I recently embarked on a quixotic online quest: to finally figure out myaesthetic.
Or pink and bright colors?
Others provided me with other means to suss out what I am.
Art by Channing Smith
Ask your friend what style you give off,suggested one.
Another even had a magazine style quiz.
(There are five rounds, thevideo instructs.
Truth is, I am in a bit of an online identity crisis.
I just had a baby; am I in mymom era?
If so, am I ahot mom?
(Lol, no).
We are truly in the age of aesthetics.
One person would identify a trend or aesthetic, post about it, and suddenly it was everywhere.
Since the pandemic, though, the proliferation of aesthetics has exploded.
Now everyone can find their niche online.
Its almost disconcertingly easy to sort yourself into a box.
Do you aspire to one day live on a farm, baking your own sourdough?
Do you like Pilates and the color pink?
Then, drink a green juice.
Once theyve chosen, many go all in.
Im just a girl, she captioned it, hashtagging #ilovebeingawoman.
As you flip through TikTok, the different aesthetics flash by in a whirl of products and vibes.
Why does one need to claim an aesthetic at all?
Is this all a play for social media virility, or is it deeper?
I have a dress with tiny butterflies on it and its also white, is that also okay?
Yes anything is ok…I bet that dress is gorgeous, the creator responded.
Wanting to fit in or label yourself isnt a new concept.
Like, Oh, youre a jock, youre a prep.
This is something that I think they can control, Dr. Spicher speculates.
And this is one of those things that they can do.
He may be onto something,Olivia Layne, a TikTok creator and self-described elder Gen Z tells me.
There are other factors, she thinks.
People want to curate little identities for the things that they like.
What is the clean girl aesthetic?
And its like, everyone doesnt look like Hailey Bieber.
Mainly, they are all pretty exclusionary.
Thats the vibe, and thats the aesthetic, she tells me.
Deinfluencing the clean girl aesthetic.
The issues with aesthetic devotion can also be more existential.
She worries this focus on hyper-compartmentalized empty identities is hindering their self-actualization.
Or fetishize the trad-wife aesthetic, which idealizes a patriarchal society?
This is a slippery slope.
Gia once had an aesthetic she claimed: theman-eater aesthetic, which idolizes femmes fatales.
But then she found herself suppressing my genuine feelings towards men, because it didnt fit her character.
This echo chamber fosters comfort, and you cannot grow in comfort.
You have to understand different perspectives.
You have to broaden your horizons.
Gia now identifies with a radical new aesthetic: no aesthetic at all.
She is just herself.
Maybe you’re free to call it Giacore.
