In the summer of 2025, "Sardine Girl Summer" emerged as a trending micro-aesthetic on social media, intertwining wellness, gendered beauty, and commodification amid economic anxiety. While marketed as a "recession indicator," the trend obscures deeper issues like climate change and capitalism's impact on global fisheries, prompting a façade of togetherness through consumerism.
In this perspective piece, Aaron Padgett explores how “blue” political and economic agendas in the Pacific are underwritten by a view of the region as a strategic and resource frontier. Examining initiatives like the BLUE Pacific Act, the piece discusses how blue environmental rhetoric co-opts and diminishes Native Pacific place relations to create marketable slogans for the expanding security state.
