#cottagecore discourse

[rosarrie]

I’m bipoc and I didn’t know about all of that stuff associated with cottagecore. I had always assumed it was about escapism. And also, how the hell am I suppose to connect harmless cute art and escapism with taking land away from indigenous people?

One thing, and it’s a major effing thing, that I absolutely hate about tumblr (any social media sites at that) is that everyone here assumes you should know everything about everything. And damn you if you didn’t. There is a nicer way to educate someone instead of whatever it is anon was doing. I know a little more about cottagecore because of that anon but fuck was that the wrong way to go about it.

I hope anon doesn’t discourage you from making cute art.

i agree!!! feeling like u need to know everything about any one subject at any point in time is very unreasonable. However, me being someone who actively engages in this trend, I should know about the concerns around it and I'm happy to have the discussion, it's just when it gets hateful and hostile that I don't like to engage.....

thank u for sharing ur thoughts! and sorry for the ramble, + I shall continue making my silly cute art I promise 💗

[killjoygem]

Cottagecore discourse feels super amerocentric to me

I dont understand the arguments at all, they just seem bizarre

[sapphicconservative]

What's the drama around cottagecore? It seems like a pretty harmless aesthetic.

People like to think that because white people are enjoying pretty pictures of simple living and wanting to live off the land, that they want to be "colonists." The vast majority of people who want to live off of the land are looking to purchase land legally if they don't already own the land to do so. The rest of us already legally own the land we live on.

It also lumps all cottagecore bloggers together, basically any white person despite where they live are "colonists." I've seen a few Northern European bloggers walk away because they were harassed for being colonists.

I've had people tell me I'm racist for wanting to own a self sustaining garden because obviously I want to own black slaves to work in my tiny garden? I won't pretend to understand their logic. For some reason, though, they're very vicious with those they hate. I'd receive constant negative messages and asks from people in the cottagecore community.

[valentinemiku]

The thing that’s fucks me off about the cottagecore shitfight as someone who both lives/works on an actual farm and is from a rural area with a high indigenous population is that like. If you actually take to heart indigenous values and beliefs regarding the land then you wouldn’t have a problem with people wanting to move out of cities and plant strawberries and own a chicken or six. like nobody by living that way is harming native practices any more than they would be by living in a rank nasty city. Like you’re directing criticisms to the wrong kinda farmer bro, airy fairies who can barely get out of bed by 11 to feed the cows are not a threat to you.

[lukewarmmediatakes]

Cottagecore as an aesthetic is fine the same way 1950s vintage as an aesthetic is fine. Cottagecore does find its origins in white supremacy and colonization — but you’re not a bad person because you find images of farm animals and nature beautiful or calming. It’s okay to daydream about a simple life.

But acknowledge the neo-Nazis and tradfems in your community. Don’t actually aspire to live in a cottage on stolen indigenous land. Go bake a pie instead. Your Pinterest board doesn’t hurt anyone, but allowing white supremacy in your community does.

[trust-me-i-just-get-weirder]

Remember how we were all talking about how teenage girls interests are often unfairly criticised and mocked? It feels like that’s starting to happen to cottagecore, and I don’t like that very much.

[littleevereblogs]

I know like...2 people follow me here but I was messing around on pinterest and my Cottagecore board ended up changing aesthetic from the typical kind of western....idea i suppose??? Of how its supposed to look? Into something a little more modern and diverse. Its very much at the intersection of Cottagecore and SolarPunk, and I think thats very lovely, personally. I've called it Solarcore, and I think its best described as forward thinking nostalgia.

Yes, there is a certain romantization of the feeling that we get from the old and the familiar, b u t there is acknowledgement of the reality of the past: it was bloody. It was ugly. And we have to grow past it.

Its still very much escapism, but its diverse and I hope to expand that diversity further in terms of styles and architecture and technology that I collect in the board.

Here are some examples:

Its also not all city based - unlike solarpunk - but its also not about total isolation!! Not everyone CAN handle city-life, it can be loud and overwhelming and dealing with people day in and out, even with nature outspilling at every corner, can be overwhelming! But human beings thrive in community!! Maybe small ones or large ones, but communities nonetheless.

Solarcore is both an aesthetic and the concept of a movement; it breaks the idea that the only romanticism lies in the past, as well as the idea that nostalgia and forward thinking cannot coexist. It embraces and enforces diversity, and in it, kindness. Cultural diversity and blended communities lie at the heart of the aesthetic, as well as earth-technology and sustainability.

Has someone done this before? Uh...i don't know and if they did send me their way I want to be their friend pls thank you.

And if you're going to say "this is just solarpunk", well, I think Solarpunk handles slightly more complex matters than this sort of soft romanticism of people being people alongside the earth and technology, and of wlw/nblw baking bread for their loved ones in their solar powered ovens in their handmade earthship style house where they recycle their gray water to water their lil green house garden,,,,,

Anyway, all this to say I was thinking about making an adjacent tumblr to go along with the board..,,,,, maybe I'd find people who specifically could help me find hispanic/latine cottagecore/solarpunk/solarcore aesthetics to reblog,,,,,, also more diversity!! In cultures and races and styles and the way that we approach technology maybe?? 🥺👉👈 just a thought

[cottage-writings]

I have so many thoughts on the representations of femininity in cottagecore...  i am so fascinated by it.

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir writes on how women are created, not born. Then there’s all the ideas about how cottagecore presents the ideal of land that has been touched, created, farmed, divided by fences. It is not wild, it is not wilderness. And in a way, the femininity in cottagecore is civilized, just like the gardens. A garden in itself heavily implies that it is created and not (that) natural. And this is my point i suppose.

So it is: always looking clean and sweet and nice and pliant and young and in pretty dresses etc. Never messy. Never complicated. Idk

I enjoy the easthetic, mostly nature, i enjoy the moodboards, i enjoy the dreamy vibe.

but i am still very critical.