Core, Esque, Coded, Pilled

Olivia Rodrigo 'Brutal' (2021)

Balletcore. Camus-Esque. Barbie Coded. Red Pilled. From a literal point of view, each of these words has a similar meaning, something reminiscent of a different concept. These words signify that the new descriptor (for example, "Kid" in Kid-core) takes inspiration, values, characteristics, features, or ideas from an already established meaning. However, a deeper look into the contemporary uses of each reveals that they all tell their own story. There isn't a one-size-fits-all decoding system. Messages, or in this case, words, are encoded by their sender and decoded by the receiver, according to Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding communication theory. Essentially, depending on someone’s existing knowledge and life experience, the same word might have a different meaning, and the sender can try, but they cannot control how a message is decoded. For context, a message can be decoded in three particular ways: oppositional, negotiated, and hegemonic (meaning it is accepted as the sender intended). Analyzing the hegemonic decoding of each of these words would yield totally different results.

CORE

Barbie, 2023 (Film Still)

"Core" most closely relates to an aesthetic, a style of dressing or decorating your home. It has been used often since 2020, when Kidcore re-emerged as the colorful, saturated, hyper-accessorized look of quarantine. Since then, "core" has evolved into almost an adjective itself, always accompanying the hottest trends or movements. We have seen cottagecore, princesscore, gorpcore, balletcore, and even corecore. Core is the "it girl." Everyone wants to be her or with her.

ESQUE

Coming from French, and meaning reminiscent of something, "esque" is core’s sophisticated relative. It's a fancier, perhaps more pretentious way of saying something is somewhat like another thing. It's the written equivalent of someone holding their cigarette between their thumb and index finger. If someone says something they wrote is Plath-Esque, they might mean they too use fruit as an analogy for life or are in dire need of a new therapist.

CODED

This term is a bit of a newcomer. Coded is more contemporary than esque, and more general than core. Everything can be anything coded. For instance, if a peacock, a pigeon, and a dove are next to each other, one might say that ensemble is very much BoyGenius coded. A pink cowboy hat: Harry Styles coded. Olivia Rodrigo’s new song, "Lacy": Sabrina Carpenter coded. Coded speaks to the most basic connections we have drawn between things, people, and ideas. It relates to the most instinctive and individualistic connection we each make, rather than a general agreement among a group of people.

PILLED

"Pilled" is the odd one out of the bunch, but as the original adjective descriptor, it deserves inclusion. You've likely heard the phrases blue or red pilled before. All these adjective descriptors serve the same purpose, each in its own way: to help us categorize and file away information in our minds as it is constantly bombarded with new data from all fronts. They also help us place ourselves into one of the many categories we want so badly to break away from, and onto the next. Individuality in 2023 is a bit of a double-edged sword. One side makes it easier for you to connect with like-minded people, while the other puts you in a box. Not very Red-Pilled of us.