Aesthetics Murdered Subculture

Between the beginning of 2023 and now, I have been a surfer girl, a skater girl, a clean girl, a dark academic, a hippie, and a million other things that make no logical sense for my life or personality. I look around and I see such a wide range of styles and I can’t help but compare it to movies or old photos I’ve found of college students of the 20’s, 60’s, 80’s, or even my own parents in the 90’s and feel as though there’s a huge difference.

My dad still owns seventy-nine pairs of sneakers, gold chains, and will dress from head to toe in the exact same shade of bright red when he’s trying to look “nice” for an occasion. He can name just about every famous Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul artist of the 90’s, and he’ll also spit a beat and rhyme of his own from time to time, entirely unprompted and off the cuff. I’m honestly a little jealous that this is a skill he has, but of course it is. My dad was raised by Hip Hop subculture.

I mean, I’ve taken on a 90’s aesthetic a time or two, but the closest I’ve ever come to rapping is clumsily stumbling over the words to “Sorry Not Sorry” by Tyler the Creator, a song I’ve listened to like a million times and should know a lot better than I do. The same is true for every aesthetic I’ve invested in these past few years.

But it seems I can’t be a surfer girl because I live in a geo-locked state and am far too cautious and paranoid to surf literally ever. I can’t be a skater girl because I can’t seem to find the balance to stand upright on a skateboard, let alone steer one. I don’t have the money to be a clean girl with perfectly sculpted nails, nor do I have the motivation to go on a four mile hot-girl walk or read a classic English novel every day of the week or even once a month.

I feel like a complete failure of a human being because I can’t seem to find one way to fully express myself, while for my parents, fashion was all about self expression. They lived for Hip Hop and everything that it had to say about the culture. Yet, at some point, for an entire generation, the question has been raised–what culture? Fashion has begun to lose its ability to demonstrate ideas or individuality in the way that it did for our parents.

This is not me wishing I could go back to a time I never lived in or me saying that fashion is no longer unique, original, or important. Frankly, I think our generation feels far more freedom to be bold and experimental with what we choose to wear and the way we choose to express ourselves from day to day. Plus, there is so much more mainstream acceptance of diverse hair types, body types, and defiance of gender norms that did not exist for earlier generations.

Fashion is genuinely for everyone in a way it never has been, and so I hope you know I am not hating on my generation. But I am noticing a huge difference in the way we understand fashion merely by the insane access we have to it. Trends never get the chance to be underground subcultures making a statement to the man, because they circulate so quickly through social media. Often it is the very “man” who is circulating it, and if it’s not, trends and aesthetics are still rapidly monetized and pushed through the mainstream.

I think back to the Barbie movie, which brought up so many arguments about the roles of feminism and masculinity in everyday life. Yet, when people donned the Barbie pink outfits it wasn’t to make a statement about these issues, but merely because it was a trend. Now, already, I’m finding Barbie’s bright pink remains on the racks of the thrift store as we move on to the next trend that sparks our general interest.

And it’s not just about the clothes we wear, but the lives we are “required” to live in order to wear them. You don’t have to live in a cottage to be a cottage core girlie, but you do have to shop at Whole Foods. You don’t have to have a 401k to girlboss, but you do need to be in shape and eat like a rabbit. You don’t have to understand hip hop or genuinely believe that love is love in order to walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk, because everyone is watching all the time and so ultimately fashion is just about “stuff.” Or at least, that’s what we’ve been made to believe by a culture that has capitalized on our very identities.

We’ve been made to feel as though every day is a runway and so god forbid we walk out of the house with messy hair and sweatpants, unless, of course, that’s your aesthetic. Fashion has become less about an internal truth and more about an external appearance. Less about freedom to express yourself and more about the boundaries and barriers of individual “trend communities” that must be perfectly practiced in order to be validated.

Despite what we’ve been made to believe, style cannot be perfectly executed all the time and it changes daily. No one should feel less than merely because they don’t succumb to a specific aesthetic or to the fashion standards that flood social media. The pressure to find one thing that fully encapsulates a person's entire identity is not only what discourages people from experimenting with their style, but what ultimately kills subculture. But it can be shocked back to life if we become far more willing to learn, and fail, and try again.

To make a long story short, if there’s a trend or aesthetic you like, try it! But don’t feel pressured to base your entire identity on that.There is nothing wrong with exploring your fashion identity, but do it responsibility, respectfully, and with the knowledge that you don’t have to have a perfectly curated outfit for every moment of your waking life.

I may prefer to wear pants and various shades of brown most days, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love the tie dye neon dress hanging out in the back of my closet. At the end of the day, we’re all just human beings trying to live in this world the best way we know how.

So I just want to encourage you to feel the freedom to express yourself in a way that feels true to you, and I’ll try my best to do just the same.

Strike Out.

Writer: Knia Robinson

Blog Editor: Sarah Singleton

Chattanooga