It’s in the TikToks we see of trad wives and University of Alabama sorority girls. It’s in the wealthy influencers who attended the after-party in Washington, D.C. on President Donald Trump’s first night of his second term.
In this cruel kids’ table setting, it looks like a picture taken from another time. That is, until you look closer at the iPhones, beer cans and TikTok screens posted around the room.
The women are feigning a glamorous, old-money style with sheer silk and lace. Men are in tuxedos, with the occasional attendee even wearing a Make America Great Again hat. The Butterworth’s venue in Washington, D.C. is dimly lit and decked with rustic velvet seats and chandeliers.
The folks from Trump’s so-called working class have made it to the top. Well, at least these party-goers.
The MAGA movement, a term coined by Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, is on the rise among Generation Z. This right-winged movement has gained thousands of followers over the years advocating for gun rights, pro-police, pro-life, anti-lockdown and much more, according to the Panel Study of the MAGA Movement.
So what happened to America before MAGA? Which era of the U.S. do MAGA followers want to revert to so badly?
The 2024 election after-party is only one example of MAGA followers flaunting their version of America. Now, Gen Z is living out their greater America through the fashion of either 1920s New York or 1970s Dollywood. Women are progressively falling back to traditional gender roles and attire of Southern preachers’ daughters (shout out to Ethel Cain), both of which are aesthetics of older American women’s fashion.
It’s interesting how these influencers and MAGA supporters, especially women, are glamorizing eras in which rights were limited. So, yes, I’m sure that 1950s housewife cleaning in perfect, blonde curls, makeup and heels on the Hoover ad would’ve appreciated the classy attire. If only she could own a credit card and bank account under her name — a right I’m sure a lot of women forget about.
I know what you’re thinking. It’s a party, so let them dress up in the usual attire one would wear to a party.
I’m more so talking about the wealthy status embodied by the people celebrating voting their rights away, but let me throw in another example.
Recently, The Conservateur, a lifestyle publication centered around America’s “quintessential style and traditions,” held another party at Butterworth’s. This one, though, featured a new motto for conservative women, Make America Hot Again.
Besides the biblical-themed drink menu and pink MAHA hats one could easily find at New York City street vendors, the women (and men) present expelled pride.
Kara Voght, the journalist who wrote this piece, summarized the attendees’ feelings.
“It’s about being patriotic. It’s about saying what you want without regard for political correctness. It’s about being unashamed to put marriage and children at the center of a feminine identity,” Voght wrote.
Journalists felt the same energy at the election after-party. Many interviews and observations found the attendees saying slurs and making racist jokes to exercise their newfound freedom.
So why is the conservatism elite now? Why is dressing like the Kennedys or Reagans the ideal representation of America as a whole? Do all MAGA followers feel this way, or are they just waiting for their time in the sun?
There are more than just parties rebranding the new Americana.
Cowboy and southern attire are big in the Midwest and the South and are usually associated with MAGA followers, since much of this style originated in rural America. This image even extends to the blonde, slim, white girl standard that’s arising in this Christian-leaning administration.
The Boston Globe interviewed fashion historian Summer Anne Lee on the matter. Her observations are simple — political merchandise has been used to create unity within parties for decades.
“Trump and his supporters have taken political branding to a new level, largely due to his business-minded approach,” Lee said.
The mixing of merchandise and fashion, as seen in both Butterworth’s parties, creates a whole new image of wealth, status and loyalty.
Maggie Hennefeld, a professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota, brought up Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, and her motto of the “real America.”
McCain and Palin claimed that the real America resides in the small towns of the country where “patriotism and pro-America” continue to thrive. This aligns with the predominantly white, Christian, rural-living population who often lean toward the Republican Party.
“On one hand, there’s the connotation of the ‘You don’t belong here,’ but it was in a less violent, blatant way than what Trump is saying,” Hennefeld said.
We’ve seen this MAGA mania before.
About 86% of Americans live in metropolitan areas, with almost half coming from ethnic or racial backgrounds. If the real America in 2008 was rural towns unchanged by the progressive state of the world, what’s the real America now?
To conservatives, it’s about being seen, but it’s not just fashion that’s changed.
Pop culture is experimenting with conservatism in its music, movies and celebrities.
Country music is more popular than ever. The hottest documentaries feature the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and Mormon TikTokers. “Twisters” with Glen Powell and “Top Gun: Maverick” with Tom Cruise are a couple of the hottest films since I graduated from high school.
Hennefeld said she also associates Americana with mid-20th century music, such as jazz, folk and blues, all of which are radically associated with the anti-war and civil rights movement. Now, a whole new image represents these genres.
As traditional gender roles become popular again, women are reverting to slick, European styles, such as beige colors and natural-leaning makeup, especially amongst Gen Z.
Much of this natural, clean aesthetic is used by trad wives and conservative women on TikTok. Nowadays, it seems it’s too exhausting to be an independent woman. Why on earth did we ever decide to have a mind of our own?
According to Classically Abby, a conservative social media influencer, the newfound age of conservatism is about being modest but sexy, demure but desirable.
This is the current symbolism of America. When you see the American flag, who do you think of? The stars that once represented the unity of 50 states make me squeamish. It’s like chanting “liberty and justice for all” from the end of the Pledge of Allegiance, it’s hypocritical. Even when I think of cowboys, I no longer think of their freedom motifs and neither do others.
Annika Horne, a third-year student at the University, said she believes the Americana aesthetic used to mean individuality. Now, the Republican Party has a uniform style that includes most American symbolism.
“I think, at the outset, it was really a way to bond people together and to make it like, ‘This is our country and we don’t have to follow the rules of someone else’ and a free nation and all that,” Horne said. “I think recently, it has really changed towards symbolizing a particular group and symbolizing, ‘We are free to do whatever we want, but you have to do whatever we say.’”
The 2024 election saw an increase in voters from the working class, a demographic often associated with the Democratic Party. Trump’s promise to remove unionized immigrants from the workforce also boosted his popularity.
The working class of America barely hits the mark for the middle class. With 61.7% of America accounting for the working class, you’d think this is the poorer side of America. This is blue-collar America, right? It’s the foundation on which our country stands.
These trending MAGA followers aren’t even close to the 1% benefiting from Trump’s new reign. These people have more in common with the middle class than the billionaires they support.
This wave of elitism in the right-winged party may feel glamorous, but at the end of the day, who’s really benefiting? Not the working class. Not the low-middle class Americans Trump promised would be seen and heard.
“The Republican Party is the party of billionaires, and somehow they’ve still appropriated Americana style, which is meant to represent a radical critique of capitalism and corporate ownership,” Hennefeld said. “It just speaks to how broken and meaningless any of these symbols and cultural signifiers are now.”