The web pattern could look totally different, however its resurgence has doubtlessly harmful ramifications.
Social media’s obsession with microtrends has created a revolving door of standard aesthetics — “e-girl” turned “cottage-core” which developed to “darkish academia” and has lately remodeled into “ballet-core.” A scroll by TikTok in the previous couple of months reveals the rising reputation of the tv present “Fleabag,” books from Sally Rooney and music from Phoebe Bridgers. Though not explicitly named, all of those points and obsessions level to a bigger pattern: the revival of the aesthetic of being a tragic teenage woman.
The trendy reputation of the unhappy woman originated on Tumblr between 2011 and 2014. It included listening to music from Lana del Rey, Arctic Monkeys and Lorde; clothes like black Converse, ripped black skinny denims and something from American Attire. In some methods, Tumblr of this time interval was a means for women to specific themselves, discover associates and really feel heard on-line — once they couldn’t offline.
What turned an issue, although, was the way in which through which these bodily aesthetics turned an emblem of a romanticization or glorification of poor psychological well being. One former Tumblr person, Levi, advised i-D Journal, “Numerous the harmful paths I used to be led down stemmed from the content material I used to be being fed as a younger grownup on Tumblr … Aesthetics like rockstar gf, heroin stylish, or ballerinacore had a heavy implication that to be cool, finally [meant] neglecting your wellbeing.”
Even the music and vogue of this aesthetic got here with these related implications. Lana del Rey advised The Guardian that she was struggling along with her psychological well being whereas selling her standard album “Ultraviolence” in 2014. Modern merchandise like black skinny denims and American Attire’s commercials additionally pointed to a critical problem, which Tumblr in that point interval tended to advertise: a romanticization of disordered consuming and self-harm. One other Tumblr person and present author Ruby Staley advised Refinery29 that at its worst, Tumblr customers would even present one another recommendations on sustaining consuming issues — fairly than ideas for therapeutic.
Google searches for “unhappy woman” reached their peak in June 2014 and Could 2015. Nevertheless, by 2016 a lot of this aesthetic had slowly begun to fade. With the vast majority of customers having moved to different platforms like Instagram by 2016 — and what many contemplate Tumblr’s last demise in 2018 — this aesthetic seemingly disappeared.
In a weblog submit from 2017, titled “The Reign of the Web Unhappy Woman is Over — And That’s a Good Factor,” author Devcollab discusses her private expertise with the aesthetic of disappointment. She explains that when a whole aesthetic is hinged upon being unhappy, there is no such thing as a room for individuals who need to heal mentally: “When there’s an onus on performative, calculated vulnerability, there’s no reward for sincerity.” In different phrases, the web unhappy woman encourages women to remain unhappy, as a result of to be unhappy is to be attention-grabbing, in line with Devcollab.
Nevertheless, the unhappy woman is now having a resurgence. With the rise of social media microtrends, points of this aesthetic are extra simply unfold, and the fabric wanted to create this aesthetic is now broadly accessible. A yr in the past in January 2022, the variety of movies on TikTok with the hashtag #2014tumblr had 125.9 million views. Now, in January of 2023, that quantity has greater than doubled, now standing at an ever rising 342.5 million views. Because it appears, the aesthetic is again — or at the least the concept and nostalgia of it are. Total, although, the unhappy women on social media as we speak look so much totally different from how the unhappy women in 2014 appeared. Not in black skinny denims with a cigarette hanging from their lips, aesthetics just like the “coquette woman” are rooted in disappointment however have a model new look. The identical aesthetic, however in a special kind.
The “coquette” aesthetic is characterised by hyper-femininity and softness, drawing inspiration from the nymphet character Lolita from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” — a younger, fascinating and finally victimized woman. Not like the grunge aesthetic on Tumblr in 2014, the coquette woman wears white lace and frills and sprays costly Dior fragrance. She is the sufferer of her disappointment — and that makes her attention-grabbing to folks.
Different new manufacturers of unhappy woman seen as we speak are the “poisonous woman” or “femcel” (which means feminine involuntary celibate). These femcels are a lot angrier and far more centered on their emotional efficiency than their bodily one. A few of these femcels are women who’re of their “Fleabag period” — named after the tv present from Phoebe Waller-Bridge that includes a lady at her lowest and self-destructing. Femcels take heed to Fiona Apple, in line with on-line publication Adolescent, and nihilistically interact in misandry, all whereas sustaining their considerably imprecise aesthetic of messy eyeliner and soiled hair.
The broader aesthetic of disappointment on TikTok, nonetheless, extends past the aptly named microtrends. In 2014, the aesthetic of disappointment on Tumblr didn’t have a reputation — although many contemplate indie sleaze and tender grunge to be a giant a part of it — however it was so pervasive that it was typically simply known as “Tumblr aesthetic.” Equally, the unhappy women of TikTok are exhausting to field into simply “coquette” or simply “femcel.” What stays the identical throughout all of those totally different visible aesthetics is the romanticization of being unhappy and lonely and the neighborhood constructed round feeling misunderstood.
Many categorical critical issues concerning the return of those aesthetics on TikTok, notably as a result of that would imply the return of the romanticization of disordered consuming and self-harm that was as soon as prevalent on Tumblr. One TikTok user expressed their issues with 2014 Tumblr nostalgia and reminded their viewers that that period of the web was truly a time with harmful rhetoric surrounding racism, fatphobia and poor psychological well being assist.
Finally, the consumption of unhappy woman media and artwork is a means for a lot of younger ladies to channel their feelings. As blogger Rayne Fisher Quann writes, “[Girls] rationalize our personal struggling by the romanticization of those that have suffered earlier than us and, in flip, we offer a blueprint for the hot-girl struggling of these after. We commodify that rationalization by the era-appropriate medium (for Dorothy Parker, this was print media, and for me it’s TikTok).” Though the resurgence of the unhappy woman aesthetic on TikTok seems totally different from 2014 Tumblr, the potential risks are one in the identical.
