By akademiotoelektronik, 01/12/2022

Twee, the Care Bears trend from the USA - Madmoizelle

Twee comes from the contraction of the word "sweet" and designates a new trend in society from the US. On the menu: kindness, homemade jam and Zooey Deschanel.

Real life, the 8 p.m. news, the economic crisis and haters on the Internet… Sometimes you get tired. Then comes the twee temptation, or more precisely: the twee trend. The twee trend is the new cultural revolution in the US, which goes beyond the hipster. The twee conveys kind and comforting values. A world of sweetness between Instagram photos and cupcakes on Pinterest.

So twee, photo credit: Karrie Nodalo

Twee, where does it come from?

Twee-pop was born in the late 80s with the C86 cassette compilation produced by the English magazine NME.

If releasing a compilation cassette corresponded to the punk aesthetic at the time, C86 brought together independent artists who took up the codes of rock or even punk in a deliberately sweet, soft and evaporated way, for a result sometimes close to the pop.

Cover of the famous C86 cassette

This famous cassette is controversial in musical circles: while some recognize its influence in the development of independent music, others consider that it has on the contrary done it a disservice:

The term was taken up in 2009 by independent film critic Alonso Duralde in his article Do you see what I twee? How precious in Today magazine to castigate these independent films playing with a falsely refined retro aesthetic but in reality calibrated by the directors to give off an impression of sweet authenticity.

If Alonso Duralde recognizes that the films Juno, Little Miss Sunshine and those of Wes Anderson, which participate in this twee aesthetic, are good, he denounces the laziness of the directors who, using the twee to easily develop an independent and popular aesthetic , are just as hypocritical as their Hollywood colleagues.

The symmetry of Wes Anderson's films makes the criticism of false simplicity inconsistent.

What is a twee person?

You have understood that the twee is not in the odor of sanctity in the independent circles that saw it born. Indeed the term has mostly been used pejoratively to denounce a caricatural aesthetic. This did not prevent the term from developing and eventually becoming a portmanteau word, a bit of a catch-all, used to describe not twee works of art but twee people.

And if criticizing the aesthetics of a film is the job of any good film critic, criticizing a way of life is a delicate exercise in which journalists regularly trip over the carpet playing apprentice sociologists.

It was The Atlantic that opened fire with its article, The Twee Revolution by James Parker:

Understand that in fact, not so much. What bothers James Parker is this desire to appear outside the system through choices… of consumption.

So how do these cartoonists portray twee?

A good twee is a teenager, not especially handsome but still cute without seeming to try hard, basically carefree. Fans of colors, bright or pastel, the women wear long dresses that fly-in-the-wind-when-you-turn and the men have soft cheeks, far from big hipster-style beards. Here there is no irony, no intellectualism or pretension to trendiness, you have to be soft and smooth.

The key values? Kindness and sharing, large house tables and country life.

In the twee library? Romantic books in old editions and the CDs of the totem group Belle and Sebastian, a sweet rock band, between two albums, or better, cassettes, indie:

Obviously, near the DVD player, there is a whole collection of feel good films, these films filled with beautiful feelings but without devastating passion highlighting the lives of simple people trying to be happy like in (500) days together , already mentioned in our list of love movies that make you happy, Garden State, Wes Anderson movies, Little Miss Sunshine… to name only the best known.

Willingly retro, the twee refuses contemporary cynicism and definitely prefers to see the glass half full than half empty.

What's wrong with twee?

But if being a twee is just about being nice, retro and carefree, what's the problem? If the term twee was originally born in the world of independent culture, in a relatively condescending way, it is hard to see how having a twee personality would be problematic…

In fact the subtext is the same as in the film reviews: it would be a feigned authenticity. To have fun being so light, you MUST be immature, unaware of realities and unable to take the frustrations of this abrupt world.

These men and women, white and wealthy for the majority, therefore have no merit in claiming a return to simple and warm values? It is that the twee on the broader scale of society would remain relatively egocentric: where the Hippie tried to change society, the twee closes in on his friendly-family circle.

The twee movement would even be sexist in essence! With its retro aesthetic where the woman regains her rank of weak cute creature, the Manic Pixie Girl, a kind of sweet and feminine emanation, muse of the twee trend, would be an insult to the cause of women. Anita Sarkeesian explains it at length in this video dedicated to this pretty kawai fairy that is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Note that if the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is indeed a cliché of a female character, the twee movement is relatively mixed.

The problem with the twee movement according to these different articles would be that in our very concrete adult world, its values ​​would be too outdated to appear honest, too good to be true. A kind of collective denial. A trend that we embrace not by choice but in which we take refuge when we consider ourselves too weak to survive as a responsible adult recognized as such.

As Slate points out in his article “Bienvenue chez les twees” this is particularly the case in the film Her where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with an artificial intelligence with a sensual voice. A sensual voice rather than the constraints of another human being and his otherness.

Why always want to put a name on everything?

To fully understand this phenomenon, what should challenge us is that it is above all a journalistic creation and that, born in the world of art, it was not primarily intended to describe individuals.

Hence the difficulties of use, not to mention that the term twee is an ill-defined term bringing together fans of Pinterest and Do It Yourself as much as romantic strolls.

Are people who love moonlight rides and frozen food twee? Those who like to make their homemade jam in pretty little decorated jars but who hate romantic movies are they twee?

While it is very easy to denounce a caricature or facilities in the art world, addressing these criticisms to a person, or worse, a group of people, is like low-level sociology: the hipster of yesterday can become much too quickly the twee of tomorrow and this same twee can still evolve, in relation to the fact that humans are not walking caricatures.

Will we be contemptuous enough to dare to say that this twee trend is really adopted indiscriminately by people who have taken the adage “happy the simple-minded” too seriously? Or to dare to assert that kindness and simplicity, even on a modest scale, are suspect values?

Zooey Deschanel, empress of the twee in her music video I Could've Been Your Girl

So since the twee is a creation of journalists, at the editorial office, we allow ourselves to sort it out! We continue the article with a member of the editorial staff who has a positive attitude but who does not deny badassery, I named Hawley, the OrchestreuZ of our forum!

Twee, let's sort it out

Like most trends, there is a coating and values: here the bottom line of the twee is still to be nice and positive. But if the twee are getting into the bacon, it's because the sugar coating - coating something with sugar to make it less "hard", it quickly makes you sick.

Let's take a quick look at the criticisms leveled at the twee:

"The twee lives in denial"

The twee likes retro, prefers to forget the war, the disease and the homeless who can't even sleep in the city anymore. Immersed in the nostalgia of a world he has often not known, it feels a bit like "it was better before" based on instagram filters and candy jars from the 50s. He is often considered irresponsible since he is more interested in making his life and that of his loved ones cute than in his voter card.

Is completely denying one's civic duty nowadays serious? Probably: saying that others will take care of it has never helped to move society forward in the right direction. But devoting yourself to your loved ones and trying to make your life more peaceful can be considered a commitment that will still have an impact: creating a community vegetable garden or taking in cats at home, it's certainly sweet enough to make you vomit. rainbows, but it's still useful.

Being disconnected from reality is not cool, but neither is it to undermine your morale 24 hours a day. The twee is more likely to be locally engaged, so it's safe to say that in some way they're still aware of the world around them and their positivity can have an impact. It's just that he lives in Stars Hollow.

"The twee is hypocritical"

Being nice all the time, let's be clear, it's not possible. Unless he invests in a punching bag or shoots a rifle from time to time while screaming his frustration, the twee is bound to be a fake ass somewhere.

But wouldn't distrust of kindness say a lot about the state of today's society? To say to yourself that someone is too nice and that it hides something, somewhere, is a bit sad and reveals the little hope that our world conveys.

Being cynical all the time is easy, being positive all the time clearly less so. While the argument from hypocrisy may have some truth to it, sincere kindness shouldn't be denigrated: wouldn't we just need it?

"The twee is superficial"

Floral tea service, doilies and disposable cameras: the twee likes to have old-fashioned picnics, to work on the effect that her skirt will make by turning / put on reassuring old Grandpa vests.

The twee on the way to the office

Obviously, it's a movement so codes come with it: a bit like the hipster, the whole simple and pleasant image that it sends back is ultra-worked, and therefore not necessarily very sincere.

It involves a lot of shopping and immersing yourself even more in this sweet little world. Getting ripped off with a stranger at the sales on a retro dusty rose cardigan, yelling insanities and then wearing it humbly with a sweet smile, it's a bit paradoxical. So yes, the twee movement is superficial, but as much as any other: because of its codes.

So, twee or not?

Despite its apparent softness, the twee trend does not escape the same problems as all trends: it is codified, and therefore inevitably, the codes and the background happily go into it. Core values ​​are laudable: clearly, a little positivism can only do good.

But following a trend without thinking about what corresponds to our personal identity has never been good. How do you stay positive in all circumstances, when sometimes you don't want to? Why force yourself to buy a cotton candy machine when you don't want one, even if it would look good next to the popcorn machine?

Better to sort and better to think of yourself: the best of trends is still the one you created yourself with your own values.

So if you like floral dresses, picnics, retro photo booths and kittens and that suits you, great. Just don't stop yourself from putting on that Mötorhead patched leather jacket that you love "because it doesn't fit your character", don't stop yourself from anything. The best thing to do is to choose what interests us and to use common sense: we have the right to be a bitch from time to time.

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