“Peasants Revolt, end it this time”… Why the younger generation today is summoning the Middle Ages - 경향신문

This article was translated by an AI tool. Feedback Here.

Knights on horseback lower long lances and charge. Except what they are riding are shared electric bicycles, not horses. And the lances are not wood but plastic pipes. This odd duel in a park in East London is a modern twist on a medieval jousting match. A pop star in armor, chain mail on luxury fashion runways, and even T-shirts emblazoned with a peasants revolt from more than 600 years ago. The Middle Ages are reappearing in British popular culture in unexpected ways.

Among young people in the West, medieval-inspired fashion is in vogue. ‘Medievalcore’, a portmanteau of ‘medieval’ and ‘core’ that denotes a particular aesthetic or trend, is emerging as a new current in fashion.

In London, an offbeat event recently took place that mimicked medieval jousting. Conceived by artist Jack Carden (24), participants charged at one another riding shared e-bikes instead of horses and wielding plastic pipes instead of lances. Admission was free. Framed as an alternative to steep ticket prices and a closed-off art market, it ran to coincide with the contemporary art fair Frieze. Carden told the British daily the Guardian, “Frieze is expensive and hard to access,” explaining that he planned the event to lower the barriers to contemporary art.

It is not only street art that is pulling in the medieval. The impulse is spreading through visual art, music, and fashion. Australian pop star Troy Sivan appears as a medieval knight in chain mail in the music video for his new song ‘Party’. He joins revelry in a castle after a victorious battle. Rather than solemn chivalry, the video foregrounds exaggerated gestures and a sensual, playful mood, reinterpreting medieval imagery in contemporary terms.

Medievalcore trending on social media.

Traces of the medieval are visible in fashion as well. On the runways of major houses such as Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and Max Mara, there have been hoods reminiscent of monastic robes and designs inspired by chain mail. Rather than reproducing medieval dress as it was, designers are combining modern silhouettes and materials to create new styles.

Medieval aesthetics are also being used to subvert existing norms around gender and bodies. The Guardian has described a current that highlights female sexual desire and a free-spirited attitude as ‘wenchcore’. While ‘wench’ originally meant a young woman, it has also historically been used as a disparaging label for maids, promiscuous women, or prostitutes. Now, however, wenchcore uses the term to emphasize an attitude that breaks from the traditional ideal of women as demure and proper, encouraging the unabashed display of their desires and individuality.

There is also a reason the medieval wave cannot be explained as mere retro fashion. Beneath it lies resentment toward privilege and authority.

British artist Corbin Shaw mounted an exhibition titled ‘Feast of Fools’ to coincide with Frieze in London. The idea draws on a medieval European festival that inverted and mocked established hierarchies and authority. In an interview with fashion magazine GQ, Shaw described the tradition as a celebration for commoners through which they could criticize the rich. The project carries an intent to twist cultural events centered on the art market and the wealthy.

A Sports Banger T-shirt bears the slogan ‘1381 Peasants Revolt, finish it this time’. Product page screengrab

Sports Banger, a clothing label known for designs with political messages, printed the slogan ‘1381 Peasants Revolt, finish it this time’ on a T-shirt. The year 1381 was when a peasants revolt broke out in England. At the time, peasants and workers rose up against tax burdens, social inequality, and oppression by the ruling class. Today, such T-shirts serve not only to commemorate a historical event but also as a means of expressing discontent with present-day inequality.

This mood also appears in works of popular culture. The film “The Uprising”, starring actor Andrew Garfield, takes the fourteenth-century English peasants revolt as its subject. It invites viewers to connect the history of commoners demanding equality against the ruling class with questions of power and resistance today.

Simon Trafford, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, told the Guardian, “The Middle Ages are not a period trapped in the past but have always been present within modern culture,” adding, “What changes from era to era are the elements people draw from the medieval and how they use them.” Marion Turner, Professor of English at the University of Oxford, said, “There is joy and playfulness in the ways modern artists and fashion designers borrow the medieval,” analyzing that “they use the medieval not so much to faithfully recreate the society of the time as to borrow past images and symbols to unleash new imagination.”

Post-pandemic discontent, does it resemble the medieval peasants revolt?

Why, then, are young people invoking the medieval now? Professor Turner points to the social changes that appeared after the spread of the Black Death in medieval Europe. As populations fell and labor became scarce, wages rose and social mobility increased, and these shifts led to challenges to the existing order. The 1381 English peasants revolt, she argues, can be understood in connection with the frustrations of the post-plague generation.

Turner explained, “Since the Covid-19 pandemic, an interesting similarity has emerged in that people are less willing than before to endure and accept unfair situations.” Of course, one cannot equate the medieval Black Death with the modern pandemic, but there is room for comparison in the way that, after a major social shock, people come to look again at existing orders and rules.

Anxieties about technological change are also among the factors prompting a renewed look at the medieval. Turner sees points of comparison between the era when printing emerged and the rapid spread of the internet and artificial intelligence (AI) today. In both past and present, there are worries that large-scale technologies could dampen individual creative activity.

Medieval imagery is also deployed in debates over national identity. In Britain, medieval history and symbols have at times served as the language of nationalism and right-wing politics. Yet in recent youth culture there are efforts to reclaim such symbols in different ways: to criticize the British ruling class while still finding pride in the history and culture of Britain.

Cultural analyst Bridget Dalton told the Guardian that the youth trend toward medieval styles is “a way to talk about Britain without hanging out the St George Cross.” The St George Cross, the flag of England, has recently been used at anti-immigration and far-right rallies, sparking controversy over the political meaning of the flag. In such a climate, flying the national flag can be read not simply as an expression of patriotism but as support for a particular political camp. Dalton means that younger people are discussing British identity by using medieval history and symbols instead of flags or nationalist slogans.

Of course, the medieval cannot be reduced to a single political stance. Its symbols offer different meanings both to far-right politicians and to people who resist the establishment. Marine Le Pen, a far-right French politician, can present Joan of Arc as a symbol of a Christian, militant identity; left-leaning people, by contrast, find in the 1381 peasants revolt a meaning of resistance to inequality and power. Trafford noted, “People can choose scenes from the medieval that fit their arguments, and one can find in the medieval social visions that accord with left-wing values as well.” The Middle Ages may be a distant and unfamiliar past, but for the younger generation today they are becoming a mirror that reflects reality.