Op Ed: TikTok trend-casting, our political future, and Gen-Z… Everything is turning right.
- Mimi Nikolic '26
- Dec 9, 2025
- 4 min read
Not right as in good. Right as in a never-ending conservative pipeline.
My morning routine in 2020, like many others, consisted of this: wake up and instantly start posting political statements online. Fast forward to 2025, and after our last election, the culture is no longer leaning right; it has fallen. If you told me this after the 2020 election, I would’ve laughed. Loudly. And then blocked you. The crazy part though, is that it isn’t just the politics. It’s the vibes. The aesthetics. The subcultures. The specific way the younger generations are trading out their “woke era” for the new trendy “MAGA red.”
So, why is this happening? I mean, believe me, I know the quarantine era was exhausting, and it got to a point where I saw people raising awareness for things that didn't even exist. And while becoming an amateur political theorist between Zoom classes was fun while it lasted, many people hit the endpoint of “I can’t think critically about anything anymore.” But how did this do a full backflip into extreme conservatism?
TikTok has created a perfect internet archive that allows us to see how aesthetics have been taken so seriously that they become seen as political statements. You see “trad-wife” content that creates expectations that women should be cooking and cleaning in their house in the middle of nowhere to attain true salvation, all while wearing prairie dresses. The innocent “cottagecore” aesthetic many labeled themselves with in 2020 has evolved into something more intense and sinister; yeah, your personality trait being that you have a wood-burning stove is truly disturbing. TikTok has turned this look into a lifestyle and the lifestyle into a low-key ideology.
This trad-wife rise seems to have risen with Momtok. This trad-wife rise owes its claim to fame to Momtok. Even if you’ve never once interacted with a video about pregnancy or parenting, these moms seem to be lurking. These creators post their organized pantries and usually have Bible quotes taped to their mirrors. And showcase routines that resemble a 1950s housewife advertisement. It's not just about being organized or aesthetic anymore; it’s about embracing discipline, obedience, and moral clarity, all values that line up neatly with more conservative, even religiously fundamentalist, mindsets that seem to be consuming people rapidly. And when it's not mom content, it's younger girls idolizing these creators and practicing motherhood as an aesthetic. While the content may appear aspirational or aesthetic at first glance, it carries a subtle message about adherence to traditional norms. And I will admit they can even be calming sometimes, in contrast to the somewhat aggressive attitudes that used to be showcased on my TikTok feed during the pandemic, but the trap seems obvious and not to mention exploitive.
While these subcultures all did exist under the Biden administration and have been around in different forms forever, the intensity of these “aesthetics” is no longer wholesome but extreme to a concerning point. It’s extreme religion, extreme wellness, and extreme tradition. They use terms like "homesteading" and "detoxing" in ways that make it clear their agenda is completely different from what content creators previously showed; they're embracing a sort of RFK chic motto by putting so much emphasis on living off-grid and only consuming homemade organic products so that they separate themselves from this corrupt modern world.
TikTok trends are definitely a powerful way to shape how Gen Z expresses politics, identity, and lifestyle. On the platform, aesthetics have become a form of cultural messaging. This is what helped shape the political activism happening so passionately by teens during quarantine. But now, you scroll for a few minutes, and you’ll see hyper-curated vlogs about domestic life, modest fashion trends, and a growing interest in traditional, home-centered routines. They signal a shift in values and priorities.
We see this shift clearly in the rise of modest clothing, long skirts, and collared blouses are now in? To me, it signals a move away from hyper-sexualized or performative fashion toward a look that emphasizes simplicity and traditional femininity. It heavily suggests that for many young people, lifestyle choices and personal presentation are morphing into a more conservative look that follows along with these conservative values, whether they know it or not; they don't even have to be directly involved in politics to be making these political statements.
This past summer, under Trump's presidency, we saw how obvious this shift to modesty is. The “hot girl summer” that shaped past years had faded quickly. And what replaced it… of course, “modest girl summer,” as if their ankle-length dresses weren’t enough during every other season. They were promoting turtlenecks in 100-degree weather and outfits that looked like they came out of Christian Fashion Weekly. And it was honestly exhausting seeing these creators try to convince people they should feel guilty and unfeminine during the summer because this is the new respectable way to behave.
What really got me was on Halloween night when I saw a video titled “Staying inside, fully dressed, handing out candy with my mom will be my future; my husband doesn't deserve someone going out half dressed.” I was gagged; someone my age was so blatantly rejecting typical party culture for her “future husband.” The idea of marriage and her future was enough to guide her to stay at home as a teenager. To me, this was an obvious embrace of more conservative approaches to gender roles; she had already started to embrace this feminine loyalty that so many of these women pride themselves on. I don't see this as a healthy or viable way to go about life at all. When young girls start policing themselves for the sake of imaginary husbands, that’s when you realize the “trad aesthetic” isn’t just a trend, but a toxic conservative ideal that is being pushed onto people's everyday decisions.
While it is difficult to determine whether these trends indicate a true political shift or merely a change in aesthetic preference, the cultural patterns are clear. Gen Z is gravitating toward values that emphasize tradition, stability, and order, often expressed through lifestyle. TikTok accelerates these trends and makes these personal choices into cultural signals and, in some cases, subtle… or not so subtle political messaging.