This article outlines the standards for documenting aesthetics that feature potentially sensitive, triggering, or harmful content. This policy is mandatory for all pages and is enforced to ensure compliance with Fandom's safety guidelines and to protect users from encountering distressing material without adequate notice. Content warnings are applied to the visual motifs and themes of the aesthetic, not the philosophical concepts, and their presence does not justify vandalism or erasure of the page content.
Clarifications
Content warnings exist to comply with Fandom's user safety policies and to protect readers from topics that might be potentially unsafe, triggering, inappropriate, or deeply uncomfortable. They serve as a necessary flag for material that may be associated with verifiable health risks or severe social harm. Content warnings are strictly for user safety and are not used for virtue signaling or as an admission of "oversensitivity." They function as a tool for informing the reader.
Content warnings are not meant to be moral judgments, condemnations, or endorsements of the aesthetic or the behavior listed. The wiki documents aesthetics as they exist in culture; the presence of a warning signifies risk and sensitivity, not a moral critique of the style's adherents. Moral objection to a topic does not justify blanking or vandalism of a page.
Usage
Content warnings should be implemented using the appropriate template ({{Content Warning|Reason}}) at the very top of the page. The message must be concise, accurate, and descriptive of the highest-risk themes present on that specific page. Longer explanations or sociological critiques should be reserved for the dedicated Content Warning Policy page.
Topics That Must Be Tagged
Specific warnings are required when an aesthetic features the following subjects:
Photosensitivity Risk
This tag is required for aesthetics where the visual style inherently involves rapidly flashing lights, strobing effects, aggressive screen glitching, or intense color shifts that may pose a risk to users prone to photosensitive seizures. This primarily applies aesthetics such as Glitchcore, Rave, or Glitter Graphics, where the media presented often contains these visual elements. The warning must be specific and prioritize user health.
Eating Disorders/Hyper-Skinny Bodies
Pages that feature imagery associated with eating disorders (ED), self-harm, or the visual glamorization of hyper-skinny bodies (such as Waif, Morute, or Heroin Chic aesthetics) must be tagged. This is necessary because such imagery can trigger vulnerable users and normalizes medically harmful practices. The warning must be specific and neutral, describing the visual element being documented.
Alcohol, Smoking, and Hard Drugs
Pages where smoking imagery or the visual depiction of hard drug use are established as aesthetic motifs must be tagged. This is required because nicotine addiction and hard drug use are highly sensitive public health topics with confirmed, severe health risks. The warning documents the aestheticized depiction of the harmful activity (e.g., a cigarette in a Hedi Boy photograph, a syringe motif, or discussions of drug use in Rave culture), not the legality of the substance. This categorization is consistent with Fandom's guidelines for tagging content related to controlled substances.
Violence
This tag is required for aesthetics that feature realistic or highly stylized depictions of gore, intense physical trauma, or explicit sexual violence.
The mere presence of fictional weaponry (such as in Cyberpunk or certain fantasy aesthetics) or stylized gore that is clearly non-graphic (like the use of fake, drawn blood or cartoon violence) generally does not require a warning. Warnings are necessary when the visual motif is integral to the aesthetic and carries a high risk of distress.
Mental Health Themes, Self-Harm, and Suicidal Ideation
This tag is mandatory for aesthetics that feature visual motifs or lyrical content explicitly associated with self-harm, suicidal ideation, or the romanticization of mental illness.
This includes aesthetics where:
- Self-Harm is a Visual Motif: The aesthetic incorporates imagery or visual elements (e.g., scars, bandages, specific types of dishevelment) that glamorize or normalize self-destructive behavior (e.g., Morute). This also applies to aesthetics that use self-harm imagery for venting purposes/raising awareness of mental health, such as Yami Kawaii.
- Thematic Romanticization is Part of the Aesthetic: The aesthetic explicitly centers around the romanticization of depression, anxiety, or trauma (e.g., Traumacore, Sadgirl).
Criminal Organizations
This tag is required for aesthetics that visually romanticize, glamorize, or depict participation in illegal activities, organized crime, or criminal organizations. This includes aesthetics that document the visual style of gangs, mafias, cartels, or subcultures explicitly tied to criminality (e.g., Mafia Aesthetic, Buchón, or Yakuza Aesthetic). The warning should focus on the documentation of the criminal association and related themes of violence or illegal activities.
Sexual Content
Sexual content must be tagged using specific, neutral language to inform the reader what they will encounter, without making a moral judgment about sexuality itself.
Fetish Themes
Pages that detail fetish themes, sexual ageplay, or sexual objectification must be tagged to comply with Fandom's safety guidelines and protect reader comfort. The tag should describe the motif present (e.g., "features bondage gear motifs" or "documents themes of sexual objectification").
Sexual Liberation
Pages documenting aesthetics where sexual liberation, sexual freedom, or overtly sexual themes (such as Bimbocore or Neoperreo) are central to the style's visual or lyrical content must be tagged. This is done primarily to comply with Fandom's explicit content guidelines and inform users of mature subject matter, not to imply that sex positivity or empowerment is negative. The warning should be specific (e.g., "documents overtly sexual lyrical and visual themes").
Sexualization of Minors and Age Play
This is a mandatory, zero-tolerance tagging category. Pages that feature imagery or themes of the sexualization of minors, sexual ageplay, or the hypersexualization of juvenile aesthetics must be tagged. This applies specifically to aesthetics such as Nymphet and Lolicore, where the visual motifs are inherently linked to these highly sensitive themes. The warning must be explicitly clear to align with Fandom's safety protocols and protect users from harmful content.
Controversial Political Content
This tag is required for aesthetics that feature intense political themes, historical state violence, or ideologically charged visual motifs that may be distressing to readers due to their historical association with large-scale conflict or oppression. This primarily applies to state-mandated or ideologically motivated art movements that glorify political regimes, including Socialist Realism or Heroic Realism.
Political Extremism and Hateful Imagery
This tag is reserved for aesthetics that feature explicit, recognizable symbols of hate, extremism, or verifiable ideologies of social harm.
This rule applies in two distinct contexts:
- Direct Advocacy: Aesthetics explicitly promoting ideologies of harm, such as fascism, neo-Nazism, white supremacy, bigotry, or extremist political violence (such as Fashwave or Hyperborean).
- Transgressive Subversion and Reclamation: Aesthetics that utilize these symbols satirically, critically, or for shock value as a visual motif. This is crucial for documenting countercultural movements that appropriate hateful or controversial iconography (e.g., the use of swastikas in Nazi Chic and early Punk, the Totenkopf in Neofolk, or specific Soviet symbols in Communist Chic and Electronic Body Music). In these cases, the warning must be specific and neutral, acknowledging the symbol's presence and its transgressive context without judgment.
Highly Sensitive Historical Trauma
This tag is required for aesthetics that feature visual documentation or explicit imagery related to genocide, slavery, public executions, or major historical catastrophes involving mass human suffering (e.g., Chernobyl, Hiroshima, the Holocaust, or specific slavery-era documentation).
This tag is necessary to protect users from encountering highly distressing, non-fictional images of human tragedy and is separate from the Political Extremism tag, which focuses on ideology. This applies to aesthetics such as Chernobyl Stalkers (due to health risks/disaster imagery), aesthetics that visually reference these historical events (such as in the works of Throbbing Gristle in the Industrial page), or historical subcultures that were persecuted by Nazi/communist regimes (e.g., Stilyagi, Weimar Cabaret, Swingjugend).
Gender-Based Prejudice
This tag is mandatory for aesthetics whose philosophy or visual motifs rely on extreme gendered prejudice, the promotion of female or male degradation, transphobia, or ideologies rooted in hate groups (separate from general slurs).
This applies to aesthetics such as:
- Misogynistic Frameworks: Aesthetics explicitly linked to movements that advocate, directly or indirectly, for female degradation or subjugation (e.g., Lad Culture, certain aspects of Crunkcore music).
- Misandrist Frameworks: Aesthetics that promote male degradation or explicit misandry (e.g., Femcel).
This ensures the wiki neutrally documents the presence of explicit prejudice, reinforcing the principle that content warnings are safety flags for potentially harmful ideology.
Ethnic and National Stereotyping
This tag is mandatory for aesthetics whose subcultural identity or primary visual motifs rely on, or are named after, a verifiable, negative stereotype against a specific ethnic, national, or regional group.
This includes:
- Aesthetics that are themselves pejorative terms used against ethnic/national groups (e.g., Guido).
- Aesthetics that rely on the reproduction of ethnic caricatures or tropes for their visual identity (e.g., historical stereotypes in certain forms of Tiki, stereotyping of Slavic women in Winter Bimbo).
The warning must acknowledge the term or motif's association with ethnic prejudice or cultural stereotyping, ensuring the wiki documents the aesthetic neutrally while acknowledging the harm of the associated label.
Misogyny, Classism, and Pejorative Subculture Names
This tag is mandatory for aesthetics where the subculture's name or primary defining term is a social, classist, or misogynistic slur or pejorative label used to mock a specific socio-economic or gender group. This policy ensures intellectual honesty by acknowledging the harmful social context of the aesthetic's label, regardless of whether that label is being reclaimed or used neutrally on the wiki. This applies to aesthetics such as Chav, Guido, or Ah Beng. The warning must be specific, identifying the term as a pejorative or slur (if applicable).
Highly Sensitive Documented Controversies
This tag is mandatory when the content of the page must factually document verifiable, severe controversies associated with the aesthetic's key figures, creators, or associated media.
This applies when the article discusses:
- Allegations or documented instances of sexual abuse, grooming, or pedophilia against prominent artists or figures within the subculture (Scene, Scenecore).
- The aesthetic's associated media (music/film) features explicit misogynistic, homophobic, racial, or otherwise harmful slurs.
- Verifiable real-world harm caused by the subculture's figures or activities that extends beyond simple illegal activity (e.g., death, large-scale violence, or hate crimes).
The purpose of this tag is to inform the reader about the sensitive, real-world trauma and allegations they will encounter in the article's text (e.g., a "Controversy" section), ensuring the wiki remains a neutral but honest source.
Transgressive and Offensive Religious Content
This tag is required for aesthetics that feature visual motifs or thematic content considered blasphemous, sacrilegious, or highly offensive to established religious beliefs or figures.
This applies when the aesthetic uses religious iconography (Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, etc.) in a manner that is:
- Satirical or Blasphemous: The aesthetic directly mocks, degrades, or satirizes religious figures (e.g., Pope John Paul II memes in Wixa, a Polish rave subculture) or sacred concepts.
- Transgressive Reappropriation: The aesthetic visually combines sacred religious items (rosaries, crucifixes, veils in Tradcath Coquette) with themes that are sexually explicit, criminal, or otherwise profane for shock value or social commentary.