#seriously someone unironically called me “anti-media literacy” once and i still can't get over it.

[whittlewillow]

media literacy and analysis is important and all but that doesn't mean there's no such thing as reading too far into something.

almost all the major criticisms i hear towards cottagecore make little to no sense. they'll be petty, they'll generalize, they'll find problems that don't exist, they'll miss the point or appeal, often they'll just lie, straight up.

it comes from people not realizing that it's ok to simply dislike something, so they have to find a way to justify anything they don't like. it's not media literate to think "how can i make this seem evil regardless of whether or not it actually is?"

i can't speak for everyone who likes cottagecore but let me explain why I like it. i think 3 of 4 of these are the same for most cottagecore fans:

number one reason id it's pretty. number two is that it's carefree and relaxing. it's not a realistic depiction of being a farmer 100+ years ago but it's not supposed to be. it's an idealized fantasy world. i think most people have dreamed about living with nature or only having to do fun work, that's what cottagecore is. all the work you see in cottagecore content is usually simple, sanitized versions of real and difficult tasks like animal husbandry or farming, but they're seen through rose tinted glasses that make them seem fun. and that's ok, because it's a fantasy about a fictional past that never happened. fantasies don't have to be entirely realistic, can you imagine how boring that would be? number three is that it's very feminine, and i'm a very non-passing trans woman who rarely feels feminine and that gives me a lot of grief, so of course hyperfeminine fantasies like this appeal to me... number four is that i like nature.

that's it. it doesn't have to be super deep.

we could read into that further, why those things are important to us. why do people think it's pretty? why is it important that it's feminine? whatever. that's a good thing to discuss, but what is NOT good and what is NOT an example of practising good media literacy is jumping to conclusions, making assumptions based on very little evidence, or generalizing all people who like this aesthetic into one misogynistic, racist monolith.

psychoanalysis is pseudoscience. you cannot make enormous assumptions about the minds of every member of a massive and diverse group of people based on their interest in low-stakes feminine fantasy worlds. also, side note but i just noticed, you rarely hear these complaints when it comes to more masculine fantasy.

also, so many people talk about cottagecore like it's some kind of organization?? weird. take like, 20 steps back. it's obviously a fandom. maybe a subculture sometimes.

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i think a lot of yall just want something to hate.

but there are SO MANY THINGS more worth hating than this.

why don't yall try hating fascism or something? and like, ACTUAL fascism not the imaginary fascism that yall like to apply to anything you don't understand.

try hating project 2025, or the ccp's concentration camps for muslims, or russia's annex of ukraine, the anti-homosexuality act in uganda, the war in gaza, neonazis...

ppl want cottagecore to be evil SO BAD and it's weird