The "Cottage-Core" side of TikTok and the issues of Diversity

"A palace cannot make you rich but a cottage in the woods can." — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Unless you have been living under a rock, you may have heard or seen content from TikTok, an app that has been widely used around the globe. From small businesses to celebrities, everyone has either used it for fun, to create their own form of art or have at least tried promoting their business on the app.

What is Tiktok?

According to Oberlo.com, Tiktok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world, which presents an alternate version of online sharing. "It allows users to create short videos with music, filters, and some other features."

The app was created by Zhang Yiming, a 37 old developer, who originally called the app "Douyin" which means "shaking sound" in Chinese. The app, with help from ByteDance, an internet company in China, started the platform in China. In 2017, Tiktok became global and today is one of the most popular social media apps in the world.

"The app did incredibly well after this, particularly among young people, and in July 2018, managed to have 500 million global active users," says Tanyel Mustafa, a freelance journalist on The-Sun.com

Different "Toks"

Many different types of categories or "toks" are featured on this app. Examples are "stonertok", which is a category for "ouid" enthusiasts, and herbal smokers, and there's Cartiktok, which is for content creators who share their love for cars.

One of my favorite categories is called cottage-core, a romanticized aesthetic for a farm or agriculture lifestyle. From baking bread to making homemade dye from plants, it's hard not to like this side of Tiktok.

Lack of Diversity

Being a person who has grown to watch Winx, the TinkerBell movies, and has been obsessed with Hayao Miyazaki aesthetics since the age of 12, it's a side of TikTok I would never leave.

What I want more of is more POCs in the cottage-core community of Tiktok. Now don't get me wrong, you do see either a black teen sometimes includes their content on cottage-core tok, but it's sadly a rare thing that I've witnessed.

Now Youtube, on the other hand, looking up "Black Cottage Core" you will have results. One of the short results, but shown the same great quality of the "cottage-core" aesthetics was named "The Life of a CottageCore Black Girl'' and was made by Youtuber, blogger, and creative director Anyah Le. You do see other videos as well, that not only show a more afro-centric version of the aesthetics, but content creators discussing the inclusivity of "cottage-core" and seeing how it only pertains to white creators.

I remember me and my mother watching compilations on Youtube while watching my mother goes, "At this time historically, we were slaves" I nodded, but said nothing. She wasn't wrong, but I wanted to look at this, with more optimism.

Cis-White "Trend" turned Revoluntionary

In an article from Glamour magazine, Shanna Shipin says "on its surface, cottage-core would seem to be a largely cis white trend when you think of its standard imagery from Pride and Prejudice to Little Women, delicate white heroines are at the center of feminist period pieces." She also explains that the inspiration of the aesthetic, can seem as problematic, and there are obvious reasons as to why. It's a time in America (and other countries) where there was colonization, as well as racism. But can that be turned around into something more positive?

Up and coming black content creators, when you look up the #blackcottagecore on Instagram, though it is small, and has 500+ posts, is taking cottage-core and making it an aesthetic for "soft black women." I believe to also erase the narrative of the "strong, independent black woman" stereotype, we need to include more women of color in different kinds of styles, and themes.

To conclude, there should be (and I wish) for the farm-inspired aesthetic to have more cultural backgrounds, identities, and different walks of life. This will allow POC's to express who they truly are.