Does Everything Have to Be Pretty?
The required aesthetics of life
Of all of the overused words in our contemporary zeitgeist, the one that irks me the most is the scourge that is aesthetics. Aside from gaslighting, there is no other term that has been consistently thrown around so much that it has practically lost all meaning. I’m not quite sure when “aesthetically pleasing” became an everyday term for tweens and millennials alike, but it’s certainly been cemented as a quotidian phrase and a catchall term for things that are trendy, stylish, and cool.
Our obsession with the word aesthetics makes sense, as we live in a time where aesthetics as a concept have never been more worshipped. The likes of Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok have encouraged us to romanticize our daily lives and share our simple, well-manicured pleasures with the world. It is lovely to notice the mundane beauty of making your morning cup of coffee, but must it be perfectly staged so that it could potentially go viral while Billie Eilish sings in the background?
Ironically, we live in a time where true aesthetics, like the flourish on a doorknob or the stone carvings on a gorgeous old brownstone, are consistently cut for the sake of saving time and money. Benches are no longer a beautiful place for people to sit and enjoy a community garden. They’re an ugly spike of metal meant to discourage unhoused people from sleeping. While there’s certainly something to be said for the more simplified aesthetics of the mid-century modern era or the brutalist movement (not everything has to be as intricate as a Gothic balcony), minimalism has made the world an ugly, sterilized, impersonal place. Have you seen the pictures of the hack job that Kim K enacted on her mansion? Criminal.
Rather, the world’s current aesthetic efforts seem to be aimed at the curation of our online presence. I often think about our habit of taking extra zoomed-in artsy pics to post online. Someday when we show our grandkids photos of our 2022 trip to Europe, what will we say? “No, I don’t have any photos of the Eiffel Tower before it was taken out in a climate disaster. But here’s an up-close photo of my lipstick on an espresso cup and a quirky video of a cigarette floating in a puddle!” We’re so inundated with images that we’ve already seen it all and must rely on the 0.5 and zoom features to keep our feeds interesting.
While I gripe and groan about this phenomenon, I of course am guilty of such aesthetic obsession. I’ve always been a grade-A sucker for beautiful things. As a child, my favorite books my parents read to me were always the ones with the best illustrations, my keen young eyes hungry for the glittering gowns of a long-haired princess and the delicate costumes of a dance recital backstage. When a pair of twins joined my daycare, I rudely announced I preferred one sister over the other simply because of the way she was dressed. I then had to ponder the consequences of such an opinion in a time-out.
My obsession with aesthetics continued to cause problems. Shortly before starting first grade, I broke my wrist and had an absolute temper tantrum at the hospital because I was distraught at the thought of wearing a sling. Slings were ugly and would look horrible with my school uniform. My whole vibe for the new school year would be off. After much protesting and bratty tears, it was decided that I could get a cast instead. This was the much better option, as the cast could be pink and everyone could sign it (yay attention!). One morning before school I made my dad draw a tiara in a prominent position. While no cast would have been ideal, I found a way to aesthetically (Tim Gunn voice) make it work.
I no longer pick friends and make medical decisions based on aesthetics alone, but the way things look has infiltrated my career and consumption of the world. As a graphic designer, quite literally everything I do at work revolves around stuff looking good. Being hyper-aware of good branding and good graphics hasn’t stopped me from falling victim to the behemoth of consumerism. I am that idiot that is occasionally willing to pay more for one brand over another just because the box looks prettier. I recently bought an overpriced box of Goodles, a fancy mac and cheese brand promising to taste like cacio e pepe. I am not kidding when I say that shit was Kraft in a prom dress. Bamboozled!
This summer, I keep seeing “the world’s best-smelling sunscreen,” Vacation, on social media, in magazines, and in local curated shops. I don’t need sunscreen, I already have sunscreen, but after a few months of observing their great packaging, I hopped on the website to check it out. I didn’t purchase anything, but I was tempted as hell. Their sun-drenched ‘90s beach bum aesthetic truly had me hankering for a glob of tanning oil and a high-cut Baywatch-style one-piece.
In a similar fashion, I recently became aware of the home and garden lifestyle brand Flamingo Estate and fell in love with the aesthetics of their Tomato Collection. Candles, hand soap, lotion, room spray, and a $42 brick of soap are all tantalizingly marketed amongst deliciously ripe and impossibly shiny tomatoes. Do I need a $42 brick of soap? No. Do I want it anyway? Yup. Aesthetics are a consumerist trap!
I may sound like a grumpy old man who’s one bad pun away from contradicting himself. I also may sound like a hypocrite, because I too take ultra zoomed-in photos and curate my Pinterest boards in the hopes that their beauty will seep into my daily life. But, the aesthetics of the modern day seem superficial and performative. You shouldn’t just post your Sylvia Path poetry books, you should read them! Let their beauty infiltrate your mind! Curate your inner aesthetics, the aesthetics of the spirit. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, blah blah blah.
And if anyone needs a cast the size of a six-year-old’s arm, you can borrow mine. My mom kept it for some gross reason, but hey, it’s pretty stylish for a cast. May become aesthetic someday.
My Cult of the Self
Read: Shameless self-promotion! I wrote a piece for Byline called “The Art of Going Bagless” and I would love it if you read it. <3
Watch: Kinds of Kindness is another Yorgos Lanthimos film and I think it should be getting more hype than Poor Things. Willem Dafoe is, as always, the star of the film. Also, any movie that opens with “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics is bound to be a banger.
Listen: I famously love a headphoned walk, but lately I’ve been into analog walks. Listen to the birds! Eavesdrop on people! Hear your own thoughts! Trust me, you’ll love it.
Over and out!
Sohm Body