Female beauty standards have been determining women’s appearances and insecurities for thousands of years. It seems like every few decades, society has a new idea of what a “perfect woman” looks like, leaving women who do not meet the criteria feeling like they are simply not good enough, outcasts shunned by society for not having a small nose or rounded shoulders. As social media has become a central part of society in recent decades, female beauty standards have become even more extreme and detrimental to women’s mental health.
From girls buying anti-aging products before they’ve started middle school to makeup filters on TikTok creating unattainable beauty standards, social media produces a toxic environment for many teen girls, who are more vulnerable to low self-esteem.
According to the “Dove Self-Esteem Project,” which surveyed 1,000 girls aged ten to seventeen, one in two girls have low self-esteem because of “toxic beauty advice” on social media, and 90% of girls follow a social media account that makes them feel insecure. This shows the full impact that social media has on the self-confidence of teen girls across the nation.
The infamous “Sephora Girls” that have taken social media by storm makes many adults question the motivation behind so many girl’s obsessions with skincare and makeup. Is it because of actual enjoyment or insecurity? While most teen girls use these products in order to feel more confident, it is concerning that young girls are so focused on how they look that they feel like they need to use unnecessary and sometimes unhealthy skincare and makeup products on their skin. Yet, stories of young girls having allergic reactions to certain products and developing acne do not seem to deter anybody away from Sephora’s aisles.
While mocking tween girls for their interest in makeup, society is also regulating how much makeup women wear, fully expecting them to leave the house with a face full of cosmetics every single day. Currently, the “no-makeup makeup look” is trending in the eyes of society. If you don’t wear enough makeup, people will tell you that you look tired and ask if you’re getting any sleep. If you wear too much makeup, people will tell you that you are trying too hard and begging for attention. This makes some women afraid to be who they are. Makeup shouldn’t be an obligation, but it should also serve as a form of expression and a way for people to let their creativity shine through.
Some influencers are so concerned about how they are perceived by society that they use makeup filters on social media. While social media used to offer fun filters such as the memorable “dog ears,” platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok are constantly inventing new hyper-realistic filters that can give users clear skin and a face full of makeup with the click of a button. Furthermore, influencers can completely alter their body to an extreme, unrecognizable point, creating unrealistic body standards, which can lead to extreme consequences for users such as an eating disorder.
Additionally, some Tik Tok filters are created with the intention of highlighting people’s insecurities. One example of a Tiktok filter that has caused mass insecurity for men and women alike was the “inverted mirror.” The filter allows users to view how they supposedly look to other people, rather than how they look in a mirror. Many people were not pleased with how they looked when they used the filter, and became even more disheartened by the “perfectly symmetrical faces” that some influencers bragged about on their platforms, so much so that some people were having mental breakdowns. The fact that a social media filter caused such extreme body dysmorphia for a substantial number of people indicates the true severity of the danger that social media poses.
Although some women have started to point out the absurdity of society determining their appearances and realize that the true beauty lies in the uniqueness of every human, beauty standards shared on social media are overwhelming many women with insecurities and creating a toxic environment where they are afraid to be themselves.
