i don't live in a settler colonial state so i never connected that tbh. i think for me the discomfort lies more in feeling like i'm doing a Marie Antoinette, valourising the "idyllic countryside life, where everything is slow and sweet". irl the only farmer i know is my grandma's brother in ukraine, and i'd absolutely hate and be terrible at living like him. i also just think everything about glamourising "the past" (esp as i live in Austria) has to be examined really critically?

i genuinely love a lot of the aspects of cottagecore individually. like the past few years i've started crocheting, going into nature more, reading up on folklore, trying to buy stuff made of natural materials instead of plastic more, etc. and yet somehow when it's all put together into one aesthetic it makes me uneasy. 🤷‍♀️

edit: ok i went and thought about it some more haha. i think it's also that i live in a country that has a strong "bauern"/"farmer" aesthetic anyway - going hill walking, and ooh look there's cows as soon as you walk 10 mins out of town and up the hill, and look at all these cute little wood carvings of geese, we're this cute little farmer country in contrast to those germans, and even if people don't live in the countryside it feels like most of the "proper" austrians have some relative who does. and i really do enjoy it, but a part of me wants to scream, "ok i see here's ur cute little wooden duck, and i see there's ur grandpa's vintage SS knife." and i totally get that people who live in the US and the UK bring completely different cultural baggage to the aesthetic with them (e.g. colonialism), but i can't help mine lmao. sorry for the rant.