We’ve routinely dragged some of the MAGA crowd for their heinous makeup choices—Laura Loomer, we’re looking at you—but what about their fashion? Obviously every stylistic choice these people make is gross, but is there something deeper going on here? What’s in the Mar-a-Lago water that forces people to choose the ugliest Marshalls blazers and Shein dresses every single time?
One TikToker has an intriguing theory.
“It could best be described as ‘corporate feminine,’ explains Chelsea, a fashion journalist who analyzes style and politics. “There’s a lot of tweed, a lot of cardigans, a lot of blazers, midi-length skirts and dresses, and of course long, traditionally feminine hairstyles.”
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So what does it mean? Obviously the women of MAGA are trying to harken back to a time when women stayed in the home and considered feminism to be a dirty word. But wouldn’t that seem to clash with this business casual aesthetic?
Not so much, according to Chelsea.
“It’s a look that appears frozen in time and space, very reminiscent of a bygone era,” she explains, stating that this look is strangely versatile, leaving women “ready for church or a night out.”
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Citing prominent appointees like Lauren Boebert and Karoline Leavitt, Chelsea brings up an interesting tension between what the clothes are signaling and what the women themselves are giving out. “Nobody would accuse these women of being demure and submissive.” Yet they’re all-in on Trump, and they seem to be totally behind the anti-feminist ethos of the administration.
“To preach the policies of the Tr*mp administration and uphold these ‘traditional family values,'” she explains, “you can’t do so effectively without maintaining the external appearances of traditional femininity.”
So basically the women of this administration are facing the exact same problem as Serena on The Handmaid’s Tale, whose pre-Gilead life had her girlbossing her a** off just to be able to sell a regressive MAGA-style politic.
“It’s very ‘one rule for me, another for thee,'” as Chelsea puts it, describing the contradiction between what these career women do, and what they preach. We knew that MAGA women were hypocrites, but Chelsea’s explanation makes it clear just how delusional they are in falling in line with an administration that has nothing but spite and disgust for women in any autonomous role.
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