I'm a sad girl, is it bad girl?
What is #sadgirl?
> 'Sad girl' as a tag could be related to a number of ideas. Girls who are comfortable with sadness as a natural and necessary part of life and who are unafraid to express that emotion.
> An aesthetic that thrives in the ecosystems that are Tumblr and Instagram, championing sadness but dominated by the pale and pretty. Think any Lana Del Rey video (In no way saying she is to blame for the movement but her material and status does contribute).
> Or the sadness of girls as a liberated and potentially political act of resistance. This is Sad Girl theory proposed by Audrey Wollen.
Personally, I believe that it is the #sadgirl aesthetic that is most prevalent in our current culture and that is an issue manifesting in teen habits. But 'sad girl' has appeared before and with very different connotations. In the 1993 film La Vida Loca, Sadgirl was a chola gang-girl vibing loyal sisterhood, strength and survival. “We can’t count on the boys to take care of us and our kids”. This 'sad girl' is fiery and bad-ass, a world away from the how sadness is channeled in the aesthetic of today.
What is the problem?
There is nothing wrong with the expression of sadness, especially in the age of the sculpted Instagram life. We need to see more of this reality, emotion in it’s truth and people owning it. Sad isn’t attention seeking. Sad isn’t weak. However, sad also isn’t “manifested as a killer sense of style and an obsession with French films”. This is where aesthetic appears. The #sadgirl aesthetic isn't about the messy reality of sadness that should be normalised, “it's the poetically pretty ethereal sadness that's still resolutely tied to an external value of a predominantly sexualised gaze.” It isn’t diverse, encompassing and empowering. It’s another slim, white ideal. Life is hard. Teen-age is hard. Hormones suck. But feeling low is a “somewhat inevitable part of growing up”, not edgy, not special, and not a mental illness.
The aesthetic is linked to glamourisation of mental illness and unhealthy behaviours through the circulation of images romanticising depression, self-harm and self destructing behaviours (e.g. smoking) on social media sites. A scattering of antidepressants in black and white isn’t artsy. The idea that these images are celebrated and seen as tragically beautiful, cute or ‘cool’ is so destructive. “Mental disorders are not an accessory to your teenage angst”. Glamourising them not only encourages destructive behaviour by making it look romantic but it also belittles the experiences of actual sufferers. “Depression is grimy teeth and greasy hair because I haven’t managed to properly care for myself in days, weeks even… It’s me starving because I can’t care enough to make food. It’s me laying in bed for hours, wondering how to die without putting in any effort. It’s long and tiring and boring.” This flippant attitude to mental health issues isn’t helped by mainstream fashion stores that sell products with phrases like “stressed, depressed but well dressed”, “eat less” or what seems to be the latest trend “cute but psycho”.
The idea of sadness as a form of protest is interesting as I like that it doesn’t have to be conventional in the form of a demonstration regardless of gender. And yes, women should be able to feel like they don’t have to be strong all the time. We are all vulnerable and sometimes we don’t want to fight and this shouldn’t be seen as us failing at empowerment. People are multidimensional. However, in terms of actual political protest “you're not ‘disrupting systems of domination’ if you're staring out the window, glumly smoking clove cigarettes”. Also, self-destruction isn’t political if it’s self harm or an eating disorder. This is very different to “a hunger-striker who communicates their political intent and goals clearly and to as many people as possible”.
So sadness is complicated. Humans are complicated. Is our current culture blurring the lines of talking about important subjects and idolising their negative aspects?
Quotations:
