In hair, food or animals, life has lately been wrapped in a pink dainty bow as the “coquette” trend rises in popularity. Inspired by the titular ‘coquette’ aesthetic, the internet has been blowing up with both aesthetic and humorous videos featuring various (sometimes random) items wrapped in pink bows to feminize them. This girly pink fashion that coquette has transformed into seems to also question and subvert the perceived weakness of girlhood and femininity.
While some see this trend as a silly or lighthearted joke, others have observed it as a way for women to express their hyper feminine style. Though hyper femininity has been seen as weak with the advent of modern feminism that prefers more “traditionally masculine” female icons, women have been using the coquette trend as a way to take control of their feminine side.
Thesublimewomen.com’s (Ksenia Sita) stated that “being happy, and being happy as a woman are two different things.”
The current hashtag coquette has 1.3 million posts and 5.1 billion views according to Linkedin.com. Yet this trend has gone beyond pink bows.
Videos of fawns captioned “this is me if you even care” have also fed algorithms and reposts. This juxtaposition from the more “tough” and traditionally strong face women have put on to this modern “girly” and gentle hyper femininity has taken a toll on the modern women.
Some say the hyper feminine trends came from summer of 2023 with the mass popularity of traditionally feminine figures such as Taylor Swift and Barbie.
Time’s Person of Year Taylor Swift brought in $4.1 billion off of her Eras Tour, with the three and a half hour show of love songs and sequins being so popular it ended up benefiting the economy according to Northeastern Global News as her fans’ traveling opened up new jobs and money in the cities she performed in tourism industries.
Summer of 2023 also brought Barbie to the box office. The girly plastic doll ended up making history with $1 billion in box office sales. Swift and Barbie were once looked down upon as girlie, blonde, pink-wearing women and weren’t always recognized for their success. But after earning their respect women began wearing pink with pride.
“People have always looked down upon people like Taylor Swift and Barbie, diminishing their successes because of the idea that they are ‘girly’ or ‘too feminine’,” said Junior Jordan Hammond
Times.com’s (Eliana Dockterman) noted that “the very meaning of pink seems to be changing. Barbie director Greta Girwig has successfully wrapped a feminist message up in a traditionally girlie hue. Even men are wearing more pink.”
Junior Hannah Rougeot reveals her thoughts on girlhood. Younger girls weren’t shamed for listening to Taylor swift, playing with Barbies or wearing pink bows.
It brings back a sense of girlhood that was backed by Barbie and the explosion of Taylor Swift in 2023. I have seen bows on a variety of things such as Dr.Pepper, a stack of money, or even chicken tenders
— Hannah Rougeot
Participant in the trend, junior Gracie Domenghini, sees it as a more playful and fun way for women to have the freedom of being whoever they want.
“I think we’ve definitely moved away from doing things to please men or things to relate to the male gaze. It’s more of women doing what amuses them. I also find it very funny because it’s almost like women are playing into the narrative that they are gentle and petite, and I think that’s perfectly fine because that’s what women might want to be,” said Domenghini.
Anything imaginable is being wrapped in a pink bow and captioned coquette. Things that are not traditionally feminine are being claimed by women in the name of coquette.
“The coquette trend in a nutshell is usually someone who is feminine, but at the same time it’s questioning what is feminine, because what actually is femininity? That’s the art of it all,” freshman Jesus Ursulo
Echevarria said.
He believes the coquette trend opened up a good conversation on femininity.
“I feel the coquette trend has exposed actual feelings that women have felt and has normalized those feelings to the point where they could express themselves and relate to others. I think the coquette trend is softening topics that aren’t usually talked about,” said Echevarria.
