Give Betsy Ross her flowers, because after 247 years, the American flag still hasn’t gone out of style. Whether it is a carefree Lana del Rey in her Born To Die era in her nostalgia-fueled music video for Ride, to the preppy timelessness of Ralph Lauren’s iconic flag sweater, the American flag is multi-purpose for any aesthetic, tacky 4th of July merch notwithstanding. Yet, as Conservatives adopt the American flag and its colors (red, notably), patriotism is decidedly out as a motif amongst Progressive Teens of Today – the Conservative Party has won this battle (and unfortunately, given recent events, possibly the war).
Yet, you have to give them credit; when the category is Americana Realness, conservatives get a 10/10. Whether it’s due to an overflowing, cultish love of their chosen candidate, or just as a bid to get featured in a news article, conservatives step it up at Trump rallies. They can be seen in bedazzled red-white-and-blue cowboy hats, “Make America Great Again” rhinestoned on denim jackets. It’s overzealous (camp if you will), but it’s not just conservatives that still embrace patriotism. As Americana is favored by the right, even progressives (or those who call themselves progressive, at least) adopt right-leaning aesthetics.
For the past few years, everyone has wanted to be a cowboy. Nearly every sorority girl has a pink rhinestone cowboy hat in their back pocket, and cowboy boots were the It Girl Shoe before moto boots took over for the season. Not to mention, as people wonder where “the scene” has gone in New York, it has sprouted in the South and the Midwest. Previously overlooked areas have produced artists inspired by their upbringing while giving their work a decidedly queer flair. You have Ethel Cain’s Southern Gothic aesthetic for her Preacher’s Daughter rollout, marrying her Baptist background with layered storytelling. There’s Chappell Roan’s loving pastiche of a beauty pageant contestant on the cover of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Americana as an aesthetic may not be as on-the-nose as a flag in the wind, but it still exists.
Picture this: you’re on Knickerbocker Avenue. You spot Bushwick mullet queers in a camo baseball cap stitched with “Midwest Princess” in orange (one of Roan’s staple merch items), a muscle tank, worn blue jeans, and cowboy boots on the way to their barista shift. They look nearly indistinguishable from a blue-collar worker that pays decidedly much less rent on a house in Nebraska (see what I did there?). But that Bushwick queer, who likely grew up in liberal Northern New Jersey with an NPR-listening mother, is still willing to poke fun at red states (particularly lower-class areas) while appropriating a working-class aesthetic.
This is just a minor annoyance, though; in some scenes, the adoption of a conservative aesthetic can quickly slide into actually purporting right-wing talking points. I’ll spare you all yet another think piece on Dimes Square, but what cannot be ignored is the transition from their reputation as the “dirtbag left” to ironic conservatism. This “scene” has sprouted creative directors with infected stick-and-pokes wearing a MAGA hat as a fashion statement, and overhearing him drop “gay” and “retarded” like a middle schooler playing Call of Duty. It’s the romanticization of Catholicism, of skinny white girls in slip dresses and rosaries smoking cigarettes and joking about becoming trad-wives that secretly dream of the day they’ll be swept away to Greenwich, Connecticut by a Man in Finance. It’s Dasha Nekrasova, host of the Red Scare podcast, having a photo op at a shooting range and fashioning the target to look like a caricature of an Arab terrorist during the height of Gaza’s genocide. This irony bears more resemblance to the modern-day incarnation of the Republican Party than I’m sure the Dimes Square crowd wants to admit; namely, the disregard for people different than themselves.
Of course, it’s not all bleak; many people have reclaimed conservative aesthetics for their own, finding comfort in familiar motifs but putting their own spin on it. Country, a decidedly American genre, has always been revered by the queer community, from Dolly Parton to Kacey Musgraves. Recently, it has been overtaken by a small, but growing number of artists in the LGBTQ+ community. Whether that be alternative artists like Orville Peck, drag queens who step outside of the usual electronic bitch track like Trixie Mattel, to even mainstream artists coming out like Maren Morris, they all bring a perspective outside of the standard straight musician usually upheld in Nashville. These trends also allow queer people in red states, whether they move to a big city or build community within their small towns, to embrace these roots while bringing a progressive viewpoint to it.
Trends will always skyrocket when New York takes notice. But they aren’t only found in big cities; it’s a sunburnt uncle in his pick-up or your sassy Southern grandma, and their descendants who are building their own identities from where they came from.
Written by Ava Sharahy
Photographer: @_.rubbertoe
Director, Production Manager: @dreamingofceleste
PA: @_.amanddaaa
Talent: @katieschieble & @chloe.kaleah
