Should liberals oppose trends?

Are your jeans skinny fit, boot cut, or wide leg? Which TikTok dance routines do you know? What happened to Tamagotchi, Pokémon, fidget spinners, and loom bands? Does your tween daughter lust after expensive anti-ageing skincare? 

Many of us follow trends, whether in matters of aesthetics, hobbies, or even philosophical theories. Do we autonomously choose to follow trends, or do trends undermine our autonomy? On the one hand, trends are often things we follow consciously and deliberately, cultivating our trend-following in the manner of an expensive taste. Being trendy might, then, simply be a conception of the good. On the other hand, various features of trends suggest that they are non-autonomous. A trend is something we want or do just because others are doing it too – somewhat like Mill’s despotism of custom. We may not be able to give any rational reasons for favouring a trend, and it is likely that we will disfavour it in the near future when it is no longer trendy, making trend-following appear irrational and non-autonomous – somewhat like adaptive preferences. Advertisers and influencers try to persuade us to follow trends, even making truth-adjacent claims in support of the products they sell – somewhat like manipulation. This paper explores trends in the light of existing liberal theories of autonomy and shows that none of them quite capture trend-following. In their place, I gesture towards a liberal theory of trends.