It’s not empowerment, it’s exploitation.
By: Angelina Ong
Image source: iStock
Advertisements have been picked apart, analysed, and criticised for their perpetuation of a narrow beauty standard for decades. It’s hardly news that the beauty industry has been capitalising off of women's insecurities for years, constantly introducing products which purportedly give us a chance of meeting the ever-changing societal perceptions of beauty.
However, in recent years, the highly scrutinised beauty industry has undergone a major paradigm shift from spending being concentrated on makeup products intended to alter and conceal, to skincare products that nourish and protect. While women have learned to discriminate against beauty brands which prey on and exacerbate their low self-esteem, many fail to realise that the skincare companies they now stand behind which supposedly “celebrate diversity”, promote inclusion, and challenge existing beauty norms are merely taking advantage of these progressive ideas to push forward their own capitalistic agenda. The use of models who possess unconventional qualities like acne, freckles, and dark eye circles makes them seem more human — like you, just with slightly rosier cheeks, longer eyelashes, and glossier lips. Like you, just slightly out of reach. These advertisements market an ideal vision that doesn’t seem all that unattainable. Even though the nature of products we purchase may have changed, the promises they sell have not: buy this product and you have the potential to become an improved version of yourself. We seem to think that the road to a better self can be achieved through consumerism — just think: how many “glow up” or “self care” vlogs or TikToks have you seen involve the purchasing of new products? Despite thinking we are disillusioned from manipulative marketing tactics, we still see going on a shopping spree and buying rose quartz rollers, face masks, and scented body scrubs as a means of self-improvement and empowerment. By commodifying wellness, we all fall victim to contemporary marketing on our quest to self-betterment. Old advertising that’s been subject to public discourse for promoting an exclusory beauty standard has merely been repackaged into a more socially acceptable form that hides its insidious financial motivations under a veil of pseudo-empowerment.
This isn’t to say we should refrain from buying from all these large skincare corporations as a feeble protest against the culture of mass consumption, but rather that buying new products isn’t the be-all and end-all to self-improvement (especially given that these corporations market their products as solutions to problems they’ve conjured up themselves). The wellness industry mustn’t mistakenly be seen as intending for us to undertake anything other than what is fundamentally a perpetual journey of continuous consumption — all whilst we are under the false impression that we are in the process of “improving” ourselves.
Citations
Biondi, A. (2021, July 2). How gen Z is changing beauty. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/gen-z-changing-beauty
Daniels, M. (2023, February 26). How the pandemic shifted the focus from makeup to skincare. F Word Magazine. https://www.fwordmag.com/single-post/how-the-pandemic-shifted-the-focus-from-makeup-to-skincare
Lennon, E. (2023, November 28). How unrealistic beauty standards profit from women’s insecurities. She Defined. https://shedefined.com.au/style/beauty/how-unrealistic-beauty-standards-profit-from-womens-insecurities/
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