While social media largely has a reputation for making people feel bad about themselves, enticing for comparison, it is also a space that has redefined beauty and fashion standards.
Fashion blogging took the world by storm in the 2000s. Beautiful girls of different shapes, sizes and ethnicities began to showcase their style and share fashion recommendations. Social bloggers gathered subscribers on their social media accounts. People were finally starting to find their niche and the idea of beauty standards began to shift.
The 1990s was all about the supermodels. Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss were a few of the iconic names that graced many a teen mag. To be considered beautiful, you needed to be at least a certain height, you had to be slim, be curvaceous and what not. Plastic surgery became common amongst celebrities.
As the years went by, plastic surgery became more common. People could now purchase beauty. If their nose was too big, they could shave it down, chins could be narrowed, breasts and bums enlarged, fat reduced etc.. The body became a human canvas for people to design and modify as they wished.
With plastic surgery being an expensive way to achieve the ideal look, many people started looking for cheaper alternatives. Going to Turkey became a normal thing for a Brit to do in order get some cosmetic work done. This was undoubtedly a false economy, as often there would be no post-operative care and people had to either travel back to Turkey to get some repair work done or undergo corrective surgery in the UK.
And all the while social media rose in popularity. Girls posted fashion and beauty content on sites like YouTube, Instagram and more recently TikTok.
Body positivity movement encouraged the use of hashtags such as 'plus size queen'. People who were once made fun of for a certain feature started to find their niche online. People were starting to embrace their natural beauty.
Or at least, that is what the impression it gave. There was and is a lot of clever editing and filters at play, which give the appearance of smooth skin, high cheekbones, narrow nose, etc.. All that and more can be achieved without even wearing any bit of make up.
While on the offset, filters can seem harmless, after all it's not as invasive as undergoing a medical procedure, this too has had some harmful consequences. Filters can be so convincingly realistic; making someone look like a better looking version of themselves. The idea of what is considered beautiful and fashionable has undoubtedly branched out to what it once used to be. However, the use of filters does make people question whether in their natural state, are they good enough...
Comments