Addison Rae, YouTube, dancing, freedom

discussing our culture and the mermaid at its helm

In my favorite group chat, we send screenshots of Addison Rae’s posts. Our reactions all mirror each other saying exactlyyyy, she gets it, sending heart eye emojis. I love her and think she’s so fabulous and I know a lot of people feel the same way. She’s been a longtime subject of conversation on culture podcasts STARGIRL and Nymphette Alumni. And she was just on the cover of Rolling Stone, which solidifies a widespread recognition.

The rise of a celebrity will always coincide with the rise of a particular ethos, the reason why we want them, now. I don’t think celebrities tell us what to want, I think our collective desires push certain, appropriate people into a position of fame. And then, we permit these idols to live our dreams, because in them winning and indulging, a part of us wins and indulges. Addison’s fame reflects our desire for beauty and for happiness exceptionally well, though most celebrities do this to an extent. Where I think she truly stands out is in her freedom, and our especially hungry appetite for it.

We are a very repressed culture. If you’ve seen videos of or ever experienced nightclubs before the rise of the smartphone, you’ve witnessed what it looks like when people move their bodies with total freedom, when people dance for real. I think this looks very different from how people move now. You don’t need me to say it, but there are too many phones and people recording things on their phones. Nothing is allowed to be ephemeral, everything is eternal, and constrained by its permanence. This is why so many rich people fuck up their faces and why everyone is afraid to move.

Though on full display at a club, movement is not confined to dance. It is more apparent and constant than the words we speak and the clothes we wear. Movement expresses our most inherent nature. However, when we discuss our culture, we tend to disregard it because it cannot be contextualized or move through trend cycles. It is the language of the body, but we create our culture through discussion online, where nobody is embodied.

Our culture crafting material, that is, the material we have access to online, is primarily posed pictures, edited words, and performed videos. Content that is extracted from the real world and cleaned of its dirt. This is another thing that you don’t need me to say. This is also why, recently many of us have felt a pull towards old YouTube videos, filmed before people started to become hyperaware of their own image. We have a craving for true authenticity, which is often misinterpreted as the appearance of authenticity, which is a manufactured image that implies authenticity, but still ultimately flatters the subject and emphasizes beauty. (Rian Phin has videos discussing this from a fashion perspective. I think the Coach charm bags are an obvious example, also anything in the Marc Jacobs Heaven collection, which has already moved out of trend.)True authenticity is synonymous with freedom, which is the ability to be whoever/whatever/wherever you want to be without punishment.

Addison is a celebrity, which means she is not an exception to having a carefully crafted public persona, however, this persona generates an impression of true authenticity through its playfulness and honesty.

Taking Emma Chamberlain as a conflicting example, we see her working with cool girl photographer stolenbesos, working with cool girl brands like Miu Miu and Jean Paul Gaultier, and reading classic literature, which will always be cool. She rose to fame for being ‘relatable’ and chill, and she seems to be attempting to maintain this persona despite a boatload of high fashion signifiers that suggest otherwise. Nobody is convinced and she’s become culturally irrelevant. Addison, on the other hand, does not lean heavily on brand association, and has not felt the need to market herself as relatable, or intellectual, or stylish. She’s just having fun being Addison. She posts whatever she wants, she wears whatever she wants (and sometimes the outfits are truly so random, like she got dressed in the dark), and the only book she’s been seen reading is Britney Spears’ memoir.

Just as important as the boundlessness of her desires is the openness with which she presents them. She wants to be cool so she works with Charli XCX and Arca. She wants to be famous so she’s becoming a pop star. Her references to Britney and old Hollywood starlets are obvious. The lyrics to her songs openly declare exactly what she’s trying to do.

All this said, the real notable thing about Addison cannot be captured in a summary of what she is and isn’t doing with her fame, because Addison’s uniqueness lies in her movement, in her innate way of being. Though it was apparent even in her early videos on TikTok, her recent work—creating music videos with her best friend Lexee Smith—puts her movement center stage. In these videos, she plays dress up and dances around with her hair down. There is a lack of restraint in her physical and facial expression that we rarely see in contemporary celebrities. In dancers, yes, but celebrities rarely. (Lady Gaga is someone I think strives for similarly free expression and Lady Gaga recently put out a video with Lexee. So it’s all tied together. Kim K’s ridiculous Santa Baby Video was also choreographed by Lexee, in case you had any doubts about the direction of the culture.)

Addison sets herself apart from the other girls we are all watching because she is a dancer first. Trending clothes can be purchased and popular phrases can be repeated, but to move through the world with beauty and confidence is inimitable. Beautiful, confident movement shines through whatever clothes you are wearing and whatever words you are saying. And I think Addison knows this.

Since covid, there’s been this cultural mad dash to collect as many symbols of beauty and intelligence as possible to tie to your identity, before anyone else can. For someone to suggest that she is exceptional without any of this is revelatory. It is exactly what we are all wanting and needing to see. Addison is the actualization of our collective desire to feel beautiful as we are, without adornment. She embodies our wishes to do what we want, to play dress up, to make silly videos with our friends, to abandon our fear of our own appearances, and move without restraint. She is as free as we all wish we could be.

Addison Rae’s rise, which has only just begun, suggests the rise of a new collective ethos. I’ve heard this referred to as the return of earnestness, a twee revival, the death of ironic dissonance. I don’t care what its called, because honestly, the less talking about it, the better. I don’t want to watch this thing, hopefully a return of honesty and embodiment, become a topic of discussion on the internet, where it is reduced to collages of outfits to wear and lists of movies to watch. I want to watch it unfold in the world as everyone practices being themselves, being kind to each other, and dancing for real.

Sorry to end on a cheeky note :P !!! Thanks for reading!

Peace and love, Jillian

P.S. If you want to practice unrestrained dancing, I highly recommend seeing if your city hosts Dance Church. They do pop up dance classes in a ton of US cities. As per the recommendation of (this substack), Trinity and I went to one of their classes last week and it was soooo fun. There is no prescribed movement, the instructor dims the lights and blasts the music and will occasionally yell out prompts and suggestions to help you explore the different ways your body can move. I started the class feeling like a closed bud and ended it as a flower in bloom!

UPDATE: I should’ve included a link to this Lexee/Addison interview. It really encompasses everything I discuss.