Several years ago I attended a talk by a scientist whose appearance included colorful hair, tattoos, and piercings. The person introducing the speaker went through the usual career highlights and biographical details noted in such introductions, and then added that the speaker has extensive experience drafting codes of conduct for conferences and professional organizations.
Once upon a time, this speaker's appearance would have marked them as outside the mainstream power structures of an academic organization. The last thing you'd expect from the person with tattoos and piercings is a lecture on rules and order. Yes, people with tattoos and piercings have a stake in order and decency like anyone else, but you'd also expect a bit more "live and let live" and a bit less "Hey, we have RULES here!" If nothing else, they'd probably figure that the enforcers of rules and order aren't terribly interested in protecting them, so they'd operate in a mode of letting certain things slide.
Nowadays, one assumes that the person with tattoos and piercings and colorful hair has the code of conduct memorized and can explain how violations of the code further systemic oppression AND THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF DAMNIT!!!!!
Ooh so, on this note: there is definitely a class element to all this, but a confusing one. I'm also thinking of the viral NYC (Queens) confrontation between pro-free-speech construction workers and some man pulling down hostage flyers. But is it *posh* people participating in this subculture? I've heard some say, downwardly mobile, but I think that's more a comment on bigger changes in the economy.
Hmm, we could be in a "free for all" phase in mobility, so you have both a Broadway producer and students of various races (and generally natural hair color) tearing the posters.
That Queens exchange pits two kinds of the working class: the children of Nixon's hardhats (I think one of them is black) and a working class immigrant. It's about how different they see Forest Hills.
Some anon made a plausible X comment: college graduates aren't sure about their future, and they blame Jewish Americans, who they may or may not know, for their insecurity and impatience.
I guess in my neck of the woods the teams look pretty alike, except one team is a lot more likely to wear, say, a t-shirt with the American flag on it. Their Facebook feeds will give you a lot more clues than their wardrobe, though. And now that I know ladies in their 70s who show up with pink hair, that isn't a marker either.
I can tell you what a smol bean is though! Because I have gen z kids. It's anything small and cute and snuggly. Your cat is a smol bean, and possibly your favorite cartoon character, but it is infantilizing to call a person a smol bean. Your cat may be a smol bean but your girlfriend is not.
There was a thing with alt-right dudes where they cut their hair in a strange way. Essentially a buzz cut on the sides, with a floppy, Hollywood-SS-officer thing at the front. This was around 2019 - not sure if they're still doing it or if they got worried about their co-workers figuring out what it meant. The interesting thing was that it would be hard to call it "conservative". It's odd, provocative. Is it supposed to have a hint of sci-fi about it? Not sure. But the wacky/"off" aspect of it seems to relate to whatever's going on with people like Gavin McGuinness and Milo Yiannopoulos. Then of course there's the Red Scare girls and all that - again slightly "off".
Certain members of the conservative team can be seen wearing Maga hats still; or shirts that proclaim their cred ("I'm the mother of a US Marine, don't mess with me")--both of these were people who I saw on an airplane in the American inland west last week.
As for those of us who are...mildly heterodox liberals or progressives? We (I) wear clothes that draw as little attention as possible.
¨If I do not interpret our times as the new 1930s, it’s because as best as I can tell, there’s a big ol’ culture-wars split.¨
It´s a boring prestige-TV-on-the-cable-news-channel version of the 1920´s. You have your cosplaying-futurists roleplaying Italian artsy dudes who liked Mussolini, that kind of thing.
¨I don’t know their politics, except I totally know their politics.¨
You know their politics because of the masks, not the hair. Lots of ladies messed with their hair during the pandemic and seem to have gone back, which is a bummer. No idea of the politics, exactly.
¨You see this lately with the men who post stuff like, ‘I have a wife and a kid, I’m owning the libs!’ and they are living extremely unremarkable lives but looking like Ward Cleaver while doing so.¨
´Reactionary straights´ covers that I think. But it´s all oppositional defiant disorder. Here, deep in Trumplandia, it´s a lot closer to Merica, and it´s more pickups and big flags, or maybe blue stripe flags or something. The algo has probably locked you in on 40-something upper-middle class types - they do suits and screeching at hot girls.
¨Maybe you see less Manic Panic usage these days, given the evolution of what it all signifies, or maybe my team is a bunch of 40-year-olds who would rather not spend their spare time removing errant hair dye from their towels.¨
I think the point is that Millennials are feeling old-y and that´s generating lots of boomerish-style noise. The relevant point is that posturers are making up people to posture about, and the activist tweet cycle has most departed from the on-the-street realities.
Quite recently the 50s retro Betty Page look was very hipster - for women - which means I don't see it as coded conservative. But I'm intrigued by your "team" theory.
I'm sure that varies regionally too (I haven't seen a mask in months, even flying internationally).
Ooh so this is a complicated one as well. Prairie dresses, cottagecore, etc, also not the same as trad. Some of this is gendered, but a lot has to do with how the retro dress is accessorized. Are there alternative elements (tattoos, or unconventional makeup choices) or is it more like 1950s (or 1910s) period dress?
Several years ago I attended a talk by a scientist whose appearance included colorful hair, tattoos, and piercings. The person introducing the speaker went through the usual career highlights and biographical details noted in such introductions, and then added that the speaker has extensive experience drafting codes of conduct for conferences and professional organizations.
Once upon a time, this speaker's appearance would have marked them as outside the mainstream power structures of an academic organization. The last thing you'd expect from the person with tattoos and piercings is a lecture on rules and order. Yes, people with tattoos and piercings have a stake in order and decency like anyone else, but you'd also expect a bit more "live and let live" and a bit less "Hey, we have RULES here!" If nothing else, they'd probably figure that the enforcers of rules and order aren't terribly interested in protecting them, so they'd operate in a mode of letting certain things slide.
Nowadays, one assumes that the person with tattoos and piercings and colorful hair has the code of conduct memorized and can explain how violations of the code further systemic oppression AND THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF DAMNIT!!!!!
Interesting shift in the culture.
I think Yuan Yi Zhu wrote recently that "Sir Humprey used to be defined by his old school tie. Now he's defined by his rainbow lanyard."
Ooh so, on this note: there is definitely a class element to all this, but a confusing one. I'm also thinking of the viral NYC (Queens) confrontation between pro-free-speech construction workers and some man pulling down hostage flyers. But is it *posh* people participating in this subculture? I've heard some say, downwardly mobile, but I think that's more a comment on bigger changes in the economy.
Hmm, we could be in a "free for all" phase in mobility, so you have both a Broadway producer and students of various races (and generally natural hair color) tearing the posters.
That Queens exchange pits two kinds of the working class: the children of Nixon's hardhats (I think one of them is black) and a working class immigrant. It's about how different they see Forest Hills.
Some anon made a plausible X comment: college graduates aren't sure about their future, and they blame Jewish Americans, who they may or may not know, for their insecurity and impatience.
I guess in my neck of the woods the teams look pretty alike, except one team is a lot more likely to wear, say, a t-shirt with the American flag on it. Their Facebook feeds will give you a lot more clues than their wardrobe, though. And now that I know ladies in their 70s who show up with pink hair, that isn't a marker either.
I can tell you what a smol bean is though! Because I have gen z kids. It's anything small and cute and snuggly. Your cat is a smol bean, and possibly your favorite cartoon character, but it is infantilizing to call a person a smol bean. Your cat may be a smol bean but your girlfriend is not.
There was a thing with alt-right dudes where they cut their hair in a strange way. Essentially a buzz cut on the sides, with a floppy, Hollywood-SS-officer thing at the front. This was around 2019 - not sure if they're still doing it or if they got worried about their co-workers figuring out what it meant. The interesting thing was that it would be hard to call it "conservative". It's odd, provocative. Is it supposed to have a hint of sci-fi about it? Not sure. But the wacky/"off" aspect of it seems to relate to whatever's going on with people like Gavin McGuinness and Milo Yiannopoulos. Then of course there's the Red Scare girls and all that - again slightly "off".
Yes, the edgy, is-it-fascist-or-not look. It's certainly a branch of anti-woke but liberal or heterodox, maybe not.
Certain members of the conservative team can be seen wearing Maga hats still; or shirts that proclaim their cred ("I'm the mother of a US Marine, don't mess with me")--both of these were people who I saw on an airplane in the American inland west last week.
As for those of us who are...mildly heterodox liberals or progressives? We (I) wear clothes that draw as little attention as possible.
¨If I do not interpret our times as the new 1930s, it’s because as best as I can tell, there’s a big ol’ culture-wars split.¨
It´s a boring prestige-TV-on-the-cable-news-channel version of the 1920´s. You have your cosplaying-futurists roleplaying Italian artsy dudes who liked Mussolini, that kind of thing.
¨I don’t know their politics, except I totally know their politics.¨
You know their politics because of the masks, not the hair. Lots of ladies messed with their hair during the pandemic and seem to have gone back, which is a bummer. No idea of the politics, exactly.
¨You see this lately with the men who post stuff like, ‘I have a wife and a kid, I’m owning the libs!’ and they are living extremely unremarkable lives but looking like Ward Cleaver while doing so.¨
´Reactionary straights´ covers that I think. But it´s all oppositional defiant disorder. Here, deep in Trumplandia, it´s a lot closer to Merica, and it´s more pickups and big flags, or maybe blue stripe flags or something. The algo has probably locked you in on 40-something upper-middle class types - they do suits and screeching at hot girls.
¨Maybe you see less Manic Panic usage these days, given the evolution of what it all signifies, or maybe my team is a bunch of 40-year-olds who would rather not spend their spare time removing errant hair dye from their towels.¨
I think the point is that Millennials are feeling old-y and that´s generating lots of boomerish-style noise. The relevant point is that posturers are making up people to posture about, and the activist tweet cycle has most departed from the on-the-street realities.
elm
and then there´s the micro-cultures thing
Quite recently the 50s retro Betty Page look was very hipster - for women - which means I don't see it as coded conservative. But I'm intrigued by your "team" theory.
I'm sure that varies regionally too (I haven't seen a mask in months, even flying internationally).
Ooh so this is a complicated one as well. Prairie dresses, cottagecore, etc, also not the same as trad. Some of this is gendered, but a lot has to do with how the retro dress is accessorized. Are there alternative elements (tattoos, or unconventional makeup choices) or is it more like 1950s (or 1910s) period dress?
The girls I used to see in Stop Staring dresses etc are very much the progressive type. (Tatts, pronouns, etc)