Gaminessance : Sexy Babies will rise!!!

Big doe eyes, round button lips and soft cheeks. A slight pout and a gentle wrinkle of the brows.

Everyone loves a gamine, and it’s no surprise they’re making a comeback. The original Gamine Takeover started in the 60s with Edie Sedgewick and Twiggy but I would be remiss to not mention Thee gamine icon Audrey Hepburn, unfairly viewed as the “anti-Marilyn”, Hepburn was notable for her girls, waifish frame and persona which was a stark contrast to the voluptuous and romantic Marilyn Monroe…I think you can see where I’m going with this. The gamine is impish, alluring and charming in a way that’s reminiscent of the girl next door coming into her own over the summer (see: Audrey Hepburn’s Sabrina). That doesn't mean she isn't sexy per say - I mean look at Janet Jackson - but moreso she's sexy by way of girlish giggles and rolling eyes.

The sensual romantic can feel too unattainable for many, sometimes you’re more “cute” than sexy, and participating in sexier trends can have you feeling like a child praying dress-up There's a reason “siren eyes” never saw me. But more than anything, the revival of more girlish, youthful styles like balletcore or coquette were the biggest indicator. The baddie styles of the late 10s and early 00s have been on the decline and we are seeing the rise of the gamine again. Everyday people post about big brown doe eyes, round lips and basically looking like a little angel baby. I can’t say I’m mad at it. I'm a libra rising I was born to be angel baby princess of the world.

As the leader of the Sexy Baby coalition, this is most pleasing to me. I cannot help my round eyes and doll lips have captivated so many and its about time the world has started catering to my needs! I'm short, petite and soft get those bodycons away from me!

The post modern gamine will likely be influenced by twee; the indie babygirls of the 2010s who were too cute to be the intimidating hipsters. And with the growing backlash against bimbo aesthetics and more embracing the “mean, esoteric, pretentious” brunette with looks such as the sultry office siren. A return to collars like peter pan collars and maybe even the detachable ones made of lace or crochet, mary janes, boat necks, boots and lots and lots of layering. She will be the 2020s neo-coquettes boyish and boisterous sister.

I do see a Bridget Bardot influence with the increased interest in Sabrina Carpenter after her scuffle with the Catholic Church, she's great gamine inspo for those who cant quite let go of their hyperfeminine roots.

I see this leading to be more Anna Karina than Twiggy or Zooey Deschanel. The 2020s gamine will drink black coffee, have blunt bangs and crawl around in tartan skirts and turtlenecks. Lily-Rose Depp's ever growing popularity and the anti-buccal fat removal campaign has caused people to plump their faces with filler and praise the baby face.

There will still be that characteristic playfulness but more sardonic and biting than the empty-headed bimbo persona. There will also likely be more embracing the tomboyish and androgynous aspects as we have reached peak hyper-femininity. Expect a lot of bobs, pixie cuts, and TWAs. She's the sexiest tomboy you know.

60s makeup is always going viral on twitter, more Turkan Soray than Twiggy, as we continue to phase out of the siren eyes into the more minimal office siren look. There was a prediction that maximalist 2010s would be the next big thing but tonal glam has made a surprising appearance, a look brought to attention by MUA Ani James. But I think the gamine will lean more into the 60s vibe and apply the "sexy baby" staples of rounded lips, and flushed cheeks with darker liner. Maybe a little blue shadow if you're nasty. The popularity of Sofia Coppola's Priscilla will likely lead to an increased interest in the era amongst young women.

A major elephant in the room is body types. Gamines are known for their boyish, waifish bodies. There’s been talk of the “BBL-pocalypse” for a few years that pointed towards people being sick of the exaggerated hourglass figure, with multiple stars taking out their implants or getting surgeries reversed, however the biggest indicator is economical: the recession. When the economy gets worse people get skinnier which is why the late 00s were…like that. ED twitter has been terrorizing us for years now, the coquette waif-pocalypse has made pro ana and fatshaming an unfortunate staple of the subculture (just look at how many people think coquette is inherently pro-ana) and the backlash towards the most recent VSFS has brought about longing for a time where we were less diverse and fat people were invisible and mocked. The gamine will inevitably play into that on some level. Let’s hope we as a collective have enough of a backbone to platform and uplift fat bodies and call out fatphobia (but given how spineless some people are…only time will tell). 

Are you ready for the Gaminnessance of 2024?

(Me living my gamine truth over the years.)

The Never ending Allure of James Spader

Watching Secretary (2002) was such an important part of my burgeoning sexuality and something in it itches a scratch that growing up on 2010s nymphet permanently left on my brain. Something about the meek, baby girlish Lee felt like I was being reflected on screen exactly 21 years before I watched it. Secretary is just a current stop on my sexual discovery, from Lana Del Rey and FKA Twigs in my early teens to Tove Lo and AO3 in high school, to discovering Anais Nin at the age of 19 I’m on a surprisingly long journey to realizing my Lilith in Pisces is very potent.  

And in each stage, my attraction has led me to stern, sardonic older men who make me feel dumber and more naïve than I fancy myself being. Sure there’s the Daryl Dixon’s and Sandor Clegane's but E. Edward Grey gave me something I never knew I wanted. Not the gruff, blue collar men I normally fantasize about, but someone seemingly more put together, with his own business and a hidden neurosis begging to use me as an outlet.

The girls love James Spader. Even now, balding and paunchy and especially in The Office. His naturally intimidating presence has only gotten stronger and something about him appeals to the more taboo desire of older men. Not the ones with sleek salt n pepper hair, and tasteful facial hair. No the girls desire something more raw,

 

            

There’s been an increased interest in James Spader lately, my best friend has a framed picture of him in her room, 80s images of him are going viral every day on twitter, Crash has multiple viral edits. It's not as if we’re the first generation to find him hot, far from it. But there’s something about him that I think is missing from the dating pool. He’s charismatic, flirtatious, well spoken. Of course this is all based on movies and interviews for said movies but there’s a clear difference between him and the men that women these days encounter.

We want someone so besotted by us he works out compulsively to calm down, someone so intune with our desires he’ll crash a car to turn us on. Not someone who has sex with us to brag to his friends later. The girls desire James Spader!                 

𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖔 ★

 “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

― Anais Nin

★ About Me ★

I'm Nani, 21, og tumblr girl still living in a tumblr world. The biggest haters have to be true lovers at their core and that's what you're gonna get here. I'm super passionate about fashion, internet anthropology, film, literature and perfume so expect a little bit of everything. Most people know me from tumblr if you love me and lolcow if you hate me <3

I love erotic films, doom and gloom literature, cannibal motifs, licorice perfume and black coffee with lots of sugar.

I promise I'm not that pretentious (lying).

★

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"It Girls" and the failure of the Tumblr Renaissance

 “Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.”

― Anais Nin

“Clean girl”, “That girl”, “It Girl” we are in a fucking girl-pocalypse and I for one am sick of people acting like any of you have the range. I mean I saw this coming back in 2020 when we were talking about the whole “main character energy”. The real pandemic is people repackaging tumblr era subcultures and aesthetics as if it’s a brand new thing that they created. I’ve been on the internet since they were learning not to slob on their mush peas and they’re telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about.

The real issue is that these self proclaimed “It Girls”' (because lets be honest they only reached it girl status because they forced it), don’t know their history. They reference without knowing what they’re referencing, they don’t know their cultural context. That’s how we have reductive wannabe’s like Aliyahsinterlude who are able to browbeat everyone with “aliyahcore” even though it’s just late 2000s rave aesthetic with costumey “Y2k” color palettes and silhouettes. Throw in a little gyaru while we’re at it, why not. 

People forget the beauty of It Girls was how mundane and almost nerdy they were. Chloe Sevigny was just a random girl in New York’s underground scene who attracted people with her easy nature and guileless eyes. Tavi Gevinson was a regular yet artistic girl who started off taking pictures in her room. Hell, even Anna Karina was a teenage runaway who didn’t speak French. But these girls have personality, they have clear interests that make people want to know more about them.

It girls of the 2010s were born and bred on tumblr, and people are still clamoring to replicate that allure on tiktok and twitter to a lesser extent. It doesn’t work. They can’t monetise it they way they can on Tiktok and Instagram. Everyday girls on Tiktok cry and whine about not being a Tumblr girl during it's heyday and God I'm glad they weren’t. They seek to be popular for popularities sake. They’re quirky in a highly curated way. Everything is empty and vacuous behind their lobotomised stares. 

It’s easy to buy your way into coolness. Wanna seem quirky and cute? Pay $20 for a Sonny Angel figurine. Wanna be mysterious and interesting? Carry around the latest slop by Otessa Moshfegh and pose with a cigarette you won’t smoke. The Tumblr Renaissance has been rumbling since 2020 and it won't ever work because people don’t care enough. So instead they take what the Tumblr girls have been doing for the past 2-4 years and bring it to Tiktok like it’s the new hot thing, And don’t you dare ask for credit or swarms of perfectly coiffed yet deliberately messy “it girlbloggers” in training will swarm your comments saying your not good enough because you didn’t spend $40 on a mediocre lip gloss.

Everybody wants to make a statement but nobody has anything to say. It’s not cool to care or to develop unique interests when someone has a ready made personality pack on Depop so you can pretend to be subversive. When you see someone else’s personality gain them 100k on Tiktok why carve your own niche when you can just wear their skin. We saw it with the Alida Simone clones and their constipated smiles (disregarding the fact that Alida smiled like that because she wore braces and was in her teeny key west kitten porno phase).

We will never get a real Tumblr Renaissance and we need to let sleeping dogs lie. Girls prefer to rewrite history instead of learn it because they’re mad they didn’t do it first as we see with the bizarre reframing of Coquette as a hyper feminine Rococo inspired aesthetic to make it more palatable to outside audiences instead of embracing the messy, vulgar, uncomfortable aspects of it that made it truly subversive. “Reclaiming girlhood” just doesn’t have the same conservative, capitalist ring as “reclaiming femininity” needed to mold future alt right tradwives in the making. It’s also much harder to do a Brandy/Shein/Amazon haul if the subculture you wanna infiltrate is based on self expression when you have none. Sad to see.