Before social media, if you wanted to learn the beauty secrets of celebrities and fashionistas, your only option was to go out and get a magazine. How quaint.

These days, learning the tips and tricks of the 'beautiful' (as judged by the media and advertising industries) is as simple as logging onto YouTube or Instagram.

So-called Get Ready With Me (or in internet speak, GRWM) videos have become incredibly popular, and despite my better judgement, I find myself watching as many random videos as the algorithms throw up (most of which feature women or non-binary people.)

So you can imagine my delight when I recently came across American actress (and music legend Diana Ross' daughter) Tracee Ellis Ross' GRWM routine.

In the 13-minute video, Ross describes in detail the many, MANY products she uses to keep her skin looking good: multiple serums, eye cream, face cream, moisturiser (yes, that's different to a cream), some odd 'face vibrating' tool, a cold face massager, and finally, a lip mask. If you hadn't guessed, hers is a very expensive skin care regime, costing upwards of $1,000. One cream alone costs more than $500.

Ross completes her 'everyday look' by applying red lipstick and grooming her eyebrows. She proudly states that at 46 years old, she's not a "big make-up girl". "It doesn't bother me" to not wear foundation or concealer. "I feel like I've earnt these stripes," she says as she points to the wrinkles around her eyes. The video has now been watched over a million times in less than a month.

While I applaud Ross for some level of transparency into what it takes to look good (lots of products and lots money, apparently), watching the video, I couldn't help but think she'd reinforced the beauty myth that with the right products, you too could leave your house with minimal make-up and look fabulous.

Whether it's the lotions or potions, treatments or access to the best doctors money can buy, 'healthy' skin isn't cheap.

Then there's the other factor that influences 'good skin': genetics.

Alexa Boer Kimball, a researcher and the chief executive officer at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told Popular Science that when it comes to ageing, there are two important factors.

"First, the genes you are born with affect how you age But also, which genes are turned on over time matter, too. That can be affected by your inherent characteristics but also what you are exposed to and what you do" like pollution, stress or smoking.

These days, I'm fortunate to be able to wear my hair as I please without retribution. And it's for that reason that I braid my hair, Santilla Chingaipe writes.

Dr Kimball told the publication that while sunscreen and certain products like moisturisers can make a difference, how much of a difference depends on genetics and environmental factors. In the best-case scenario, you can reduce the signs of ageing by years but not decades, she says.

What does this all mean for those that can't afford to 'look good' and haven't won the genetic lottery? I think these questions are important, and as superficial as beauty may seem, it is an industry worth billions of dollars. It cashes in on selling aspiration: if you buy this face cream that promises to rid your face of all the wrinkles, then success and happiness are plentiful.

I've often fallen for this kind of messaging.

Growing up, I felt the pressure to look a certain kind of beautiful because most of the women I saw on television or magazines looked that way straight hair, flawless skin. I thought if I made myself fit that beauty mould, then job opportunities and love would surely follow.

What I didn't understand was the role race, gender and class play in determining who is considered 'beautiful' and that no matter how much I straightened my hair, black women aren't generally viewed as 'beautiful' because beauty standards are typically rooted in western and Eurocentric ideals.

If it's not youthfulness we're chasing (which requires spending money), it's a certain body type or hair style. At every turn, the patriarchy and capitalism asks us to bend to the myth of beauty.

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In her book, Thick: And other essays, American sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes that beauty can be political:

"It can exclude and include one of the basic conditions of any politics. Beauty has it all. It can be political, economic, external, individualized, generalising, exclusionary. Our dominant story of beauty is that it is simultaneously a blessing, of genetics or gods, and a site of conversion. You can become beautiful if you accept the right prophets and their wisdoms with a side of products thrown in for good measure."

Beauty ideals can make us all self-conscious for some, race complicates the issue.

What happens if you refuse to conform to patriarchal definitions of beauty?

British classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard has talked about the abuse and harassment she's experienced from people over her appearance.

Known for television appearances and fronting history documentaries in the UK, the 64-year-old has chosen to focus on her work rather than what she looks like eschewing make-up and keeping her natural hair colour. The New Yorker has described her as being an avatar for middle-aged and older women, who appreciate her unwillingness to fend off the visible advancement of age.

This act of free will and choice was been met with much vitriol, with some of her critics calling her "too ugly for television". A few years ago, she responded to her bullies by saying, "Grey is my hair colour. I really can't see why I should change it. There clearly is a view of female normative beauty, but more women of 58 do look like me than like Victoria Beckham."

It's clear beauty isn't achievable for everyone. Not in the way we're told to aspire for it no matter how much money we spend trying to buy our way into this ideal, very few people attain it.

Understanding that helped me to stop chasing an ideal that I'd never be able to meet, and instead embrace the body (and face) I was born with.

In many ways, it's easier said than done, because let's be honest it's hard to tune out the constant bombardment of images that push perfection. But if you can recognise how subjective, market-driven and narrow beauty ideals usually are, you can, perhaps, start letting go of some of the pressure to conform.

Read the rest here:
Why we need to stop buying into the beauty myth - ABC News

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