Get In Loser, We're Going Shopping
Mob Wives, Mean Girls, Broad City reunion, Barney Crocs, Twilight makeup 👄
Hope everyone is having a lovely snowy week, a la Jennifer Lopez in the “All I Have” music video. That’s always how I feel the first time it snows each year. Speaking of, the trailer for JLo’s upcoming movie, This is Me…Now, premiered yesterday. I am still gathering my many thoughts about its pure, unadulterated, over-gratuitous self-indulgence. We’ll get into that next week, along with how I interpret my favorite album title, JLo’s This is Me…Then (2002), as a statement on identity mutability and the philosophy of time.
In this issue:
🍒 Catch Up on Nicstalgia
🐰 Mob Wife trend deeeeeeeeeeep dive
👄 My dissertation on how Mean Girls (2024) is meta IP Mean Girls (2004) is meta-satire
🛍 Spice Girls x Pepsi, unexpected Broad City reunion, Abercrombie doing great, Hello Kitty and Barney Crocs, Twilight makeup
📲 Happy Days, digital vision boarding, luxury bag prices, The Emmys, The OC cell phone game, Bratz
Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than a pair of Army pants and flip flops.
🍒 Catch Up on Nicstalgia
In the most recent Nicstalgia episode, I talk about:
• How “nostalgia” is often used as a misnomer for “nowstalgia” when marketing an old cultural object to a new consumer demographic
• The commodification – more specifically, the Etsyfication, Coachellafication, yassification, and tattooification – of licensed band t-shirts
• How isolated cultural objects, like an olive green utilitarian jacket, gain context through composition
• Millennials’ fear of being cheugy exemplifying their resistance to The Chasm™: when you become old enough to witness the completion of a standard 20-year trend cycle and are no longer considered the fixture generation of youth culture
Also, I’ve considered sharing the podcast episode as a written blog post/essay, still accompanied by the slides. Is that format easier to share than a YouTube video? TIA for answering the poll below, or comment below or email me with your thoughts 🙏
🐰 Down The Rabbit Hole: Mob Wives
First of all, h/t to
for being the first place I started hearing about the Mob Wife trend/phenomenon (and where I learn about all TikTok trends in general)!!!!I have reasons as to why this trend is catching on:
1. TikTok loves context collapse
2. TikTok loves whitewashing
3. TikTok loves tradwives
4. HBO Max has industry plants (allegedly)
5. This is what the monoculture looks like in 2024
I do have to give a shoutout to the Tri-State Area girls, for whom the Mob Wife aesthetic never goes out of style. (If you are from CT, NY, or NJ you know her. I’m not her, but I respect her.) I also hard agree with the HBIC HMWIC The Sweet Paisana’s Ins and Outs 2024: Semi Italian American edition. Acting like a gavone is OUT!!!
Jokes aside, I’ve extensively researched my Italian American heritage and culture, including the sociocultural, economic, and political factors that fostered the racialization and assimilation of Italian diasporas of the 19th and 20th centuries. I can’t even begin to scrape the surface in terms of nuance and complexity here, but the point is that the Mob Wife as a trend is deeply rooted in problematic stereotypes. Italian Americans have always been, and continue to be, represented in media as mobsters, gangsters, thieves, criminals, wise guys, and, in the words of Jersey Shore’s Vinny Guadagnino, “guido toolbags”. (Although one of my favorite movie moments of all time is Marisa Tomei’s monologue in My Cousin Vinny. Well-deserving of that Oscar!)
It’s a double edged sword though. As older generations of Italian Americans pass on, it seems like the only thing worse than looking like a caricature to those outside the ethnic group is if the culture and customs of our people were forgotten completely.
1. TikTok loves context collapse
On TikTok, people often watch videos with no prior knowledge or context. They don’t know where something came from, what it’s based on or referring to, or how it might perpetuate a twisted narrative. (They also may not care.) In this case, embodying the Mob Wife aesthetic shrugs off an affiliation with organized crime as an I don’t take any shit girlboss attitude, romanticizing the glamorous fashion and aspirational wealth.
Aesthetic trends, hyper-accelerated trend cycles, and the fashion industry in general are fueled by conspicuous consumption (buy the most expensive, rare, or fancy things you possibly can to show you have, or are at least pretending to have, money) and aesthetic labor (spend time, money, and energy on your grooming, dress, and physical appearance to fit the ‘ideal beauty’ standard). Trends are driven not by those who have the most money, but those who have the both highest status AND cultural cachet in a given moment. Mob Wife is just one of the infinite examples of how people, particularly young women, signal status, cosplay as different identities, and ultimately buy things to achieve these ideals.
2. TikTok loves whitewashing
“Clean Girl is out, Mob Wife is in” is the phrase used verbatim at the start of many of these videos. The Clean Girl aesthetic in particular has caused controversy for being exclusive. However, TikTok aesthetics must be whitewashed in order for them to achieve mass exposure and virality. Because Italian Americans, the basis for the Mob Wife trend, are an assimilated, racialized white ethnic group, anyone can partake in the trend (similar to French Girl and Frazzled English Woman aesthetics and the Hygge lifestyle). POC do not have this same assimilation opportunity, hence why it’s considered cultural appropriation if an aesthetic is derived from a group of non-European origin.) Hailey Bieber is the quintessential example here; she started Strawberry Girl and Glazed Donut Skin trends but was under fire for Brownie Glazed Lips. A trend can take off at mass-scale if it’s palatable, otherwise, content creators would get ‘canceled’ by participating.
3. TikTok loves tradwives
A tradwife is someone who abides by traditional patriarchal gender roles, generally leaning conservative fiscally and socially. TikTok loves this user archetype because they have the time to scroll, the never-ending desire to buy things, and the trust of their community to convince them to buy things too. The Mormon Stanley cup/watertok moms we talked about last week is a good example of this. The title of ‘Mob Wife’ demonstrates an identity based on the relativity, dependency, and loyalty to her husband. Her affiliation with both her husband and the mob, even if only by proxy, is how she gets status, money, respect, and protection.
Nothing wrong with being married! Nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home wife or mom! Enjoy domesticity! The issue is when women emulate something on TikTok and ultimately normalize, rationalize, enable, and are complicit in upholding power structures that do not support them or their families. Using The Sopranos as an example, Tony’s wife Carmela constantly grapples with ethical issues brought on by her husband’s chronic infidelity, violent criminal activity, and volatile behavior. She is always suffering an ethical battle, often sacrificing her own morals, values, and religious beliefs in the process.
4. HBO Max has industry plants (allegedly)
Okay so maybe HBO Max plants just made the Mob Wife aesthetic trend on TikTok to coincide with The Sopranos' 25th anniversary. (I happened to already be watching it; I’d only seen it in pieces and am on season 3 atm.) The show also has its own TikTok account that features 25 second recaps of each episode. On one hand, I love seeing edits and clips of media I’ve already seen. Very quotable and shareable. However, I think most people use the clips as a substitute for watching the whole thing. Context collapse caused by reinforcing short attention span-driven, dopamine-chasing behavior will yield disappointing outcomes for both cultural producers and audiences.
4. This is what the monoculture looks like in 2024
It annoys me that something can be deemed a “trend” after a few people post TikToks about it. Social media is an algorithmic echo chamber. For many, there is no difference between what we see on our FYP, what we think is happening IRL, and what is actually happening IRL. We don’t “go online” or “go on the computer” anymore, because now, we never leave!!!!!!
Digital media outlets are reacting to a 24/7 social media news cycle, creating SEO-optimized ragebait to feed the collective brain rot of the chronically online population. The point is to churn out stories quickly – the fast fashion of media, if you will – so you’ll see 17 articles about the same 3 TikToks and think some kind of phenomenon is happening. Like be real – aside from if you live where people dress like this all the time – are you actually going to go outside and see a woman in a giant fur coat, giant sunglasses, red lipstick, and some article of leather clothing??? (Lmao I just described myself minus a square French manicure and a cheetah print accessory.) No, you wouldn’t. But these “trends” and “aesthetics” are signals that bring us together and help us make sense of the current cultural zeitgeist during a time when it’s more fragmented than ever.
👄 Get In Loser!!!!!! Part I
I haven’t seen the new movie yet, so there will likely be a Part II here, but I would like to state for the record:
Mean Girls (2024) is meta IP, NOT a remake of Mean Girls (2004)!!!!!
Mean Girls (2004), in my opinion, is a meta-satire!!!
Mean Girls (2024) is Meta IP
When I say meta IP, I mean that there are multiple self-referential derivatives of a source material. Basically, Mean Girls is pulling a Hairspray. They released a musical film adaptation of a Broadway musical adaptation of an original movie. So the new movie is based on the musical, not on the original movie. Please see Exhibit A:
Mean Girls (2004) is Meta-Satire
I’m working on a full Nicstalgia episode to adequately explain the layers of irony and how this humor is manifested in pop culture, but let’s take teen movies as an example!
Layer 1: Pre-Satire. These are the genuine, classic teen movies with coming-of-age stories, like 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s All That. All subsequent levels are based on this one; parodies, subversions, and meta-references are all responses to this status quo.
Layer 2: Satire. These are the parody movies overtly making fun of the classic ones, i.e. Not Another Teen Movie and Scary Movie.
Layer 3: Post-Satire. These are subversive teen movies like Jawbreaker and Heathers, contrasting from the classics by using dark comedy and taboo subjects to make social commentary and drive the coming-of-age story forward.
Layer 4: Meta-Satire. This is when there’s confusion about the levels. Mean Girls is widely categorized as the ultimate Millennial teen movie (Level 1), although some critics say it is a satire of the Mean Girl trope (Level 2). I would argue that it’s even deeper than that: Mean Girls (2004) is a satire that people don’t know is a satire. It borrows from several other Layer 1-3 sources, with 99% of the audience thinking it is original material. If we knew Mean Girls was referencing Layer 1 movies, we could categorize it as Level 2 or 3. But we can’t!
Exhibit B: Parallels that struck me while watching My So Called Life (1994):
Exhibit C, a list of additional uncanny similarities Mean Girls has with other teen movies that came before it:
Thirteen (2003) features “Overdrive” by Katy Rose, a one-hit wonder known for its prominence in Mean Girls. A peer also gossips about Evie, “I heard she has a scar on her back from when she tried to save her baby brother from a fire” similar to the “How do I even begin to explain Regina George”.
Sugar and Spice (2001) has a call waiting scene (the 3-way call attack), a “If you ___ you will die” line, and a dramatic crossing off list (a la Janis Ian’s chalkboard).
Clueless (1995) shows a newcomer the high school cliques, as does 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), like the Mean Girls cafeteria scene.
Also in 10 Things, we see the rumor-spreading about Patrick, and there is the dramatic mass distribution of flyers throughout the school (a la Regina). “That must be Nigel with the brie” has “Okay so I got enough cheese and crackers for 8 people, do you think that’s enough?” energy, right before the host opens the door to a slew of uninvited party guests.
On a related note (I’m so sorry I genuinely do not mean to make a Broadway pun here),
’s The Mutated IP of the Mean Girls Reboot episode touched on Mean Girls (2024)’s context collapse – why the movie was not marketed as a musical and why “not your mom’s Mean Girls” is very bad positioning – and examining the past through a contemporary lens – comparing past cultural zeitgeists to the present status quo in order to inspire critical thinking and reconsideration of social norms. (This is why we look back in horror at dialogue that, at the time it was written, was considered a funny joke rather than politically incorrect, in bad taste, or harmful.)My favorite part is when Anne Helen & Michelle answer a listener’s question to confirm that yes, nostalgia marketing has always been a thing. Millennials are just noticing it now because they’ve experienced The Chasm™ (mentioned above) and they are the “old” ones now. Funny they bring up Happy Days (mentioned below). I also thought that show was actually from the 50s when I was a kid seeing it on TV Land in the 90s.
🛍 Hit ‘Em Up Style
Brands using nostalgia as a sales and marketing tactic:
This guy in Edinburgh redeemed a set of Pepsi can ring pulls from twenty six years ago to claim a free Spice Girls CD. The irony here is that he has to listen to it in the car because he no longer has a CD player. Can’t relate. Speaking of Spice Girls, you can now have your very own MY DAD HAD A ROLLS-ROYCE t-shirt.
This is the Broad City reunion we didn’t ask for but we needed. #MiraLAXPartner Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson got back together for a full-length commercial. I loved this show as a fellow 20-something in 2010s NYC, despite the common refrain that it is wildly unrealistic for two best friends who live in Gowanus and Astoria to see each other in-person every day. This campaign represents Millennials’ current state of disenchantment, which causes nostalgia for the recent past. We can look back on the mid to late 2010s because it is distant enough where we can separate that time period from the current cultural zeitgeist.
Here’s a headline we never thought we’d read in 2024: Why Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Are Racing Ahead of the Competition. Btw, if you haven’t watched my episode on Abercrombie, please do. I thought the ‘White Hot’ Netflix documentary was very surface-level, so I wanted to share my experience working there and dive deeper on A&F’s sexualized aesthetic, discriminatory practices, decline within the greater retail landscape, and subsequent successful rebrand.
Colourpop came out with a Twilight makeup collection! I might be the only Millennial who hasn’t seen any of the Harry Potter or Twilight movies. Should I??
Crocs is ALWAYS doing a nostalgic collab. Hello Kitty and Barney were released this past week! A friend of mine was just telling me how after being a lifelong Crocs skeptic she is now, in fact, a believer. What do you think? Polarizing topic.
📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World
My fav things from the internet rn:
Happy Days: ’50s Nostalgia Turns 50. This is a great example of how The Chasm™ happened for Boomers. It marks the time where nostalgia really emerged as its own distinct marketing tactic. Plus, Happy Days produced IMO the best spin-off of all time, and actually just one of my favorite shows of all time, Laverne & Shirley.
Was very intrigued by
’s recent about the increases in luxury bag pricing. I flipped both of my Louis Vuitton Speedys because I needed the cash lol but have held onto my deeply sentimental Gucci Soho Disco crossbody. The retail price went up ~$400 from when I bought it before it was discontinued in 2023. (RIP.)Amy also wrote about The Emmys’ ugly step and repeat background. The awards show very much leaned into nostalgia, with mini cast reunions from The Sopranos, Cheers, and SNL’s Weekend Update with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. My favorite look of the night was from Joan Collins and my favorite memes were of Aubrey Plaza’s Loewe dress that looked like a Post It note.
What’s With the Fake AI on Netflix Reality Shows? Was into this article that explores the AI bot narrators on Too Hot to Handle and The Circle. Granted, the THTH bot is just a gimmick; there are cameras everywhere (like every reality show ever) and producers feed stories to writers who script lines for a human voice actor who plays Lana the bot. Black Mirror, but make it trash.
Bratz Goes Digital With A 5-Year Deal Inspired By TikTok Miniseries. Last week I talked about My Scene’s alleged comeback, and of course Bratz had to one-up them. It’s the Battle of the Multibillion Dollar Toy Corporations!
I would secretly play The OC game on my pink LG VX5200 flip phone every day during English class in 10th grade. I was very happy to find that there is a website that deeply details the gameplay. Early internet artifacts must be preserved!!
Clicks Creator Keyboard feels superfluous, bulky, and nonfunctional rather than nostalgic. If the cursor on my website is any indication, you already know my stance:
🧨 Spice Up Your Life
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Haha the mob wife trend looks so trashy, not sure why tiktok sees it as aspirational 🤷🏼♀️