MeterWalking on the grass in long clothes, picking herbs everywhere, at home, flour must be made into something on a jagged wooden table, interestingly, you even have time to celebrate it quietly-what a beautiful idea. Everyone is currently moving to this country, especially on Instagram. It is mainly young women who present themselves as residents of romantic rural idyllic on social media, where flower bouquets on the grass play a greater role than the chaos of domestic charging cables, and all plastics have been replaced by natural materials. This phenomenon already has a noun: Shanzhai core.
Youth cultures and subcultures are often formed on the track of musical styles or publications in the twentieth century. At the same time, the aesthetic subculture is now formed online on platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, and is further popularized and analyzed through YouTube videos. On the one hand, this must be due to the pandemic, forcing young people to move their social activities online for a year. But before that, in the social space of the Internet, a personal aesthetic has been formed, which can be understood as a visual expression of common thoughts and values. Since around 2018, Cottagecore has been detected on the Tumblr platform. Another example is the “Dark Academy”. This aesthetic is reminiscent of a utopian university world that is visually closer to reality. Harry Potter Just like Massenuni and Zoom-Tile-Seminar.
The whole can be found on the website Aesthetics.fandom.com From Afrofuturism to Italo Disco and Pin-up to Zombiecore, there are about 500 such niche aesthetics, each with its own articles and image examples, supplemented by formative movies or video games. Cottagecore’s influence comes from Johanna Spyri’s book “Heidi” and the Netflix series “Anne with an E”, as well as various Ghibli movies such as “Kiki’s small delivery service” or “Paddington” film adaptations. The video game “Animal Crossing”, which has achieved great success in the pandemic, also represents this aesthetic. Greta Gerwig’s 2019 “Little Women” movie is a two-hour copycat core festival.
Now, the reminiscent themes of Cottagecore are not new. The idealization of simple rural life runs through the entire history of Western culture. Pastoral life has been idealized in ancient times. The 14th century Italian poet Petrarch meditated on the mountain and discovered the self-worth of nature. Queen Marie-Antoinette built a completely picturesque village for her in the Park of Versailles, which will still cause a sensation on Instagram today, so it may be the ancestor of all Cottagecore representatives. Romanticism and the arts and crafts movement also emphasized being close to nature and simplicity, which runs counter to industrialization.
Cottagecore is not the first counter-trend in digitalization. In the past few years, vinyl records and analog movies have suddenly become popular again, and there is a large corner on the Internet dedicated to handmade production. However, these hobbies are not cheap and require skills and a certain learning curve. Cottagecore is low. Anyone can bake bread, and there is space for herbs in the smallest kitchen. Almost everyone has a meadow near where you can pick something, or a forest. The complete package-a lonely life in nature, with a wood-burning fireplace and self-growing pumpkins-is so utopian that everyone can make the most of it instead of implementing a lifestyle fundamentally. In addition, as the New York Times concluded in an article in March last year, this has nothing to do with the original results or any impressive collection, and the most important thing is about “self-care.”
