What if we lived in a world where Abraham Lincoln looked like Angelina Jolie and referred to himself as “Slaybreham Lincoln”? What about if the cult-favorite horror movie The Conjuring was instead “The Contouring”? The latest meme-ified internet trend explores this alternative “yass queen” reality by swapping historical figures, celebrities and even the Queen with a “yassified” version of themselves, usually consisting of a blurred face, fake digital makeup (including fake eyelashes), long wavy Instagram hair and long nails.
The Twitter account @YassifyBot has been churning out these digital transformations almost every hour for the past few days and, at this point, no real-life celebrity or fictional character is safe from being “yassified”. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings got a blunt bob and contouring, Bernie Sanders went from taxing the rich to slaying the rich, Professor McGonagall got long layers and lip fillers and a photo from Harry Styles’ cover shoot for Dazed has been referred to as “the yassification of the mucinex monster”. People are even taking “yas pills” and sharing their own transformations…
Yassify Bot, like many partaking in the viral trend, uses the FaceApp gender and makeup filters to achieve the final “yassified” look. The photo-editing app has previously been called a “potential counterintelligence threat,” but that doesn’t seem to be deterring people. So what is it about “yassification” memes that have caught on in such a viral way?
The popularity of “yassification” has many layers. Of course, the entire trend should be credited to queer creators on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. It’s managed to perfectly capture our current revolt against today’s Facetuned and overly filtered online culture. Some cite recently blurry low-res selfies (and even meta selfies) as a consequence of influencer fatigue (although one could also argue it’s just another vehicle to post some content).
Instead of overly-filtered, fake images on social media being what people aspire towards, for some they’ve become the butt of the joke and a tool for online escapism. This is in line with the overall bimbofication of the internet over this past year, where Gen Z have resurrected and reclaimed a once misogynistic stereotype.
Plus, in a time of global crisis and loss — where we’re also faced with impending climate catastrophe — why enjoy a collective yearning for having a smooth brain, no thoughts and an empty head. That’s where the bimbofication and “yassification” trends come in. “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by yassification,” one user tweeted of the trend.
With that in mind, the imaginary “yassified” world being created is not just one where everyone looks like an influencer, it’s one where everything bad or scary is softened and smoothed over it until it looks cute. Now if only our real-life global problems could be “yassified” in the same way. As Adam Powers put it on Twitter: “The Great Yassification is upon us, queens. Now to yassify a gorgeous, equitable, and just climate safe future.”
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