Dark Femininity: Unforgiving Women and Machiavellian Love

The notions of dark and light femininity, an understanding of femininity as a binary, has been circulating on social media in the last few years. The differentionn between the dichotomoy between the dark and the light femininity depends on the influencer that uses the term, however it is possbile to say that dark feminity refers to confident, assertive, self-interested, mysterious, bold and powerful traits whereas, light femininity indicates soft, nurturing, kind, caring, emphatatic traits. Dark femininity draws inspiration from series like Euphoria and aesthetics from celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Beyonce, Rihanna, Megan Fox, who recently changed her fashion style. It promises women to elevate their lives - romantic or otherwise through control of emotions and through adopting certain aesthetics.

There are multiple Instagram and Tiktok accounts with 500k followers, Youtubers and multiple book series (all of them anonymous) giving tips and trick about activating the dark feminine energy to tap into successful and happy life. There are also related influencers that teach how to walk on heels to master the art seduction. For these influencers, activating the playful, devilish, detached version of femininity that is not concerned about people pleasing and exists any relationship that is unappealing promises the best of femininity or a “femininity premium”( Hamilton et al. 2019).

This paper aims to investigate this new trope of feminity that sees the feminine self as the source of all the problems and a potential paradise if worked on. It investigates how this particular aesthetics and emotional regime means for gendered relations.