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Dear Beauty Industry, Do I Have Your Permission to Love Myself? By: Sania choudhary

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Society is constantly trying to remind us that we have faults. It raises bouts of self doubt in our minds that we would have never felt on our own. And even in its efforts to give us opportunities to improve ourselves-supposedly in order to raise our self-confidence-it often only serves to bring people further down. And it has done this so much so that an entire industry profits off this: the beauty industry.

“Beauty in and of itself is not harmful; the industrialization of one narrow idea of beauty, however, is utterly reckless,” Ecofeminism teacher Haley Nikodem said.

The narrow idea of beauty is what gives way for the pressure people feel to follow it.

“We live in a capitalist society and the beauty industry makes their money from making females feel insecure so we will buy more products,” school counselor Stephanie Fugita said. “I read that beauty stores purposely use harsh lighting so people can easily see their flaws to encourage people to buy more makeup to hide them. When we are fighting these types of tactics, it is difficult to avoid the pressure.”
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During my annual end-of-summer shopping spree with my mother just before the start of my freshman year in high school, I was looking around for new jeans. I scanned the shelves until I stopped at a soft, sky blue pair. Just what I had been looking for! As I began rummaging through the pile, I noticed a hot pink tag sticking out of the side, so I snuck a glance at it. “New Elastic Waistline! Makes Waist Look Smaller!” was written across with flowers around the edges. Now tell me, what need does a size zero, 14-year-old girl have for a smaller waist? It sickened me that this was supposed to be appealing, and it sickened me even more that it was made to be appealing to such a young crowd. I did not use to question the size of my waist. But now that I had seen the idea of a smaller waistline being advertised in such a favorable fashion, with a bright green label topped with sparkles and rosy pink flowers, I could not help but look at myself in the mirror twice while trying on clothes that day.

“There's been times where I had no problem with a part of myself, until I saw an ad, for example, that made me feel as if I should have a problem with it,” junior Arina Oberoi said.

Through advertising such a limited set of qualities, the industry creates the impression that one particular style or form is the most favorable, which can cause people to feel the need to follow it in order to be accepted.

“As an adult I feel that the beauty industry is, in essence, malicious. The idea of promoting purely aesthetic attraction negates any pensive activity and inevitably favors the superficial, which is then further complicated when certain aspects of that perceived beauty become privileged over others,” Nikodem said.

Advertisements promoting unrealistic and biased physical features that the industry favors are not the only way the industry can create insecurities. Not representing certain traits has the same effect, particularly when the traits that are advertised are so heavily praised.

“If your particular type of beauty is not represented, young women can end up feeling unattractive and unseen,” Fugita said.

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The first time I went shopping for foundations, I noticed that among the twenty or so available shades, only around two or three were for people of dark skin color. There was no gradient for them either - it just went from a tan to a near-black brown. However, there were colors available for almost the entire gradient from a pale to tan complexion. I later came to realize that I was not the only one who noticed these trends in beauty products. Many makeup brands have been publicly shamed for the clear racial bias in their marketing. Tarte’s Shape Tape, It Cosmetics, BeautyBlender, YSL and Almay, along with drugstore brands, have been criticized by beauty influencers and by the media. This lack of representation easily comes across as the brands trying to create an image that lighter skin is ideal. Ultimately, this would only serve to raise insecurities in the heads of people of darker skin color.

The same idea can be applied to many different physical traits. Quotes such as “flawless skin” in advertisements give the impression that any skin types different from the one in the image are flawed. Saying “get the perfect body” implies that anyone with any different body shape is imperfect.

“When the beauty industry doesn't show stretch marks, others begin to believe that they don't exist, making those who have them feel insecure and those who don't view them as unattractive,” Oberoi said. “As brands have become more comfortable showing things such as stretchmarks and scars, I've noticed I've also become more accepting of these traits.”

Products are not the only way in which the industry can highlight traits it favors. The choice of models and influencers can also play a large role in how we interpret messages being sent by the beauty industry.

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“If you look at the young girls with the most followers, like Addison Rae or Charlie D'Amelio, they have a very specific body type and look,” Fugita said. “The Kardashians are also very prominent on social media. Because they are so wealthy, they have access to procedures that the lay person does not have access to. It is literally unrealistic and unattainable for typical young people. However, they did not express that they have had work done, so people think that by purchasing their lip products and using the waist trainers like they do they will look like they do, which just feeds the industry.”

Pressures to look a certain way can also take the form of racial bias.

“I grew up in the 80’s where almost all of the models and actresses were thin and Caucasian. As a young Asian woman in the Midwest, I literally didn’t see anyone who looked like me anywhere. I longed to have blonde hair and blue eyes,” Fugita said. “This had a significant impact on me growing up. I permed my straight hair so I fit in with my peers at school and was constantly on a diet to try to get thinner. The make-up tutorials never worked on my hooded eyes and I would get frustrated that I couldn’t create the looks that the models and my friends had. It has been a process to get to a place where I have accepted my Asian features.”

Sometimes it is not only the beauty industry that promotes these stereotypes. Wanting to fit into the beauty standards assigned by the industry leads to the creation of beauty trends that aim to help people meet those expectations. This can in turn result in peer pressure to follow those trends, especially when we exist in a society where people compare themselves to others on a daily basis.

Senior Eva Liu believes that it is not the fault of the beauty industry, but the fault of those around us.

“I think the beauty industry is not one that's creating the pressure, but others around us are creating the pressure. It's the looks that you get from other people in everyday life that makes you question if you are pretty enough, not the advertisements in a shopping mall,” Liu said.

When I was in middle school, I barely knew what dieting was, much less considered ever doing it. Some of my friends had begun talking about it and saying they were all going to try it together. This made it seem like the normal thing to do, and I felt out of place for not wanting to try it myself. If everyone else, including the skinniest girl in the class, was suddenly conscious about their eating habits and weight, it felt weird to not be questioning mine.

“It is impossible to not compare myself to everyone around me. It becomes like a habit after seven plus years, and habits are very difficult to break,” senior Samantha King said. “Two trends I believed worked were putting olive oil on eyelashes to make them grow longer and faster and using baking soda and lemon juice to whiten my teeth. Both were disgusting and just made-up.”

The solution from here looks pretty simple, right? If we just did not fall victim to these pressures, then we would not have these problems at all. But that is a statement much easier said than done.

“The beauty industries create the pressure, but not everyone is strong enough to fight back against the pressure at an early age. Sometimes it is easier to just give in and believe what they have to say as true. Girls and guys hold themselves to expectations most often unattainable, and comparing themselves to everyone around them makes everything worse,” King said.

Remembering who the warriors are in this battle is important. Growing up, I have seen the difference in the effect the industry can have on me at different stages of my life. A young student likely will not have the experience and maturity needed to fight the pressures that even adults have a hard time facing.

“To say that young women exacerbate these issues by falling prey to the beauty industry's pressure is callously inaccurate,” Nikodem said. “The industry itself is massive, extremely powerful, and has had years of training: thanks to decades of data, it knows exactly how and where to execute that pressure on its target in order to yield the highest return. Young women conforming to aesthetic ideals that are marketed to them shortly after infancy, endorsed in their adolescence, and validated throughout their adulthood are, in simplest terms, ill-equipped. Receiving constant messaging surrounding aesthetic attraction is not a choice, so falling victim to it, while your frontal lobe is still taking shape, cannot logically be a choice, either.”

Recently, there have been advancements made by the industry. More people of color, people with different body types, and people of different identities can be seen in advertisements. This can bring comfort and hope to a more diverse audience.

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“I think that the beauty industry can be an outlet for young people to express themselves, gain confidence through makeup and styling, and use it as a way to be creative,” Fugita said. “I also like how the beauty industry has been normalizing all genders to wear makeup and dress in less binary ways. I feel like this is very validating for people who perhaps don’t see men wearing make-up or people engaging in non-binary fashion...on a daily basis.”

Fugita mentioned that she feels more confident now that she sees tutorials about doing makeup on hooded eyes. Her daughters are more confident now with there being more Asian influencers as well.

However, the industry still has a long way to go.

“One may argue that people of color are included in western beauty advertising more now than ever, and this is a positive change, but take a closer look. Fettishizing skin tone is not the same as embracing people for who they are. Cultural appropriation on the runway is not diversity. Celebrating body types that were disparaged by the same industry only a few short years ago is not akin to engaging in a genuine dialogue. Adhering to the beauty industry's interpretations of aesthetic perfection not only distorts reality, but fuels a tentacle of success that feeds only the mouth of its owner: the industry itself,” Nikodem said.

The beauty industry has been around for a long time, and so have its practices in highlighting people’s insecurities to gain profit. Solving the problem can begin with pointing out issues with the industry itself, but it ultimately has to be addressed at a personal level.

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“While I love the concept of body positivity, I prefer body neutrality,” Fugita said.

Body neutrality is the acceptance of your body as it is through recognizing its abilities and non-physical characteristics over just its appearance. It decentralizes the body as an object by discrediting the belief that the way someone looks drives their worth.

“Telling yourself that you're beautiful when you don't believe that isn't a solution,” King said. “Instead, the best way to feel better about yourself is just to accept yourself for who you are. Accept that you will have insecurities, and know that those insecurities don't define you.”

Being more conscious of the people we choose to follow can be another solution.

“I can mostly distinguish that the models in those advertisements are not who I aspire to be. Thus, I tend not to be super affected by the beauty industry. I understand that I am not as skinny or as tall as those models, which I am perfectly fine with,” Liu said.

Understanding where our insecurities come from and realizing that oftentimes it is not rooted within ourselves can also help.

“If I were to transmit a message to my younger self I would encourage her to ask, always: what exactly am I being sold, why is it being sold to me, and why do I find it alluring?” Nikodem said. “Remember, any given insecurity you feel is likely stemming from an economically-driven imperative determined by people who have never known you; it's not a defect in your character, shape, or color. Own that, and they can't touch you.”

Loving ourselves in a society that itself does not seem ready to accept us can be difficult. Seeing posts like #selflove and #selfpride can seem rather ironic when we are given so many reasons not to love ourselves and when a large part of the economy profits off of people feeling insecure. But it is not impossible. We are so much more than a dot on our face or an extra pound on our bodies. And if we never questioned it in ourselves, why should we allow someone else to question it for us?

“In adhering to global tastemaking we not only forgo individual preference but authorize the rejection of ourselves, and perhaps most offensively repudiate the colors and shapes that remain condemned by those tastemakers,” Nikodem said. “Demanding that young women, who arguably occupy one of the most vulnerable subsets on the planet, navigate this gauntlet is counterintuitive to the progression of a healthy society.”

It is one thing to be able to love myself. It is another thing to feel okay loving myself, and that is a step society has yet to take. Maybe society won’t accept us, but it should at least give us a chance to accept ourselves.