Aesthetics as a Practise
A difference exists between beauty and aesthetics. It is the same difference as between fashion as self-expression and fashion as trend-following or fitting in, and between makeup as artistic expression and makeup as conformist patriarchal bullshit. “Beauty” describes a patriarchal mode of objectification, while “aesthetics” describes a way of interacting with the world.
“Aesthetics” can encompass not only visuals but sounds, textures, flavours, experiences, contexts, locations, connotations, narratives, and even violence. It encompasses the sensual and conceptual and binds them together. It is a constructed essence of something, a “-core.” Put “core” after any word into a Pinterest search and you’ll see what I mean.
Aesthetics is about pure pleasure: what appeals to one sensually and what that signifies emotionally. People often follow established aesthetic “cores,” such as cottagecore, or create their own through moodboards, playlists, curated blogs, etc.
A necessary caveat: because patriarchy developed beauty as a mode of controlling women, the ideas of what is aesthetic, beautiful, fulfilling, and pleasurable will be influenced by patriarchal ideals. In aesthetics, however, women (and others, but primarily women) develop their own ideas of what these things mean. Sometimes they line up with patriarchal thinking, but oftentimes not.
Practising aesthetics comes with a myriad of benefits. Surrounding yourself with things that give you visual pleasure is good for your mental health. It is a form of creative self-expression. It enables you to be fully present by appreciating the present as the present aesthetic. (Example: right now1, I’m sitting by the river in a cute outfit, smoking and writing. This is aesthetic. This says something about who I am: cosmopolitan outfit, intellectual pursuits, an appreciation for nature and slowing down and disconnecting.) It is a consistent practise of worlding and meditation.
Beyond this, beauty, sex appeal, and cuteness are all mechanisms programmed into us as a social species and need an expressive outlet. They have been manipulated to bad ends, but are capable of recontextualization. I call this recontextualization process “progressive aesthetics.”
Progressive aesthetics recontextualizes sensual signifiers, modifying their signifieds or replacing them with something else altogether. Cottagecore does this with many traditional signifiers of patriarchal wifehood, motherhood, and femininity. Princesscore does this with female power and vulnerability. Coquette as an aesthetic movement aims to reclaim girlhood from its patriarchal fetishization in our pedophilic culture, and the rise of “horror coquette” or “mystical coquette” (see films like Jennifer’s Body and Ginger Snaps) aims to express a coquette sexuality separated from pedophilic patriarchal ideas.
In this way, aesthetics is reality-bending: information comes to us first through our five senses. By reprogramming what pleasurable information means we can curate our reality; we can live in our own life’s “narrative genre”, in a sense. It is a way of living intentionally, of being present and appreciating Being. It is a way of moving through life with a purpose, which is a sense we are all seeking.
1Here, “right now” refers to the time of original writing. In the actual right now, I'm preparing to post this on my website, which is also an example of aesthetics.