How the Pinterest Aesthetic Has Rotted My Brain
Coquette, Man Eater, Fleabag, Manic Pixie Dream Girl Core
By Bianca Llerena
The revamping of Pinterest.
Being a teenage girl, at least from personal experience, means that Pinterest is your home. Fashion, hair, and makeup inspiration run endlessly, and creating your own boards feels productive even if it really isn’t. Pinterest has figured out how to separate the “social” from the “media,” allowing me to be online without me being chronically online. Over the past couple of years, Pinterest has exploded with new aesthetics, specifically those like “coquette,” “man-eater”, “fleabag”, and “manic pixie dream girl”. But, what do these buzzwords really mean? I’ve found myself questioning it all more and more, waking myself up from the comforts of the 'ultra-femininity' that Pinterest automatically subscribes you to.
Rotting but in a cute way!
Simply adding the phrases “coquette” or “clean girl” to the search bar of Pinterest reveals thousands of posts adhering to that “core.” However, at some point, I’ve realized that a lot of the posts I’ve seen are just edits of these buzzwords on top of pictures of models and celebrities. In all honesty, I am guilty of this too; there are probably a few of these pinned onto my own boards. I’ve recognized that I’m unphased myself, and I still get excited to see a picture of a pink bow tied around a wrist with a grainy filter overlaid. Don’t get me wrong: I value being able to express your preferred gender identity, especially with the help of labels and aesthetics; the use of these helps many find their own confidence and community. But now, everything belongs to a group, and those groups might be doing more harm than good.
Cigarettes are cool again??
Pinterest had done little to counter the glamorization of drugs and mental illness, but certain aesthetics, like “fleabag”, “loner protagonist”, and “girlboss” (taking inspiration from shows and movies like Fleabag, Black Swan, Skins, and Girl, Interrupted) do not promote healthy mindsets or lifestyles. Media such as this is not only negative, but it seems to encourage more harmful ideas, and present them as being liberating and nonconventional. The aesthetic of acting on the “feminine urge” (which is defined as a woman doing something without any logistical reasoning) can promote toxic behaviors with the mask of female empowerment. Don’t even get me started on the dreadful revival of the “heroine chic” aesthetic which glamorizes the use of heroin through extreme weight loss and dark undereye circles. Falling down this rabbit hole of destructive categories is easy, and it takes a lot to get back out.
I probably won’t be logging off anytime soon.
My Pinterest use definitely comes and goes in phases, and whenever I need inspiration for an upcoming event or a new hairstyle, I know where to go and find the things I like. While it’s near impossible to avoid the toxic aesthetics of the app, I do think that taking breaks between uses is extremely beneficial to your health. Additionally, being aware of what kind of content is healthy for your brain to be taking in is one way to avoid the brain rot that I’ve contracted. There is healing, I’m sure, involving time and commitment to unlearn the now “normal” aesthetics we live under. Balance your life, and try to remember that there was a time before we knew what a manic pixie dream girl was.