Rebecca Jennings of Vox magazine described cottagecore and dark academia as "historical aesthetics that evoke conservative values and gender roles".[53] Jennings and others also noted themes of Eurocentrism and heteronormativity.[53][54][51][55] Mudra Judkis of The Washington Post noted that its fanbase seemed to be composed mainly of white women.[21]
To me though living in the UK a lot of the aesthetics, photos of cottages etc that are floating around are just like the countryside and various art work from my country.
When I was a kid one of my favourite books was The Secret Garden at one point. I wrote a book review about it when I was 8 or 9 for school and some girl actually came up to me and said that I'd convinced her to read the book lol. I haven't read it since I was a kid though but I think that's associated too. Stuff like the film Matilda seems to have influenced that as well. I live in the UK so obviously there's a lot of stuff and places like this here as well.
I forgot about this song which I haven't listened to for years but that's pretty great:
So it's never been my primary aesthetic interest but I can identify with some of that stuff case in point Patrick Wolf's vibe in this video sort of fits but comes from a time before hashtags like that:
He's gay too btw and this is from the 2000s and the song lyrics are very much not heteronormative ironically lol in fact that's part of the reason I like this song.
'you were my husband, my wife, my heroine.'
And you have bluebells which is very countryside. Reminds me of my childhood a lot because they grow all over the place. The music video itself. His outfit.
And a lot of the stuff that pops up in the overlap with 'fairycore' and like mushrooms and fantasy stuff inspired my writing a bit as a teenager. Obviously the shoes I posted later in this post too lol though that's a bit darker.
To me I think growing up in a very bleak urban town - lots of poverty lots of run down areas - being able to walk out into the countryside or woodland and sometimes visit other areas was nice just by walking out of town. I also liked London a lot and still do. So I do tend to like the extremes and also identify with the sea but going off topic. There are aesthetics and imagery that I enjoy. I also like pre-raphaelite paintings which I noticed some people brought up. There are art galleries where you can see them in London.
I actually had quite a lot of difficulty identifying with the UK growing up I often wanted to live in various other cultures etc first it was Finland, then California also Japan. Still have an interest in geography you can't find here like desert landscapes etc but yeah. So it was actually through music and especially Patrick Wolf's music because so much of it was based on geography and UK mythology that it kind of helped a bit. I like places like Glastonbury the town too. There's a nice kind of spiritual vibe.
You get a lot of like random New York journalists writing about this from a purely US pov or other people from the US online. They complain that it's 'too white' and say it's not inclusive of LGBT+ people which is
insane in this case because very obviously they're a huge part of it and related aesthetics too. You can make the case that it's very white (tm) you can't really make the case that it's very straight at this point lol imo. And it's also a global hashtag and everything will also be centred around America in a lot of people's complaints and it's history...
I'm not at all opposed to people using that hashtag for whatever I also don't care who enjoys various things. I don't even particuarly identify with the hashtag itself lol. I'm more irritated by the policing of certain imagery and stuff mostly by Americans when most of it is how they would put it:
The aesthetic is accused of being Eurocentric
Yes and it's also being used by European people.
'It's eurocentric'
*meanwhile the entire internet is American.*
LOL.
The comments on this one webpage I stumbled on lol:
This is really interesting and super relevant to plenty of people but it is very America centric. There is definitely a thriving cottagecore and actual rural community out here in England and I wonder if we have to worry about the same things? Of course it is good to always be conscious but do you think that this is less relevant outside of America? Would love to hear your opinion on it 🙂 Have a nice day ❤
I don't think that it's a cultural erasure at all. I feel like it does take cultural aspects from EUROPEAN fairytales and it?s country life. Think of Grimm Fairytales for example. That is not of POC culture at all. And yes POC farmed in the day, but so did white people? So did peasants that happen to be white? When I think of cottage in the woods, I think of a small personal garden not a big country farm. I'm a POC myself, and this confused me.
You're right, it is very America centric. It makes a lot of sense that there?s a thriving cottagecore community in England since a big part of the aesthetic and lifestyle originates from the English countryside! I think besides these places cottagecore is definitely less relevant--or more unheard of--but regardless, I think being aware of the lack of [BEEP] or BIPOC representation is very important.
Again when discovering this hashtag I kept hearing people discuss it as a [BEEP] subculture and a lesbian subculture in particular. A lot of the aesthetics remind me of Patrick Wolf - who is gay's - Magic Position album and some of his other tracks. He has lots of folksy music based around the UK.
The class discussion is also kind of disconnected from my personal experiences often. I don't associate living in a rural location in the UK and in some cottage with poverty in fact quite the opposite I tend to assume people living in many villages in the UK are very well off. A lot of people living in poverty live in cities and large towns and in urban areas. Obviously this isn't always going to be the case but yeah.
I'm just going to end this tangent on this quote lol:
...Of all the possible criticisms of cottagecore I imagined, "gentrification of berry-picking" was not one of them.
I've done this before while walking in the countryside. Cause many people do. There's lots of wild berries.
This feels to me like saying sewing tutorials are inappropriate because clothes are being sewn by exploited workers.
Needless to say discourse online gets a bit insane lol.