Why is the Clean-Girl Aesthetic Soiled with Dirty Politics?

Although I often sport a slick-back bun and little gold hoops, both hallmarks of the so-called aesthetic, there is a lot more behind the embodiment of a ‘clean girl.’ While ‘clean’ acts as the central concept to this trend, make no mistake; there’s grime beneath the glossy surface of this aesthetic. 

 Faze Wipes, Alysha Laurene, 2015

The clean-girl aesthetic, with its minimalist vibe and hyper-curated look, is less about beauty and more about selling an image which plays perfectly into our influencer-obsessed culture. Where, behind the scenes, there’s an invisible labour of constant grooming, overconsumption, and meticulous refinement. In a world where many of us live and die by the "visual economy" (as Emma Dabiri points out in Disobedient Bodies), the way you look is social currency. A currency that is only available to those who fit the ideal. It demands a level of privilege, time, money, and knowledge of beauty standards all reinforcing typically White Eurocentric standards of beauty.

So, while it may seem like the clean girl aesthetic is just another passing trend, it’s actually part of a larger, more complex performance. Its image (alongside similar trends and aesthetics) disguises the political underbelly of identity, power, and capital. Maintaining this facade isn’t about achieving ease or simplicity but more notoriously about keeping up with the unspoken rules of status and desirability in today’s cultural zeitgeist. 

The rise of the clean-girl aesthetic coincided with the pandemic and the resurgence of the alt-right. While we were baking banana bread and fighting over toilet paper, a darker undercurrent was creeping into the mainstream - one that values control, purity, and a fetishized return to "tradition." From the trad-wife movement seen in personalities like Nara Smith, to the thinly veiled transphobia and fatphobia embedded in today’s beauty ideals. These aesthetics don’t just happen in a vacuum. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram amplify these images, perpetuating a narrow vision of beauty that the algorithm rewards over and over again. 

The clean girl? Ambiguous. But we all know what she looks like!

Beauty is and will always be political. The lines between self-expression and self-exploitation are murkier than ever before. The “clean” girl is definitely dirtier than she looks!