affordable versions. However sometimes high end designers take inspiration from regular people and subcultures and this would be considered a bubble up trend. Trickle across trends are trends that may be seen on the catwalk but hit high end stores, high street retailers and fast fashion retailers all at the same time.