By Rhyan Chastanet
According to University of Arizona political scientist Chris Weber, mutual resentment between Democrats and Republicans has greatly increased.
Several studies have been conducted to uncover what is charging this growing hatred. One issue often discussed is limitations of information communities. There are a vast number of journalists and citizens creating content that confirms their ‘viewers’ conclusions. When people are only exposed to one side of a political viewpoint in their media consumption, their beliefs go largely unchallenged while staying informed on recent events.
The TikTok algorithm, unlike other platforms, provides a unique combination of videos at the swipe of a finger to each user. These recommendations are based on the user’s activity, adjusting to content the user will be more likely to react to. While this makes the app easy and fun for users, it creates an information bubble of videos catered to a user’s opinions and beliefs.
Over the past few years, several trends have been created by those on both sides of the political spectrum. A common thread within these videos was that despite being politically motivated, they had very little to do with actual politics.
A specifically eye-catching trend that circulated many For You Pages was the “republicansona” trend. This involved liberals–predominantly female-identifying creators –transforming themselves into the stereotypical view of a republican woman. The women began applying cakey makeup while sporting layered scarves and flannels. The comments on these videos join in on laughing at republican women and their ‘unfashionable modest’ looks.
Admittedly at first I laughed along with them, but something about it felt wrong. The conservatives swooped into defend themselves by criticizing the ‘ugly blue haired feminists’ and starting their own trends that put down liberal women for being ‘unattractive.’
This form of commentary failed to address any flaws in the politics of the opposing party. The sole purpose was to make a mockery of each political group based on their attractiveness. Masked as political activism, these videos revealed the strong presence of internalized misogyny in both liberal and conservative women.
Participating in shallow trends such as these are taking us backwards in our fight against the patriarchy. It encourages disrespect to women not deemed conventionally attractive and furthers the idea that their value should be based on it. We have to be capable of engaging in political debate without the mentioning of physical appearance.
I find both sides’ behavior to be concerning. They both continue starting trend after trend that makes caricatures of the opposing supporters while praising their own beauty. This cycle reveals the hypocrisy of both.
The “God Made Girls” trend also framed conservative women as catering to their husbands’ every need and being the perfect housewife. As a demographic that claims to care so much about women’s rights, I find this to be a harmful way to comment on the stereotypes associated with conservative women.
In response to a video made by a republican man claiming that women who vote democrat are “physically unattractive,” user snackpax.epi decided to conduct some research on republican women. In his response, he explained the limited data on this specific issue promoted him to begin a study which will be published soon. He turned to the National Vitals Statistics System and concluded that over the past 20 years, the life expectancy of liberal women is 72 years while that of conservative women is only 65 years. In addition, he concluded that, “Women who identify as conservative are ten times more likely to be shot by a spouse and murdered by a gun than liberal women”.
Conservative men should focus on the safety of conservative women rather than making content comparing and defending their attractiveness. The Tiktok community needs to stop reducing issues between the two parties to childish arguments that further divide us. Instead, we should use this app and its growing popularity as a tool to spread information and engage in discourse in a respectful manner to avoid creating more unnecessary friction.
The main issue with these jokes is that they further polarize us while dancing around the reality of the issues they deal with. For example, several jokes have been made to poke fun at the traditional gender roles present in a republican relationship: the ‘manly’ men and the doting housewife. The jokes made brought attention to this stereotype, but do not speak to any of the valid criticisms of the enforcement of gender roles. This prompts liberal viewers to sit back and laugh while the conservatives return with equally useless criticisms.
There are several current issues concerning policy decisions in red states that leave women more vulnerable than men. There is little discussion on TikTok on the risks that particularly impact conservative women. According to The Milbank Quarterly, the implementation of conservative state policies hindered the estimated 2.8 year increase to the female life expectancy and 2.1 year increase to male life expectancy in the US.
The culture on TikTok continues to encourage people to poke the bear through the creation of trends that aim to elicit a reaction from their target audience. It is truly disappointing to see the level of engagement with the “God Made Girls” trend as opposed to educational creators.
While I think comedy can be a great tool for expressing political beliefs, jokes like these are redefining what it means to identify with a party and enforce harmful stereotypes. Engaging with and boosting this lowbrow humor encourages more creators to join in and sustain the hateful culture of mockery.
With these shocking statistics put forward, it is my hope that more TikTok creators of all political alignments can create trends that address the real issues with conservative vs liberal women, rather than reducing them to beauty contests.
