Evolution of Aesthetics and Social Media Trends
📌 The proliferation of aesthetics (e.g., "tomato make-up," "clean girl") on platforms like TikTok since the Covid-19 pandemic reflects a desire to fit into specific visual norms, despite Gen Z often being labeled as norm-breaking.
🔎 The word "aesthetic" has evolved significantly; originally a branch of philosophy concerning beauty and art, it now often refers to anything visually pleasing to teenagers, as documented on collaborative sites like Urban Dictionary.
🗓️ Since 2003, the definition of aesthetic shifted from relating purely to beauty to describing things matching one's personality, heavily influenced by the intensive use of Tumblr and Instagram by 2019.

Analysis of Key Post-Pandemic Aesthetics
🌾 Cottage Core emerged during confinement as a desire to escape COVID reality, evoking a nostalgic, idealized, self-sufficient pastoral life, contrasting with supply chain issues and lockdown restrictions.
👶 Kid Core and Weird Core followed, heavily inspired by childhood nostalgia, characterized by bright colors and childhood iconography (like Hello Kitty and Sonny Angels), representing an escape to an insouciant past.
🧘 Clean Girl Aesthetic and Old Money Aesthetic prioritize minimalism, classicism, and subtle quality over the ostentatious maximalism popular before the pandemic, perhaps reflecting a societal shift away from public displays of wealth after realizing vulnerability (like during COVID-19).

The Political and Historical Underpinnings of "Old Money"
🏰 The Old Money aesthetic implies inherited wealth and elite status, often referencing historical figures like Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy, and is associated with private clubs and exclusive lifestyles.
🏛️ These elite institutions (Prep Schools, private clubs) have historical ties to slavery and colonialism, where founders like Henry Rogers were slave owners, linking wealth accumulation to maintaining a conservative social order.
🛑 The rise of conservative aesthetics like Old Money and Clean Girl is argued to be timely, coinciding with rising far-right politics and increased government strictness, possibly acting as an "autodefense" mechanism for Gen Z against repression by adopting "neutral" conservative imagery.

Capitalism, Subcultures, and Identity as Product
💔 Subcultures like Punk (born from DIY ethos and rejection of 1970s establishment, unemployment, and the Vietnam War) are now being capitalized upon and stripped of their political meaning into consumable "aesthetics" (e.g., a 15-second TikTok trend).
💸 This capitalization, driven by capitalism and platforms like TikTok, means cultural history and protest messages (like Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance) are often reduced to marketable images, clothing, and catchy dances, ultimately serving sales.
🤳 The TikTok "For You Page" algorithm encourages following trends rather than originality, turning personal expression into a product optimized for attention (likes, shares), leading to homogenous content and fears of mockery or harassment for deviating from the norm.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The intense focus on aesthetics reflects a societal desire for control and conformity in uncertain times, whether through romanticized pasts (Cottage Core) or elite conservatism (Old Money).
➡️ Subcultures' political messaging is being diluted by fast fashion and consumerism, transforming revolutionary movements into easily marketable, shallow aesthetics.
➡️ The algorithmic structure of platforms like TikTok pushes creators to behave like products optimized for market appeal, fostering content similarity and creating a fear-based environment where deviation risks online harassment.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Nov 23, 2025, 09:48 UTC