Reflecting on society and the pressures we feel to align with what has deemed as fashionable, correct, and/or beautiful, it’s important that we acknowledge that it’s all made up. You can create your own beauty standard.
The controversy surrounding gender-specific clothing, colors, presentation, and makeup is a huge aspect of made-up rules meant to be followed. But these standards don’t have to be the end all be all, we can and will fight the beauty standard.
Society, and the beauty community by extension, present tones of limitations. The beauty standard has been skinny, white, and feminine-presenting for entirely too long, and fighting the beauty standard is the key to liberation in the form of self-expression. All of us have experienced a variation of microaggressions such as, “Are you sure you want to wear that,” or “Make-up is for only women,” and that should be the fuel to turn around and do whatever you please.
The History of the Standard
Fighting the beauty standard, and essentially doing you, is so significant otherwise you will never win. Society dictates what’s hot and what’s not, and it’s subjected to change as it has all throughout history. It’s inherently flawed at its core because no matter what the beauty standard is in that moment of time, no matter how many people it may include, it will exclude a group of people.
Take the present as an example of this: the current beauty standard is a big butt, big breasts, and a small waist, but that was not always the case. Individuals with these features in the early 2000s were ridiculed and deemed as fat. The beauty standard in the 2000s, Y2K fashion, glorified smaller physiques. It was a negative to have a bigger butt, and now that’s what everyone chases after.
What You Can Do About It
Now after you’ve received this information you’re probably pondering the application: how does this relate to me and my everyday life? The answer is simple: actively work to fight the beauty standard. If you want to dress in a feminine presenting manner today even if it’s frowned upon, do that. If you want to wear dangling earrings and paint your nails? Do that. If you want to wear our Green Lashes, Tag us in the post. Create your own standard that fits you and how you’d like to present. As Hillary Duff says, caring about societal standards is...
All in all, society has created a space that makes individuals feel that their natural presentation is not good enough. But the truth of the matter is, society is going to have a comment whether you adhere or if you rebel, so just do you.