This article discusses both the positive and the negative aspects of how social media is changing how we see beauty. The standards of beauty are always changing, but with the help of social media, they’re changing even faster. I will focus on the positives that are discussed here and use another article to discuss the negative.
The first and I think the most major positive outcome of social media is that it has given a very large group of women a voice that they have never had before. There is finally a space for women of color to create beauty publicly. This article doesn’t discuss this as much as it should, but it is really important to note what social media has created. The beauty industry has always been white washed, and now there is a virtual space to allow for the coloring of the industry. Like I mentioned in an earlier journal, Lupita Nyong’o was signed with Lancome, a cosmetic brand who has been in business for over 80 years. It took them 80 years to sign a black model- 80 years! Now anyone can create an account on Instagram and teach people how to do makeup that works for darker complexions.
The article mentions something that I didn’t put much thought into: everyone working behind the scenes. We all know that when celebrities step out onto the red carpet (or just post a picture online) they probably didn’t do their own makeup, hair and styling. But previously we didn’t get to see who put them together; however, thanks to social media, we now can. Celebrities may tag their styling team in their selfies or post pictures with the teams. Or the stylists and cosmetologists may have their own following which is what landed them the job of doing whoever’s makeup.
One of the last things that the article mentions as a “positive” I don’t really think is entirely positive. It says that major fashion houses (like Dior or Chanel for example) are only hiring models if they have over 10,000 followers on Instagram. The reason that I don’t think this is a positive is because it objectifies the models. I understand that the nature of a model’s job does often cause them to be objectified as sexual objects and that they are immediately judged based upon their looks. The followers that one has on Instagram just isn’t a fair way to qualify as hirable. In order to gain followers some potential models may post racy pictures of themselves, and that’s fine if the potential model is open to doing that. But what if you’re not? What if you want to be a model without having to have your breasts exposed in order to gain followers so that you can land a gig? One other major negative I see with this is that the more followers you have, the more comments you’re likely to have on posts. These comments could be from “thirst” followers (i.e. someone who follows you because they think you’re hot) and these followers would more than likely leave sexually charged comments on the posts. Social media should create a more positive space to express one’s self, not turn potential models into “Instagram hoes.”