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.
If science speaks for itself, then powerful forces will invariably try to justify inequality and injustice on scientific grounds. Rather, it is important to understand that science is done by people living in societies. As environmental sociologists have long argued, we must therefore understand society if we are to understand science.
