Part 8 ~ The VSCO Girl: A Greenwashed Persona?
An interesting reaction to the growing concern about single-use plastics, specifically plastic straws, is the online stereotype of a “VSCO girl”.
Figure 3. A screenshot of the ‘search results’ when “Vsco girl” is searched in the social media platform TikTok.
VSCO (commonly pronounced “visco”) is a popular photo-editing app which launched in 2011. During the summer of 2019, a lot of content that “mocked” or “poked fun” at the stereotypical girl who uses the app appeared online, particularly on the social media platform TikTok, where content using the hashtag “vscogirl” has collectively accumulated over 2.2 billion views (as seen in Figure 3). These girls, labelled VSCO girls, are said to wear “oversized T-shirts, scrunchies, puka shell necklaces, Birkenstocks, and more”(Aronoff, 2019).
Figure 4 is an example of one of the many starter pack memes based around the stereotype of a VSCO girl. Starter pack memes are a popular form of meme that aims to describe a certain stereotype of person by bringing together images of their stand-out features in a humorous way. This includes the clothes they wear, the cars they drive, their hair cuts, and even the phrases they might say. Starter pack memes are celebrated for their humorously specific cultural observations. But I argue that they are an efficient system of commodifying and recuperating culture; types of people are distilled down to quintessential aspects of their appearances, creating new connotations and meanings that often overtake the original.
Figure 4. A Starter Pack Meme that has been shared on Instagram titled “vsco girl starter pack”.
The typical VSCO girl seemingly perceives herself as environmentally conscious, with particular defining characteristics including her/his use of a reusable water bottle and a reusable straw (usually metal). A quintessential VSCO girl trait is an outward expression of outrage at the harmful impacts of plastic straws on turtles. Among other phrases, VSCO girls are said to frequently proclaim “save the turtles” just before or after drinking out of their metal straws. This phrase is repeated in many TikTok videos in which people adopt the VSCO girl character (screenshots of which can be seen Figure 5). Subsequently, the plastic straw has become strongly associated with the anger of a VSCO girl. This is evident when we look at the comment section of Figgener’s video which is flooded with VSCO girl references (Figure 6).
Figure 5. Screenshots of TikTok videos on the topic of VSCO girls.
It is surely a positive thing that the VSCO girl “style” has helped to popularise the use of reusable straws and bottles. However, a concern is that the plastic straw and disposable water bottle are just convenient scapegoats for climate change. The single use straw and water bottle are not necessities (for most people). Therefore, boycotting these disposable items is an easy way for a person to feel justified in portraying themselves as an environmentalist, even if they otherwise significantly participate in environmentally-harmful consumer culture. In this way, the adoption of the VSCO girl persona can be used as a method of greenwashing oneself.
Reusable water bottles and metal straws are increasingly popular items in our culture as concerns about the impacts of plastic waste increase. By establishing a stereotype that is centralised around the use of these reusable items, these efforts against plastic waste are recuperated. The characteristics of an environmentally-conscious person, who wants to reduce their plastic-waste output, have been commodified into an aesthetic that can be adopted like a fashion trend. And in a culture of fast fashion, trends come and go with haste. They are constantly changing and are therefore seen as disposable. And it is disposability that the anti-plastic-waste movement is fighting in the first place.
Figure 6. Screenshots of comments in the ‘comment section’ under Figgener’s YouTube video.
Therefore, when it comes to achieving the aesthetic of a VSCO girl, the reusable bottle and metal straw are no longer valued so much for their original environmental purposes, but are instead utilised as fashion accessories. In this way, concern for the environment becomes recuperated and “dissatisfaction itself becomes a commodity”(Debord, 2014, p.1).
In a similar manner, the phrase “save the turtles” is no longer used as a desperate demand for action against plastic waste, but rather as a signal to identify oneself as a VSCO girl. The original purpose and meaning of these three words, “save the turtles”, has been cheapened and replaced with a new meaning. Just like that, as Michiko Kakutani describes in his book The Death of Truth, “the corrosion of language[...] diminish[es] the very value of truth”(Kakutani, 2019, p. 12).
It is difficult to grasp the extent to which people are earnestly embracing the VSCO girl aesthetic, or mocking it. Many of the TikTok videos about VSCO girls (Figure 5) consist of a person ‘playing the part’ of a VSCO girl, parodying their hatred of disposable plastic straws and amplifying their love of turtles, hair scrunchies and tie-dye t-shirts in a comedic way. In these cases - when the attitude is one of mockery - it seems that the creator is ironically pointing a finger at the pseudo- environmental hypocrisy of the VSCO girl, who claims to care about turtles and the environment as a whole, however seems more focused on image of environmentalism.
Figure 7. An Instagram page called @vscogirlsx that is dedicated to posting images that fit the VSCO girl aesthetic.
This self-aware, sarcastic tone suggests that perhaps people are more conscious of the need to do more than was previously implied. However, aligned with the post-ironic attitude that is so common on social media, many people seem to be sincerely embodying the VSCO girl aesthetic in spite of the mockery. Figure 7 is an example of an Instagram page dedicated to posting images that fit the VSCO girl aesthetic. In a culture that celebrates self-deprecating humour as a likeable personality trait, the adoption of an appearance that is somewhat ridiculed is not so surprising.
In this case, the VSCO girl persona - which had recuperated efforts against single-use plastics - is itself being recuperated. A sincere, environmentally-friendly way of living, which had been condensed into a (partially)ironic aesthetic, is now commodified back into sincerity as a genuine fashion style. As Debord describes his 1967 book; “in the domain of spectacular pseudo-culture”(Debord, 2014. P, 103) (in this case embodied by TikTok), the spectacle is “use[d] to bury all historical memory”, reducing the meaning of something important and “pass[ing] itself off as something new”(Debord, 2014. P, 103).
