Is it because of demure? Is she too careful? Is that cute? How do you even know? Demure does come from within.
Demure has become the latest internet buzzword, thanks to Jools Lebron, a popular TikTok influencer. Earlier this month, the video she posted went viral on social media and has now garnered over forty million views.
She describes her hair and face makeup for work as “very quiet;” “very attentive,” she continues in the footage. However, according to Lebron during an interview with CBS Mornings, demure goes beyond appearances. It’s a way of asserting oneself and feeling sure about it.
“To you, your demure may mean anything. It is being aware not only of those around you but also of yourself and how you come across,” said Lebron.
According to Professor Shana MacDonald who holds the O’Donovan Chair in Communication at the University of Waterloo, what makes this trend exciting is its subversiveness and resistance against historical norms.
According to MacDonald, formerly, demure had a meaning of a very old-fashioned kind of white femininity. Picture pearls, dresses that are pressed so well and submissiveness. However, she thinks Lebron who is Puerto Rican and transgender is remaking the definition of oneself as being demure.
“It opens up the possibility of what demure means.”
Also significant is that Lebron combines the word demure with mindful according to Zorianna Zurba, an assistant professor in the Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Thus for her part, CBC News has it that to be modest also means recognizing how our self-presentation affects others.
Lebron’s being transsexual has something else interesting to say about why she chooses to appear in such a specific manner asserts Zurba.
“It would have meant something different if it was from a trad wife.”
A brat counteracts demure
Demure, already a buzzword for summer and an album by British artist Charli XCX, has emerged as its counterpart. A brat is “a girl who is a little bit messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” she said in a TikTok video.
Brat morphed into more of an empowered, strong-willed, disobedient woman from there, according to CBC Radio’s Sunday Magazine.
After Lebron posted her video, the word demure caught on and went viral online. Demurely though
Essentially what Emily Zwicker, a 20-year-old Halifax registered nurse says is that being reserved or not brat is the same thing as being demure. So basically if you have neat handwriting you are demure. If you pick a nice outfit you are demure. If you go out every weekend with your friends it means you are a brat.
“Sometimes I’ll wear my hair in this slicked-back bun and be like ‘See? My hair isn’t doing too much; it’s very demure, very mindful,’” Zwicker said to CBC News.
“If only I could be demure but I feel like I’m more on the brat side of things.” On weekends, I am a complete brat but while at work I try to act all small.”