models used are beautiful and slim. Often wearing sleeveless crop tops and mini skirts, these young women show their bodies with pale and smooth skin, which are considered ideal beauty in China. Although it often promotes itself as a subculture in the item descriptions, and customers often comment “this is alternative enough” as a compliment, Y2K’s core as a consumable trend makes it comply with mainstream beauty standards for women, and creates an image of a highly feminized “hot girl.” Studying the goth scene, Dunja Brill notices the difference between styles of female and male - androgyny is highly valued for male goths, whereas ideal female goths usually dress in a excessively feminine way.129 The research shows that for such a subculture where genderlessness is the strong theme, however, the ideal beauty for goth girls are highly feminine, and “sexiness and salability” despite its dark and theatrical style are still the core for female goths.130 In comparison, female goth style is easier to commercialize. Maybe it is the same for the 2000s style in China, or Smart specifically. For Smart members, both male and female have bold standing big hair, and some of their hairstyles are very similar. The hairstyle is even used by men to attract women.131 On the contrary, Y2K is almost exclusive to only females, or “girls”, and the hyperfemininity shown in the style becomes the girls’ way to be attractive. This difference shows further how Y2K is made to be a commodity - a commodity with the coat of subculture but complies with mainstream beauty standards for female.
Brill, Dunja. “Gender, status and subcultural capital in the goth scene.” In Hodkinson, Paul and Deicke, Wolfgang (eds.) Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes: 111-128. London: Taylor & Francis Group 2007. 130 Brill, Dunja. “Gender, status and subcultural capital in the goth scene.”: 119. 131 Li, Yifan. “We Were Smart.” 129
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