On November 10, just five days after US election day, Latest York design director and content creator Elysia Berman told her followers that the embedded “Trumpism” in the sweetness industry must have tipped us off for what the election results could be. “The aesthetics of the face have been changing, and I feel they were predictive of a Trump win,” she said in the now-viral video. The shift Berman refers to includes the rise of no-make-up make-up, tattoo removal videos, Utah curls, latte hair colors, extreme thinness, and a push towards dissolving filler in favour of more subtle, less noticeable cosmetic surgery trends. With people referencing quiet luxury hairstyles and Ozempic use as “obvious indicators” that Trump would win in a landslide, in hindsight, could 2024’s biggest beauty trends have predicted the election? 

This isn’t the primary time beauty trends have been related to particular political leanings. Back in 2021, teenagers on TikTok were giving themselves makeovers based on their Republican or Democratic alter egos. ‘Conservative beauty’ could be defined as beauty trends that uphold white supremacist and patriarchal beauty ideals. For instance, blonde hair has change into the color of the best under Donald Trump (with the help of Fox News), and there’s a link between conservative politics and negative attitudes toward individuals with larger bodies. Online, where trad wives (short for “traditional wives”) post with an aesthetic pulled straight from the 50s, conventional beauty has been a key component for the success of the far-right. This content hides anti-feminist narratives and white nationalist beliefs under a bell sleeve, pearls, and hair slicked into low claw clips.

Because the undertones of conservatism in beauty content are sometimes presented as embracing ‘traditional femininity’, it may well be hard to identify at first. Recently, many trends which are related to this ‘aesthetic’ have already seeped into the mainstream. “Kylie Jenner is dissolving her fillers, and everyone seems to be dyeing their hair their natural color, giving up on their ‘alternative phases’, and shunning any form of individuality,” says Berman. Other 2024 trends that might fall under this framework include the “quiet luxury” low bun, heatless “trad wife curls”, “soft life” make-up, the demonisation of tattoos and even visible eyeliner (apparently, winged eyeliner is the brand new skinny jeans) – the list goes on. Each may appear harmless by itself. Still, together, they construct an image of a certain rural lifestyle stuffed with religious modesty, traditional family values, and an idealisation of family wealth. Of their world, being a girl means all the time having your hair, nails, and makeup done (minimally, according to your husband’s likes) and only tending to your loved ones’s needs. 

When pondering how interlinked the rise of far-right conservatism is with today’s beauty trends, it should (hopefully) go without saying that you simply don’t must get numerous piercings or dye your hair blue to “appear to be” a liberal or leftist. It’s, nevertheless, value examining any beauty rhetoric that accompanies conservatism, including anything that rejects women being empowered by their very own sexuality and focuses on women in a standard role, appearing “naturally” beautiful and “classy” (just like the trad wife aesthetic or “divine feminine” dialogue). “Loads of conservative discourse focuses on women in traditional gender roles, but this also speaks to women remaining submissive to men, remaining appealing to them, and inhabiting a passive role,” says Dr Amy Tatum, a lecturer in communication and media at Bournemouth University. 

What individuals are drawn to immediately is white supremacist beauty ideals and a really ‘natural’ approach to make-up. Kylie Jenner is dissolving her fillers, and everyone seems to be dyeing their hair their natural color, giving up on their ‘alternative phases’, and shunning any form of individuality

The ladies’s liberation movement has historically questioned the pressure for girls to seem beautiful and cling to cultural norms, rejecting beauty trends, make-up and expectations of body hair removal. “Feminist scholars largely and historically have viewed women’s ‘beauty work’ as oppressive tools of the patriarchy designed to metaphorically bind women and restrict their social progress,” says Mycah L. Harrold, assistant professor of promoting at Anderson College of Business and Computing. Here’s where it gets tricky: based on Dr Tatum, there’s also a protracted tradition in conservatism of girls wanting to avoid being “too made up”. This tradition doesn’t stem from a rejection of beauty standards, like for feminists, but quite a desire to maintain up with the gender stereotype of girls as homemakers and steer clear of accusations of vanity. 

Today’s beauty climate is ready against the backdrop of what some scholars have called a “post-feminist” era, with a robust emphasis on selection feminism. Harrold’s 2023 research found that young adult women who report strong feminist identities and feel pressure from beauty standards respond by purchasing dearer beauty products than non-feminists. “Feminists splurge on these products because they associate them with selection and empowerment, and non-feminists purchase discount and cheaper products,” Harrold says. She didn’t measure political orientation within the paper. Still, American liberals report stronger feminist identities than conservatives, which could partly explain how visible eyeliner and colored hair became signifiers of liberalism, left-wing politics and girls’s liberation. 

In Harrold’s research, she also found that each feminists and non-feminists are doing the identical beauty tasks, so it’s secure to say that an unrelenting beauty standard spans across political borders. “While the particular trends, colors, products, services, and desired appearance could also be different, feminists and non-feminists devour beauty products with comparable frequency,” she says. With this in mind, beauty work and consumption should not going anywhere, even when the present trend is to appear as if you aren’t opting into the consumption, and even when Trump’s tariffs raise the price of imported beauty favourites. 

As discussions around gender – particularly about women’s roles in politics, trans and femme bodies, and access to reproductive healthcare – dominated this election season, Dr Tatum says it’s “no surprise” that girls’s looks have been a part of the conversation. “The repealing of girls’s rights goes hand in hand with discussions over what’s ‘acceptable’ for a lady, and that features their appearance,” she says. And the timing lines up: a conservative aesthetic becoming the sweetness ideal coincides with the conservative agenda of rolling back women’s rights and increasing gender inequality. As Dr. Tatum puts it: “Women’s bodies are sometimes a battleground”.