TikTok wants you to stop dressing for the male gaze

Why is everyone talking about the male gaze on our FYPs? This week on TikTok we have a variety of trends that span topics like personal style, indie music, and The Rock. So let's dive in, starting with one that's ignited an important discourse around the male gaze and modern fashion trends.

POV you stopped dressing for the male gaze

Lately, the phrase "pov you stopped dressing for the male gaze" has been all over my For You Page, and it's sparking a necessary conversation on the app.

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This trend is mostly a way for young people to celebrate their personal style glow-ups while also dismantling the male gaze. It's nice to see someone gain confidence and grow into their sense of style, even when it's set to a super sad mash-up of Taylor Swift’s most heartbreaking songs, "All Too Well" and "Champagne Problems."

But some are arguing that the trend is actually a way to slut-shame others for how they dress. Because adhering to style trends doesn't always mean you're dressing for yourself and out of the male gaze. And personal style is just that: personal. If you stop dressing for the male gaze, then that means you can wear whatever you want and, importantly, whatever makes you feel good.

For example, a video posted by @megacoraoconnel reads, "POV: you stopped dressing in 2014-2016 trends and started dressing in 2019-2021 trends." Her video has over 100,000 likes. And the caption points at the real issue: "I'm glad you found your personal style or whatever but you don’t need to shame people who dress differently than u!"

Another sharp critique was posted by @franksaystwentyeight, who wrote, "This trend is just a way to intellectualise sl*t shaming I started dressing how I wanted to and my titties are still out 24/7 suck it." The video has since garnered 1 million views and over 210,000 likes.

@franksaystwentyeight criticized the trend and got over one million views. Credit: tiktok / franksaystwentyeight

The male gaze is a term that’s thrown around a lot on TikTok, but the meaning is often lost because of its overuse.

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"The male gaze is a theory originating in film, but useful for interpreting art, photography, and literature, in which the presumed camera/audience is male and everything in front of it is designed for his consumption, including women," explained Amanda Stanton-Nelson, the 24-year-old masters student behind the account @franksaystwentyeight. "It isn’t something you can consciously or unconsciously dress for, and ascribing it to women and non-binary people’s fashion choices doesn’t make a whole lot of sense," she continued.

Stanton-Nelson found that the videos on her For You Page of this trend were mostly girls who used to wear more revealing clothing and have since adopted more oversized silhouettes. "By saying it was a way to intellectualise slut-shaming I meant it was misusing a sociological term to make women feel bad or complicit in sexism for their clothing choices and imposing some sort of feminist hierarchy to fashion trends."

Indie songs from the 2000s that still slap

OK, this trend is actually hilarious. People have been dueting videos of creator @arijelkins in an attempt to imitate his distinct dances. It all started when @arijelkins, who has 1.2 million followers on the app, began posting a series of videos called “Indie Songs from the 2000s that Still Slap.” So far he’s posted 21 videos, and they're all filmed on his couch and feature stilted dance moves. Other creators picked up on the awkwardness and started imitating them.

Nat Hoops, the 23-year-old behind the account @nartaniel, believes he was the first person to duet @arijelkins's moves. Hoops’s imitation of @arijelkins got over four million views, 730,000 likes, and it has even inspired a slew of copycat videos.

Hoops' video inspired a trend on TikTok. Credit: tiktok / nartaniel

"I just saw his dance and thought it was really goofy, especially for the type of song he was listening to," Hoops told Mashable over Instagram DM.

"I think it caught on because his dance seemed pretty forced and everyone thought it was really awkward to imagine him filming this over and over again alone in his room. It’s also a really easy trend to hop on because he has so many videos that each have an awkward dance," he concluded.

It’s about drive, it’s about power

The song of the week on TikTok is easily "Face Off" by Tech N9ne, Joey Cool, and Dwayne Johnson. Yep, The Rock is a rapper now.

The song is an intense ode to hustle culture. The snippet trending on TikTok features the lyric "it’s about drive, it’s about power, we stay hunger, we devour, put in the work, put in the hours." The sound currently has over 390,000 videos on the app.

Similar to the "while you were sitting around" trend of a couple weeks ago, "Face Off" is typically paired with sped up videos and text that doesn’t warrant the ferocity of the audio. My favorite video of the trend was made by @niamhadkins. The text of her video reads, "middle school me making sure my ponytail didn’t have a single bump," and it shows her aggressively brushing her hair in double speed. I also brought that intensity to my ponytails in middle school, and clearly, I wasn't alone in my hair-brushing hustle. The video has over 6 million views.

Another iteration of the trend is sped up videos of K-pop idols working out and, well, devouring food. There's endless potential for this audio.

Finally, if you're looking for a last-minute Halloween costume, you might want to check out the videos under this sound. You're welcome.