The Cursed Inevitability Of Yassification

Technological warfare has been taking place on social media in recent weeks. Its weaponry is Facetune on steroids, and its target is anyone the enemy sees fit. They even have a battle cry, a statement of encouragement just unfashionable enough to induce the highest levels of cringe.

The Yassification process has been a glamorous online zombie plague, and no one has been safe from it. With a perfect, identikit face transplanted onto all manner of celebrities and civilians, yassified pictures have been running riot on Twitter with @YassifyBot, dribbling into the recesses of meme Instagram and have infiltrated TikTok by force thanks to a convenient filter. A mindset that only begins with the makeover, its cursed moment in the sun has been a long time coming.

It all begins with the word yas in all its variations is the poster girl for embarrassing, appropriative language trends of the 2010s. A statement of encouragement that originated in drag queen and ballroom culture, it shot to fame through a mixture of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a viral Lady Gaga video and a rapidly expanding online audience eager to capitalize on their newfound cultural knowledge with a shared vocabulary.

Within the space of a few years, “yas queen” hurtled from countercultural slang to a heads-up that you were probably in the vicinity of a grating white woman. The slope from Broad City catchphrase to emblazoning planners in Target was a very slippery one. Its contemporary usage became reviled by Pepe-loving edgelords and sanctimonious social justice warriors alike, as well as by many of those from whom the word was taken.

The mental picture it conjures with language alone is supported by a hyper-ironic stance that certain meme subcultures have made an art form of cultivating. For Yassification to work, even on a niche level, its referential and abstract state is supported by previous phenomena that have been skewered on the internet. Perhaps its most important association is with the memeification of the "girlboss," which reached a fever pitch at the start of 2021 with Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.

Promoting the personal empowerment of women at whatever possible cost, its cloying yet ruthless demeanor has become a reference point for the many social media users who maintain suspicion of aspirational influencer marketing. This set the scene for its charismatic cousin, where the girlboss makes an active choice to lean in and slay, the "yas girl" has her gifts bestowed upon her, possibly by breathing in gas or taking Lois Griffin approved pills. Girlbossing and Yassifying are two halves of the same philosophy, one aimed at business and the other at pleasure.

Yassification further pays tribute to the excesses of stan culture. This can be seen through a mixture of the excitable language often used in its execution and the deliberately intrusive makeovers that it bestows on its victims. There’s a definite link between the average Yassified face and the lashes, lips and nails edits that have served as prominent reaction images on Twitter in recent years among many stan communities. It has also encouraged fans to make comparisons between Yassified and non-Yassified celebrities, a kind of "vibe check" that identifies individuals with similar personas presented with different levels of glamor.

While structurally it borrows heavily from the memes that have come before it, Yassification also pays homage to more general digital trends. In terms of its severe Facetune, the meme offers a blunt pastiche of Instagram Face. A phrase coined by writer Jia Tolentino, it identifies the amalgamation of perfected female features that seem to have millions of cyberian carbon copies on the internet. Supposedly, the fad has increased demand for certain plastic surgeries and failing that, excessive use of filters and photo editing.

This is mocked by all things yas, whose proponents wear their fakeness as a badge of honor. Its drastic measures encourage people to recoil rather than be influenced, although as the meme has become more prolific social media users have naturally become more accustomed to the look. It’s not just the pun-worthy song title that has encouraged TikTokers to use PC Music legend Sophie’s “Faceshopping” to guide their unsettling transformations — the meme expresses itself with an extreme helping of camp. Yassifying is contradictory in that it can be perceived as celebratory as well as critical.

The craze is also the flipside to another meme that became well-known thanks to its female slant, The Feminine Urge. A cryptic glimpse into one gender’s innermost thoughts, the concept has the versatility to capture what anything yas-related glosses over. Whereas the former deals with the supposedly raw and authentic desires of women, Yassification is all about the artifice, what is projected onto them and maybe even aspired to, if you’re especially dedicated.

Irony bros and Reddit shitposters no longer have complete control of the cutting-edge meme narrative, as it is broadening its horizons. The nonsensical and toxic female voice has been establishing itself as a main character of internet culture for some time. More people not only realize its comedic power but are willing to embody it, too. Yassification marks a turning point for this, a signal that it’s a movement to be reckoned with. While the editing might get old, the ethos has more to come.

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