Abstract
#Barbiecore has trended across social media platforms since summer 2022. A fashion aesthetic rooted in Y2K nostalgia, #Barbiecore emphasizes the glamour, glitter, and girl power of the early 2000s through an updated and rose-tinted filter. Using data insights, fashion trend reports, and content analysis, this chapter provides a close examination of the #Barbiecore fashion aesthetic and the broader cultural implications of its Y2K nostalgia in a post-#MeToo landscape. Informing this discussion is the role of Paris Hilton and her media reckoning with her “Barbie doll” celebrity performance. Lauren Berlant’s work, Cruel Optimism, is essential to my analysis. Through this research, I establish a feminist reading of the current state of “Barbie” as shorthand and signifier for a diffuse range of feminine identifications and (post)feminist longings in popular Anglo-American media discourse. In all, then, this chapter grapples with both the baggage and the possibilities of Barbie’s re-emergence as contemporary trend-setter in digital discourse.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | #Barbie and Social Media: Digital Discourses and Mattel’s Celebrity Doll |
| Editors | Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez, Rebecca C. Hains |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783031956102 |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Nov 2025 |
Keywords
- Affect
- Barbie
- Celebrity
- Fashion
- Feminism
- Paris Hilton
