#genderrepresentation

On TikTok, even the trends that claim to push back against impossible beauty standards ultimately reproduce them, reinforcing narrow, gendered ideals of femininity not by demanding perfection, but by repackaging it as something attainable, authentic, or virtuous.

If you have spent any time on TikTok in the past few years, you have almost certainly met the clean girl. She wakes up early. Her skin glows. Her hair is slicked back into a perfect bun, gold hoops catching the morning light. She drinks her water, takes her supplements, hits the gym, and makes it all look like no effort at all. The clean girl aesthetic (one of TikTok's most viral and enduring trends) presents itself as a celebration of simplicity and self-care. But look closer, and the image is far more complicated than a skincare routine.

The clean girl aesthetic is, at its core, a representation of femininity. It tells women what their bodies should look like, how much they should consume, and what "taking care of yourself" actually means. Understanding it through the lens of media criticism and gender representation reveals that TikTok is not simply reflecting beauty culture; it is actively shaping it, in ways that are often exclusionary and harmful.

On the surface, the clean girl look is simply minimalist: clear skin, light makeup, natural fabrics, an orderly life. But as media critics like Ella Shohat and Robert Stam remind us in "Stereotype, Realism, and the Struggle over Representation," images are never neutral. Every representation carries ideological weight, deciding who gets to be seen, who is celebrated, and who is left out. When we ask who the clean girl actually is in the thousands of videos circulating under that hashtag, a clear pattern emerges.

Academic research published by Florida State University found that most videos using the #cleangirlaesthetic hashtag featured thin, young, blonde, straight-haired white women with no visible "flaws." The aesthetic, for all its wellness messaging, quietly enforces a very specific body type, skin tone, and class status. As the I-D article "The Problem with TikTok's 'Clean Girl' Aesthetic" (2022) notes, the look upholds "beauty norms that are often unattainable, expensive, racist, texturist, or fatphobic." The clean girl does not just represent one way to be a woman. She represents the way, and that is the problem.

Here is one of the most striking critiques of the clean girl aesthetic: it did not appear out of nowhere. Slicked-back buns, gold hoop earrings, and dewy skin have been staples of Black and Latina communities for decades. As the student publication The Stuyvesant Spectator pointed out, these styles were often mocked or dismissed on women of color, yet when the same looks appeared on white, affluent influencers, they were suddenly elevated to a viral aesthetic worth emulating. As Medium writer Yiran Zhang describes, TikTok's algorithm played a direct role: it amplified the Eurocentric version of the trend while minimizing the visibility of the women whose cultures originally inspired it.

This is what scholars of representation call cultural appropriation in the digital age. And it matters because it is not just about fashion or beauty. It is about who gets credit, whose identity is treated as costume, and how platforms like TikTok — through their algorithmic choices — make those inequalities invisible.

There is also a class dimension embedded in the clean girl fantasy. The look might be called "minimal," but achieving it requires expensive skincare, branded accessories, gym memberships, organic food, and hours of free time. As Varsity magazine observed in 2024, "successfully pulling it off requires a considerable amount of time, money, and effort." The "effortless" framing is itself a form of mystification; it hides the labor and capital required to perform this particular version of femininity, making it look natural rather than constructed.

This is why the clean girl aesthetic is such a rich text for media criticism. It presents a performance of gender and femininity as though it were simply a lifestyle choice, erasing the social conditions — race, class, body type — that make some women "clean girls" by default and exclude everyone else. TikTok's algorithm does the rest: surfacing certain bodies, suppressing others, and training viewers to recognize one narrow image as the standard.

Often times, the media portrays women as pretty, emotional, and sensitive. These stereotypes have been around for years, defining society’s view on femininity. Sex is biological but gender and how a woman or man is perceived through the eyes of society is molded by popular culture. Gender representation in the media is important to examine because our society is focused around what is presented to us. Women’s role in society has evolved over the years however the stereotypes presented through the media remains. ABC’s television series, Once Upon a Time,  demonstrates an example of a counter-stereotype for women portrayed through the media. The series challenges the old fashion views of women in both fairytales and society. It creates characters that push the boundaries and presents a new example of representation of women in the 21st century.

Think back to the fairytales you heard over and over again as a kid. The princess was the focus, but she was always saved by her prince. In many fairytales, the princess was weak, waiting for a prince, wanting beauty and riches. Take Cinderella for example, she is sad and emotional, cleaning the house, and in an instant she becomes beautiful and Prince Charming turns her life around. Now think of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White; both cursed and saved by a Prince. These stories represent women as weak and vulnerable and present the assumption that women need a man to succeed in life.

The television series, Once Upon a Time, portrays just the opposite. For a show that is based around fairytales, it is not your typical damsel in distress storyline. Many of the female characters have a much different role than the typical casting for women. Once Upon a Time shows another side of each fairytale, and this time women hold the power. In this series, Snow White is more than just a princess who eats a poisonous apple. She is a courageous, skilled adventurer, who can shoot a bow and arrow and actually, she was known as a thief for some time. Snow White has a daughter in the series, Emma Swan, the savior. The character of Emma Swan is not the typical role in television played by a female. Emma was an orphan raised in the foster care system. Once Emma was out of the foster care system she started breaking and entering and got in trouble with the police for stealing. She became pregnant at the age of 18 and gave her child up for adoption. Upon moving to Storybrooke, she became a bail bondsman, and carries her gun everywhere she goes. She is strong, smart and not very emotional, unlike the typical stereotype given to women.

Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA conducted research on the relationships between diversity and the Hollywood entertainment industry. The study tested the inclusion of diverse groups, the underrepresented groups, implications of diverse industry access and media images for society as a whole. This included minorities of race and gender. The result of this research found that  “the dominant agencies, important gatekeepers for the film and television production process, tended to load their talent rosters with white male directors, show creators, writers, and leads, largely to the exclusion of minority and female talent.” (Hunt, Ramon, Price, Allen, Fuentes & Winder, 2014, p. 28) Considering that this research was done in 2014, we can assume that women are still being discriminated in the film industry when being hired for both leading roles and behind the camera positions. If the majority of the Hollywood entertainment industry is discriminating women in the hiring process, then most women in the media are going to be underrepresented as well because there are not enough women to make a difference in the industry. If the majority of our society’s media is coming from the Hollywood entertainment industry, then the stereotypes of women in the media are going to be consistent to the way they always have been. Once Upon a Time is one of the outliers in television, expanding counter-stereotypes of women and how they are perceived through media. The writers, directors and creators of Once Upon a Time mimic the Ralph J. Bunche Center research. Both of the series’ creators are men and almost all of the writers and directors are male as well. Based on this information, the portrayal of women in the series is surprising along with the series having strong female leads.

Once Upon a Time should’t be classified as feminist show; however, the series does have many other characters, including Snow and Emma, with feminist tendencies. The male characters in the show are strong, confident and adventurous which in theory, fits the male stereotype. Once Upon a Time balances these stereotypes of men and women, so that men do not have a hierarchy over women in any battle. For women, this balance is appreciated, especially from a feminist standpoint, but some men may not be so pleased with this view. Men feel emasculated when a women could potentially have power over them. For example, Don Nilsen and Alan Nilsen believe that “when control is taken away from a man he is said to be emasculated” (as cited in Erlendson, 2011, p. 4). Assuming this statement is true, if men do not have dominant roles in a series it decreases their interest in the show. The trend that is reoccurring across popular culture is that the gender of the main character decides the audience. If the plot of a series is based around a women, the assumption is that men should not be interested.

Once Upon a Time’s protagonist is female, however the series is not about flowers, love and candy. So what prevents the male audience from watching. According to an article by S.E Smith on Global Comment, stereotypically, men are interested in violence and action. Based on the plot of Once Upon a Time, you would assume the audience would consist of more men when that is not the case. The title of the show however is deceiving. Men do not want to watch, or admit to watching a television series about fairytales and princesses. Knowing this information, the producers of Once Upon a Time targeted women viewers. Which could potentially be the exact reason why females have such strong roles in the series. This could be a disadvantage for Once Upon a Time because it eliminates a large audience and potential profit. Even though the series presents male and females as equal, the perception of a man may be different.

The underlying messages and ideologies about gender in Once Upon a Time challenge those seen in other popular shows on television. According to Holtzman and Sharpe (2014) “Gender ideology in entertainment media is hegemony---that is socialization without the use of force—at its subtle best. TV entertainment executives, directors, producers, and advertisers do not participate in hegemony because they are evil. They participate in perpetuating stereotypical images of women and men because those images, and the products and program they help to sell, generate profits and because profit-driven capital expansion is the world in which they live quite comfortably and from which they derive tremendous benefits.” (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014, p.111)  If what Holtzman and Sharpe wrote is summarizing the general media, then Once Upon a Time is set apart from this idea. This series pushes the envelope to create a different atmosphere for women in television. According to them this could have potentially effected the show’s profits. The series however is on it’s 4th season and is expecting even higher profits after their collaboration with Disney’s Frozen.

The counter-stereotypes present in Once Upon a Time can potentially raise awareness of viewers while consuming other media. Holtzman and Sharpe (2014) also mention that people are often so aware of being amused by popular media that they are less likely to be aware of the stereotypes portraying masculinity and femininity, defining what it means to be a “real” man or a “real” woman. (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014, p.111) Once Upon a Time viewers may notice the differences in the way women and men are portrayed in comparison to other forms of media. Which could potentially challenge other television shows and the descriptions of women characters.

The gender representation in this series breaks the boundaries set by the general media. Once Upon a Time contributes to feminist activism, focusing on women’s independence, power and intelligence. Connecting this back to the original fairytales, the stories are quite different. If the writers were to incorporate the character traits of the princesses in the old stories, the ratings would not be as high. The shows individuality comes from the creativity and development of characters that challenges the status quo.