Out of all of the weird, wonderful and downright absurd audios doing the rounds on TikTok, you wouldn’t think that a recording of Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling out Representative Yoho for his sexist remarks would have such an impact. No less than, at surface level that’s. Dig a little bit deeper into how the app functions though – beyond the dance challenges and thirst traps – and it’s a totally different story, one in all rampant political discourse from each right and left of the spectrum, passionate Presidential endorsement, and academic videos on every part from historic cultural appropriation to the gender pay gap. The truth is, what makes AOC’s audio so unique is just not its content, but relatively how it’s been used; to soundtrack make-up tutorials and sweetness transformations. Internationally, Gen Z are filming themselves applying their make-up while mouthing along to AOC’s impassioned speech condemning toxic masculinity. Most featuring the congresswoman’s signature red lip in fact.

It’s unsurprising that AOC has turn out to be a TikTok star and a beauty inspiration at that. She is, in spite of everything, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and represents a younger, more energizing brand of politics; as engaged in current affairs as she is in popular culture and digital trends. Like Gen Z, her love for make-up and sweetness sits adjoining to her politics and he or she has never apologised for this, defending against accusations that make-up is “frivolous” in an interview with Vogue, all while expertly applying her own make-up and discussing the dismantling of the patriarchy in fact.

@lauriehernandez_

I needed to do it. I’m wondering how AOC feels knowing most of gen z thinks she’s iconic? (disclaimer to the parents: foul language.)

♬ REGISTER TO VOTE aoc x humble – cannotbodyroll

For Sonali, who took part in the AOC challenge within the lead as much as the US election, AOC is a relatable introduction to feminist politics for young people. “Last 12 months, (America) unfortunately saw (Supreme Justice) Ruth Bader Ginsburg pass away,” she tells Dazed Beauty. “RGB was at all times an activist for ladies’s rights and together with her passing I feel AOC has stepped into that role, becoming the voice that ladies need. I believe that her audio on TikTok has absolutely been a way for young women to talk up after they can’t find the words themselves.” 

Alex, who has found viral success for her educational #DecadeChallenge series, during which she uses make-up and fashion to chart the history of feminism over the twentieth century, agrees. She notes that, by creating these sorts of videos, young women are difficult much deeper misogynistic attitudes. “Throughout history, women have been seen as ‘inferior’ and so a number of the things we do – like make-up – are tainted by association,” she explains. “Make-up isn’t something completely superficial or apolitical. Throughout history, it’s at all times been a robust tool of expression.”

“TikTok is allowing us a deeper insight,” she continues. “Unlike Instagram, which may be very static – all you see is the final result, which might be judged as superficial, as women using make-up often are – TikTok shows the method and you’ll be able to layer over context with these audios. It reveals how complicated and multifaceted we’re, and that’s really empowering.” 

“Make-up is an awesome strategy to grasp people’s attention and spread messages. It’s a non-threatening and a non-aggressive strategy to speak to all types of individuals, even those that don’t enjoy beauty. Art is art and other people like to see art” – Purple Haze Mue, TikTok creator

For Haze, who goes by Purple Haze on TikTok, her vibrant dreadlocks now as iconic as her beauty videos promoting Black Lives Matter (BLM), it’s all concerning the artistry and connection that make-up offers. “Make-up is an awesome strategy to grasp people’s attention and spread messages,” she says. “It’s a non-threatening and a non-aggressive strategy to speak to all types of individuals, even those that don’t enjoy beauty. Art is art and other people like to see art!”.

Based on Zey, a student who creates videos promoting human rights issues internationally, from #EndSARs to Mexican rights, it’s the fast, fun nature of TikTok that lends itself to its educational successes. “The max time of a TikTok video is one minute,” she notes. “I believe most individuals, myself included, would relatively watch that than a 10-minute video or read an article.” Sara, also a student, agrees, explaining that she thinks Gen Z are also simply more prone to trust one another: “We do are inclined to get our information on TikTok, which I do think is because we feel more comfortable receiving information from people we are able to relate to. This is usually a problem too though in the event that they don’t do their research, which is when misinformation can spread.” 

@itz.zeyy

My heart is aching for Nigeria, I pray you get the justice you so rightfully deserve🇳🇬🇳🇬 ##endsars ##foryoupage ##fyp ##justice ##somali ##makeup ##viral

♬ original sound – Cashflow Harlem

What unites these creators is that they intrinsically understand the facility that beauty has on social media. All have grown up in a thriving culture of beauty YouTubers, on a eating regimen of make-up tutorials and product hauls, and with a rotating door of beauty influencers; each explains that that they had an interest in make-up first, the choice to bring politics into the combination was second. Based on author Alice Ophelia – one a part of the hugely successful newsletter High Tea, a veritable bible for understanding Gen Z and TikTok trends – a part of the lure rests within the sheer popularity of make-up on the web. “Beauty trend videos are highly engaging, taking the viewer through a routine, which promotes energetic participation on the a part of the viewer relatively than passive consumer of the content,” she notes. “Mixing political messages inside this familiar topic and content format is a subversion of the primary iteration of beauty vloggers and archetypal beauty content that we’ve seen across YouTube and Instagram for the past decade.”

“Gen Z are disrupting the genre (of influencer beauty culture) by repurposing the format of tried and tested beauty content to suit their very own narratives with politically charged messages,” she continues. “They know that TikTok has a distribution model that enables for the message to be widely distributed and may have a better engagement rate due to surprising message inside. It’s almost a secret coded message for the viewer and makes them feel they’re in on the activism itself.” 

On this, the wonder content is proven simply to be a vessel for political messages, a slick one which manipulates the TikTok algorithm. It’s a trick that saw Feroza Aziz, then 17 years old, go viral for spreading awareness of China’s detention of Rohingya Muslims on TikTok in 2019. She too framed the video as a make-up tutorial but then switched the narrative to politics, a narrative that her followers continued within the comments: “GUYS NO JOKE THIS TUTORIAL HELPED ME SO MUCH PLEASE WATCH IT,” one responded. 

Likening the technique to the “Dancing to Ex’s Toxic Voicemails” trend, Alice considers it a clever manipulation, offering you something familiar but then subverting this for max impact. “It’s more about bringing awareness to issues which are largely uncovered within the mainstream media,” she notes. “(Gen Z) use TikTok to present a voice to the voiceless. They know the right way to package the wonder content with a political message, in a way that ensures it’s destined to go viral or have an enormous organic reach.”

“(Gen Z) use TikTok to present a voice to the voiceless. They know the right way to package the wonder content with a political message, in a way that ensures it’s destined to go viral or have an enormous organic reach” – Alice Ophelia, High Tea

For Alex, who’s also currently doing her masters in Digital Media and Society and applying for a PhD on the role of digital media in modern feminism, it’s a subject she’s passionate to learn more about. “Beauty content has a better probability of going viral than something that has an overtly political message, probably because (TikTok) desires to be an entertainment app,” she considers. “They probably don’t need to turn out to be a political app because that’s going to be problematic for his or her advertisers and will hurt their bottom line.” Her theory is that through the use of the language and visual currency of beauty – hashtags within the captions, typical make-up content – it flags the video as entertainment relatively than political, meaning it’s easier for the video to slip past the algorithm and reach the hallowed For You Page (FYP). 

A report from the Intercept released last 12 months supports Alex’s theory, proving that TikTok actively tried to comb ‘ugly’, ‘disabled’ and ‘poor’ people and inflammatory politics under the rug, wanting as a substitute to advertise itself as a spot for positive, beautiful, and neutral content. This was also the experience of Feroza Aziz, who accused TikTok of banning her and eventually, after much media attention, received an apology from the app and was reinstated.

@purplehazemue

🤌🏽✨B L A C K  E X C E L L E N C E ✨🤌🏽

♬ original sound – hailey ッ

On this, TikTok trends – especially beauty trends which garner tens of millions of views and likes – can turn out to be a double-edged sword for the app. For each #PerfectAsIAm challenge, a healthful and positive self-love trend launched by Marc Jacobs for his or her recent Perfect perfume, lurks a dangerous and insensitive culture of bandwagoning. For instance, 2020 saw instances of blackface and the ‘I Can’t Breathe’ trend go viral, each supposedly in ‘solidarity’ with BLM. Unsurprisingly the entire creators featured here expressed their disgust and discomfort, noting that there’s a advantageous line between turning politically and emotionally charged subjects – resembling BLM – into trends, and using an existing political audio to spread awareness, or using make-up to tell and educate in a sensitive way. “I don’t think changing your skin color for a number of hours makes you’re feeling our struggle,” says Zey. “What makes a legitimate trend is once you use your words to tell. Words might be powerful and that’s all you would like.”

“I do my make-up to politically charged sounds because that essentially forces people to take heed to the sound in the event that they are occupied with my make-up,” Sonali adds. “That isn’t a trend, that’s a sensible strategy to get your point across. It’s a really slim line, but at the top of the day the BLM movement is just not a trend. By making it one, persons are minimising the brutality that Black people face on the day by day.”

Criticisms aside, all of them agree that TikTok – and specifically beauty videos – are a legitimate type of digital activism, largely partly because of lockdown forcing conversations online. In any case, when a TikTok tutorial of a glittery eye look reaches tons of of hundreds of individuals internationally, carrying with it messages of feminism and human rights, it’s hard to argue with them. Each talk of the actual world impact their videos are having, whether that’s inspiring young girls to start out difficult conversations at home or seeing a video go viral, reaching individuals who don’t even use the app. Perhaps the revolution isn’t going to be televised, but relatively presented with perfect eyeliner flicks and a pointy red lip.