The cottagecore aesthetic took over TikTok in 2020, but it's worth considering whether this popular aesthetic is as harmless as it appears on the surface, or whether it's a fantasy steeped in colonialism that's better off forgotten.
Cottagecore bloomed in early 2020, but even today, you can find cottagecore TikTok compilations featuring the likes of frog décor, mushroom foraging, flowy and lacy prairie dresses, Animal Crossing, Moomin, baking, and embroidery. Is cottagecore an innocent fantasy? Or is it a fashion aesthetic that we should leave in the past?
* With help from: *
---St. Andrewism, who made a companion video to this one! ( https://youtu.be/rKaSb2gi1Ew )
---Charlie Flowers, my wonderful editor
* Sources: *
About Cottagecore
------https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/style/cottagecore.html
------https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/8/3/21349640/cottagecore-taylor-swift-folklore-lesbian-clothes-animal-crossing
------https://daily.jstor.org/punk-rock-linguistics-cottagecore/?utm_term=The%20Punk%20Rock%20Linguistics%20of%20Cottagecore&utm_campaign=jstordaily_02252021&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email
------https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-exactly-is-cottagecore
------https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Cottagecore#Precursors
------https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottagecore#Antecedents_and_cultural_context
------https://www.broadsatyale.com/cottagecore/
------https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/g5xjgj/cottagecore-aesthetic-lgbt-teens-tumblr-tik-tok
------https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/ep4egw/is-cottagecore-a-colonialist-fantasy-
------https://zora.medium.com/black-women-embracing-cottagecore-is-an-act-of-defiance-3df8696d8811
------https://honisoit.com/2020/09/cottagecore-colonialism-and-the-far-right/
------https://reporter.rit.edu/culture/escaping-through-cottagecore
------https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/07/health/cottagecore-nostalgia-mental-health-wellness/index.html
------https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zygbsk7
------https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/why-zoomers-are-obsessed-with-cottagecore
------https://www.redbluffdailynews.com/2020/09/09/the-cottagecore-dream-during-the-pandemic/
About Decolonization
------https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/usul-of-the-blackfoot-post-civ-a-deeper-exploration
------https://gfloresalva.medium.com/decolonizing-cottagecore-confronting-the-dark-reality-of-the-dreamy-aesthetic-14a0981defb1
------https://antifaspiderman.tumblr.com/post/189374377298/time-to-stop-tagging-cottagecore-alongside
------https://solarpunkbaby.tumblr.com/post/184745460262/i-am-seeing-a-lot-of-posts-that-are-increasingly
****Whose land are you on?****
------https://native-land.ca/
------https://www.whose.land/en/
My tweets about eating plants: https://twitter.com/Zoe_TheBee/status/1387754785458335746?s=20
* Poem Text: *
Mountain Matriarch (for Jo Liss)
They call her “Almost Heaven”
to protect themselves from
what she really is.
She’s coal-choked valleys
where the water runs cold
and brown
and they tell you not to fish
or swim ‘cept in the crick.
She’s switchback deathtraps
and river-flood rock-slide cave-ins
and poison oak and ticks and burrs
but can you blame her?
She knew the dinosaurs and yet
we are the ones who left scars
we are the ones who clawed our way
inside her and carved our name into her skin
so everyone would know that
we conquered the wilderness
we own this land
We call her “Almost Heaven”
because maybe if we forget
what she really is
we can also forget what
we are.
* To Support Me: *
---Sell me your soul (on Patreon) here! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/zoe_bee
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