But this nostalgia of ours relies on cherry-picked memories of the past, stubbornly viewed through rose-colored glasses. The celebrity culture we’re yearning for is no longer viewed as ethical. Reality wasn’t so cool; at the height of their fame in the 2000s, the Olsen twins had virtually no privacy, were the butt of countless inappropriately sexual jokes (do not watch the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, I beg you), and were a tabloid target for body-shaming. Though they haven’t spoken much about their choice to leave the entertainment industry, their staunch avoidance of the public today speaks volumes.
Generally speaking, back then diet culture was rampant, reflected by the ubiquity of weight-loss advertisements, broad size-exclusion in fashion, and a media obsession with famous women’s bodies. Consumerism among young people was itself a strange, competitive hobby wherein we roamed aimlessly around malls, praying we could one day afford (or fit into) a pair of Hollister jeans. Racism, xenophobia, sexism, fatphobia, and ableism were all default punchlines for mainstream comedians, who were selling out stadiums on world tours.
Much of those good and bad vibes from the 2000s were unquestionably tied to political turmoil, terrorism, and war, and the same thing is happening in our popular culture now. It just looks different because technology has advanced so much. Things move faster, sure, but the underlying truth remains: When politics fail to progress, so does our culture. We just have Ozempic instead of Orlistat, Stanley cups instead of the George Foreman Grill, and TikTok instead of MySpace. These all serve as convenient ways to distract us from the political injustices within our government we see or hear about every single day.
If you think that sounds a little tin-foil-hat, I can’t blame you. To be clear, I don’t think the NSA is planting Ashley Olsen makeup tutorials online to brainwash society into complacency (but that would make a thrilling sequel to my favorite movie, 2001’s live-action Josie and the Pussycats). I just think that, as the next Trump administration approaches, now is a better time than ever to evaluate just how much our country’s politics inform our aesthetic trends—and just how much power those trends have to hurt people, whether they’re celebrities or everyday people. I’m not saying you can’t wear smudgy, Olsen-twin-inspired eye makeup at all (you very well may see me doing it once or twice), but just to remember that while the 2000s makeup is worth romanticizing, the 2000s culture very much is not.
