Let’s take a meme’s eye view of MAGA fashion.
The hypothesis of the green beard (Wikipedia) is that there’s a way for some individual genes to signal their presence, which allows for selective social cooperation favouring that particular replicator – and the targets of this cooperation might be different to the usual blood-relationship cooperation that governs the (higher level) realm of individuals, and perhaps not even beneficial to the individuals themselves.
Richard Dawkins came up with this particular example of gene signalling in The Selfish Gene (1976): I have a green beard and I will be altruistic to anyone else with green beard.
In the same book Dawkins also coined “meme” as the unit selfish replicator of culture; as a gene is in the biosphere so a meme is in the noosphere.
AND SO:
A shibboleth is a word that differentiates in-group from out-group. Here’s a list of shibboleths (Wikipedia).
btw an unlisted example: if a Brit says “college” rather than “uni” then they’re signalling they went to Oxbridge, and that’s a thumb-on-the-third-knuckle secret handshake if ever there was one.
Now, is this entirely voluntary by the individual or, from the meme’s point of view, could we see it as an expression of the selfish replicator? Potentially overriding other higher-level calculations for cooperation that we might regard as more “fair” or more “rational.”
i.e. shibboleths are green beards for memes?
Note that shibboleths don’t necessarily have to be kept secret.
Maybe shibboleths don’t even have to be words.
FOR INSTANCE: MEN’S FASHION.
At Bloomberg, by feisty men’s fashion history expert and X/Twitter skirmisher Derek Guy, the MAGA male aesthetic: If you’ve noticed a certain look common to the manosphere, you’re not mistaken. A visual identity has taken hold.
Muscle men in tight shirts.
[Manfluencers] treated masculinity as a game: Confidence could be rehearsed, women were goals to be unlocked, and clothes were tools for climbing the socio-sexual hierarchy.
It’s this heady mix of performance, sexuality, power and hustle:
On YouTube and in early fitness forums, ex-soldiers, bodybuilders and amateur life coaches used their physiques as proof of transformation. David Goggins, Zyzz and Jocko Willink - fitness guys who doubled as motivational speakers - cast the body as both weapon and wisdom. Hustle culture took these ideas further. Tim Ferriss, known for his 4-Hour self-help books, wrote about cold plunges and productivity hacks.
What does it look like?
the beachside bravado of the Venice bodybuilders, the greed-soaked tailoring of 1980s finance and the tight-fitting clothes once labeled metrosexual. Today’s fixation on muscularity, discipline and traditional masculine aesthetics feels like a new chapter in that same historical cycle.
(Paywall-busting link.)
MEANWHILE:
Mar-a-Lago face (The Week): copious use of Botox, a Miami-bronze tan, puffy lips and silky-smooth skin.
It’s a sculpted, high contrast facial appearance, the extreme opposite of anything that pretends to “natural.” A hyperreality adopted in the main, it seems, by conservative women in the US.
Take a look at this screen-grab from Vogue Business with many before/after comparisons (Bruce Sterling on tumblr).
What strikes me about both MAGA men’s fashion and Mar-a-Lago face is that they’re costly.
It’s the Make America Great Again red cap amped up: a conspicuous shibboleth that signals in-group allegiance but at the high cost of being excluded from other cooperation networks.
(I’m a Brit and I live in London. But I have a favourite red cricket cap, and I was very much informed I shouldn’t wear it when I last visited friends on the west coast.)
Net-net is the look actually good for the individual? I’m not sure.
So I think Mar-A-Lago face is a pretty good candidate for being a green beard meme.
Assuming it’s not a state sponsored fashion attack.
y’know,
I used to wonder about those fashion anecdotes like oh we do such-and-such because king whatever did it and everyone copied him and I was always like, reeeeeally?
Such as not buttoning the final button of your waistcoat (GQ): when the future Edward VII was Prince of Wales he became so fat that he couldn’t do up the bottom button on his waistcoat so court followed suit to make him feel better about his body image.
Or the flower in the lapel buttonhole tradition which was invented by Prince Albert.
We can say “oh yeah, mimicry” or “oh yeah, fashion” but I feel like those words just paper over whatever the underlying mechanism might be.
Another: Henry VIII and codpieces.
A suit of the king’s armor, boasting a bulbous codpiece weighing more than two and a half pounds, is still on display at the Tower.
Life in 1530s, the dawning years of the Reformation: the brutal dissolution of the monasteries and repatriating power from Rome a.k.a. Make England Great Again.
So while the red cap and the manfluencer bulging shirt is the green beard peacocking of the MAGA meme, its method of reproduction is to entice you to join its complex of political and sexual power.
Analogy: cat virus Toxoplasma-infected men and women are rated as more attractive.
But why now?
I continue believe that the current political axis is not right vs left nor even authoritarian vs liberal, but oikos vs polis (2021). It’s the axis of differing cooperation rules:
- oikos is “people like me” (individual choice)
- polis is “rule of law” (delegated choice).
And although oikos might sound like it’s just mafia-style politics and corrupt nepotism, it is also high family values and neighbourhood spirit. We hold those values in high regard! This isn’t a bad/good axis, both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses.
But we can also observe this:
Codpieces and MAGA hats as successful green beard memes are parasitic on high oikos societies, and not possible when equality before the law dominates.
Which I think says something about how 1525 is like 2025, and why Wolf Hall was so resonant during the Brexit surge.
Anyway I did some light research to see if codpieces were making a comeback and long story short, my Amazon recommendations are a mess now, don’t judge me it was for science.
Let’s take a meme’s eye view of MAGA fashion.
The hypothesis of the green beard (Wikipedia) is that there’s a way for some individual genes to signal their presence, which allows for selective social cooperation favouring that particular replicator – and the targets of this cooperation might be different to the usual blood-relationship cooperation that governs the (higher level) realm of individuals, and perhaps not even beneficial to the individuals themselves.
Richard Dawkins came up with this particular example of gene signalling in The Selfish Gene (1976):
In the same book Dawkins also coined “meme” as the unit selfish replicator of culture; as a gene is in the biosphere so a meme is in the noosphere.
AND SO:
A shibboleth is a word that differentiates in-group from out-group. Here’s a list of shibboleths (Wikipedia).
btw an unlisted example: if a Brit says “college” rather than “uni” then they’re signalling they went to Oxbridge, and that’s a thumb-on-the-third-knuckle secret handshake if ever there was one.
Now, is this entirely voluntary by the individual or, from the meme’s point of view, could we see it as an expression of the selfish replicator? Potentially overriding other higher-level calculations for cooperation that we might regard as more “fair” or more “rational.”
i.e. shibboleths are green beards for memes?
Note that shibboleths don’t necessarily have to be kept secret.
Maybe shibboleths don’t even have to be words.
FOR INSTANCE: MEN’S FASHION.
At Bloomberg, by feisty men’s fashion history expert and X/Twitter skirmisher Derek Guy, the MAGA male aesthetic:
Muscle men in tight shirts.
It’s this heady mix of performance, sexuality, power and hustle:
What does it look like?
(Paywall-busting link.)
MEANWHILE:
Mar-a-Lago face (The Week):
It’s a sculpted, high contrast facial appearance, the extreme opposite of anything that pretends to “natural.” A hyperreality adopted in the main, it seems, by conservative women in the US.
Take a look at this screen-grab from Vogue Business with many before/after comparisons (Bruce Sterling on tumblr).
What strikes me about both MAGA men’s fashion and Mar-a-Lago face is that they’re costly.
It’s the Make America Great Again red cap amped up: a conspicuous shibboleth that signals in-group allegiance but at the high cost of being excluded from other cooperation networks.
(I’m a Brit and I live in London. But I have a favourite red cricket cap, and I was very much informed I shouldn’t wear it when I last visited friends on the west coast.)
Net-net is the look actually good for the individual? I’m not sure.
So I think Mar-A-Lago face is a pretty good candidate for being a green beard meme.
Assuming it’s not a state sponsored fashion attack.
y’know,
I used to wonder about those fashion anecdotes like oh we do such-and-such because king whatever did it and everyone copied him and I was always like, reeeeeally?
Such as not buttoning the final button of your waistcoat (GQ):
Or the flower in the lapel buttonhole tradition which was invented by Prince Albert.
We can say “oh yeah, mimicry” or “oh yeah, fashion” but I feel like those words just paper over whatever the underlying mechanism might be.
Another: Henry VIII and codpieces.
Life in 1530s, the dawning years of the Reformation: the brutal dissolution of the monasteries and repatriating power from Rome a.k.a. Make England Great Again.
So while the red cap and the manfluencer bulging shirt is the green beard peacocking of the MAGA meme, its method of reproduction is to entice you to join its complex of political and sexual power.
Analogy: cat virus Toxoplasma-infected men and women are rated as more attractive.
But why now?
I continue believe that the current political axis is not right vs left nor even authoritarian vs liberal, but oikos vs polis (2021). It’s the axis of differing cooperation rules:
And although oikos might sound like it’s just mafia-style politics and corrupt nepotism, it is also high family values and neighbourhood spirit. We hold those values in high regard! This isn’t a bad/good axis, both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses.
But we can also observe this:
Codpieces and MAGA hats as successful green beard memes are parasitic on high oikos societies, and not possible when equality before the law dominates.
Which I think says something about how 1525 is like 2025, and why Wolf Hall was so resonant during the Brexit surge.
Anyway I did some light research to see if codpieces were making a comeback and long story short, my Amazon recommendations are a mess now, don’t judge me it was for science.