What It Actually Means To Be A “Clean Girl”

Is it “just an aesthetic”, or does media propaganda keep women in marginalized communities trapped in a fantasy world?

Dear Diary,

The clean girl aesthetic has been the new beauty craze across social media for the past few years. Staple celebrities for the clean girl aesthetic include Hailey Bieber, Lori Harvey, and Sofia Richie for their low-effort yet classy and refined looks. Although I admire the space this concept has created for women to express their “inner muse," I find it inauthentic due to its performative nature on social media (and not to mention that the undertones of elitism can be quite off-putting). The concept of an aesthetic shares some irony as it intends to reflect on an individual's characteristics, personality, lifestyle, and environment, yet the critiques strictly focus on the physical aspect. In fact, how does one achieve this clean-girl aesthetic? Some say it’s the combination of the “no makeup” makeup look, “low maintenance” hairstyles, a wardrobe filled with neutral-tone colors, and dainty jewelry pieces, but I think there’s more that meets the eye.

One of my mutuals on TikTok who goes by the name “Clios_World” made a video explaining how trendy aesthetics categorize women into “predictable subtypes," reducing the complex nature of a woman to her visual representation. What I’ve noticed about the clean girl aesthetic is that it falls into the “soft life aesthetic," which is another subtype that focuses on minimizing stress, indulging in luxury, and prioritizing self-care and mental wellness. After examining months of social media content surrounding these subtypes, I asked myself what type of women are the target audience for these trends. In order for an aesthetic to "trend," it has to sell a fantasy. I’ve observed that a specific group of people tend to embody the manufactured persona these aesthetics come with, but they can’t truly resonate with that identity because their realities don’t align with the image. As Clio stated, “It's not just an aesthetic; it's a lifestyle.”

Contrary to popular belief, I truly believe that the main target audience for these trends is women in marginalized communities. It may seem like the target audience is women who have the freedom to pursue soft or clean girl lifestyles (I don’t have to specify this group). We all know who I’m referring to, but those women are used as the propaganda of this movement. They make their “clean girl” content with their high-rise apartments as backdrops, filming their lifestyles that are funded by daddies money, and basically flaunting the fact that they never had to struggle a day in their lives. I see these passing trends as reminders that there will always be a glass ceiling for WOC and (especially) black women that keep us at the “bottom” of the social and economic hierarchy. A reminder that the most they will allow us to do is play dress up to look the part, but will existing as our authentic selves ever get us a pass at the table?

Could I be overanalyzing this? Trends and aesthetics may help us find identities and foster communities, but I believe it is critical to examine the illusions of inclusivity perpetuated by popularized trends and aesthetics. False inclusivity may not always be intentional, as our realities are made up of subjective experiences, and an aesthetic will reflect this. As always, the struggles of women in marginalized communities are never at the forefront of anyone’s mind. However, the elements of a trend are intentionally chosen to create a fantasy for women. I looked up the clean girl aesthetic on my Google browser, and there were mainly pictures of white rich women with slick backs in designer clothing. As my fellow black women know, we always have to put the word “black girl” in the search engine before we look up reference pictures of anything. The pictures I did see of black women resembled the same look, which tells me that only a certain type of look is considered "clean." Where were the black women in cultural hairstyles like braids and locs? The black women who wear exaggerated nails, lashes, and makeup? Overall, this trend fails to acknowledge the cultural aspects of a WOC’s, and specifically Black women’s, aesthetic.

The truth is that women in marginalized communities were never given the privilege to exercise a soft or clean life. As black women, we have been used as scapegoats for society's wrongdoings. They blame our women entertainers for influencing hyper-sexuality in the media as if we weren’t automatically sexualized straight out of the womb by our oppressors, leading to the damaging of black daughters self-worth before they ever got a chance to build it. We are everyone’s enemy. Even our own men have turned against us. Our men find it easier to give love to women outside of our community because they don’t want to deal with the labor it takes to tackle our generational trauma, so they would rather act as if it doesn’t exist. There has never been room for us to be “soft” because we constantly have to present a strong exterior in order to be the emotional dumpster for everyone. Our critique is translated as anger and ungratefulness. We constantly have to fight for a seat at a table, and when we finally get a seat, the chair has loose screws.

So to answer my question, a “clean girl” is a woman who has lived a life clean of struggles, trauma, and hardships, enabling her to prioritize her mental health, enjoy intimacy, bask in her vulnerability, and achieve self-actualization. Their privilege to disappear into their pleasures comes at the expense of humanity's well-being. As they have the privilege to forget about our pain rather than living with it everyday, we suffer from their lack of acknowledgement. Indirectly or directly, the clean girls do the dirtiest work by giving us the illusion of having access to a life they are constantly gatekeeping.

From my thoughts to yours,