The Troubling Paradox Of Instagram Beauty

前几天我用完了底漆。That doesn’t happen often, because I almost never wear primer. But I decided I’d better get on replacing it soon enough, because those “I Need Primer”-level special occasions like parties, award ceremonies, and weddings always seem to creep up on me, and I was damned if I’d endure another night self-conscious about foundation dripping down my face.

所以我去了药房。当我仔细阅读过过道，对遮瑕膏，粉底，粉红色，托盘和底漆进行零，我注意到有很多与Instagram相关名称的产品。有“ #instaready” BB霜。“焦点”底漆和遮瑕膏。“ Photoready”和“ Insta-Filter”基金会。“ #nofilter”设置粉末。

Before anyone gets on me for my pretentiousness: yes, I still bought some primer. And a setting powder.但是我很长一段时间以来都考虑了这些名字，以及它们象征的内容：女性对自己，图像和社交媒体的意外，坚定不移的了解。We know that that the perfection we see on Instagram is not real. And yet we still strive for it.

This should probably come as little surprise for most millennial women; those of us who came of age in the early- to mid-aughts were surely inundated withDove的运动, which drew attention to how much retouching goes into modern beauty advertising and media content (never mind that Dove continued to sell products to make our hair thicker, make our cellulite disappear and, in some countries, lighten skin). Dove wasn’t the only brand trying to do this (although as a major CPG advertiser, it had the biggest resources for media spend), and it’s unlikely that any teenage girl walked out of the first decade of the 2000s without knowing that the images we saw on those glossy pages — now on phone screens — were a far cry from reality.

因此，意识运动在这方面有效。但是，他们是否有效地遏制了该系统的参与？那可能从来不是多夫的目标之一。有效地传达出如此矛盾的信息需要真正的营销才能：“告诉女性没有产品，她们很漂亮，但不要让它影响她们在他们身上的花费。”

女人的化妆与以往一样多。该领域有更多的创造力和更多的机会来展示这种创造力。但是，有些奇怪的黑暗，对我们眨眨眼的方式有些难过。我们知道，如果没有高端美容产品和过滤器的正确组合（或者在极少数情况下赢得最稀有的稀有遗传彩票），我们在Instagram上看到的是无法实现的，但是无论如何我们都为此而努力。我们知道，没有哪个男孩像我们想要效仿的浓密的IG模型那样迷人或完美地弯曲的眉毛，但我们仍然购买了一种名为“男孩眉头.”

I am not above this by any means. I do it too. I am always looking for the best “blur effect” skin products because I will always have just enough breakouts, scars of former breakouts, burst capillaries, and dry spots for me to be convinced that no one else looks like this (even though其他所有人看起来像这样）。我一直渴望给眉毛更多的音量，更深入，更多的权威，并假装我没有在2003年夏天的整个高中，打蜡并扭动我曾经笨拙的眉毛变成了铅笔的东西。我痴迷地涂润唇膏，希望我的嘴唇上的线条 - 他妈的lines —will simply smooth over.

我们知道Insta-Beauty是一个过于昏暗的高曝光谎言，那么我们为什么如此依恋呢？It applies to the way we see other women, too. Now, when I look at a woman with perfectly illuminated cheekbones atop masterfully shaded hollows, my first thought, while still one of admiration, is not, “Wow, she has beautiful bone structure,” but rather, “Wow, I wish I could be that good at contouring.” When I see a woman whose eyebrows are thick, dark, striking, and have all the right curves, instead of thinking of what beautiful features she has, I sigh in awe at how amazingly she does her eyebrows.

In a way, that’s probably a good thing — we’re complimenting women for things that they’ve done, things that they can help, things they’ve worked on, rather than the things they were simply born with.但是，在这个时候仍然感到奇怪，因为人们对某人可以操纵自己的脸看起来像是他们不是的东西的所有方式感到奇怪。我不是在谈论好莱坞效果水平的化妆艺术，而是一个能够投入时间和集中度并积累世界上所有才能的人学习如何使自己看起来“更好”。

It’s one of the most admirable talents I can think of, one that most people will never get paid for. And I think it makes me sad that the talent exists.And what part do I play? I may be complimenting a woman on her skills with a makeup brush, but I’m ultimately still just focused on how a woman looks. She knew how to buy the right things and use them the right way. But she’s so much more.

And finally, where do we go from here? I’ve never been satisfied with the outlook of “this is bad, but at least if we’re self-aware, it will be less bad.” We already know that we’re buying into a lie, and we seem to be okay with it. But I can’t pretend we put ourselves in this situation. As women, we’ve been handed a harsh and cruel deck: cake it on, or risk potentially not advancing in your career, your personal life, your social circle. It shouldn’t be up to us to break that self-fulfilling prophecy, but it looks like we might have to.

Contrary to whatever Prince EA poem you’ve listened to lately, the world’s problems and collective personal issues can’t simply be solved by taking fewer selfies. But perhaps it starts with the decision we make in the morning to wear a little less makeup (or not wear any at all), to not stress so much about covering that zit that no one else notices anyway, to decide that our eyebrows are fine, thin and light as they are. Maybe it’s in letting go of the need to share our picture-perfect visage with the world. Maybe it’s in stopping ourselves from telling our best friend how much we love her highlighter and instead just ask her a question and find out something new.I don’t necessarily know where to start, but I know I want to.

布雷·罗迪·曼莎（Bree Rody-Mantha）是一位专职商业记者和兼职舞蹈老师，位于多伦多。在罗伯·福特（Rob Ford）时代，她涵盖了多伦多市政厅，然后过渡到商业新闻业。她的专业领域包括影响者市场，广告，媒体购买和技术。跟着她Twitter.

Image viaUnsplash

Like this story? Follow The Financial Diet onFacebook,Instagram, andTwitter有关每日提示和灵感，并注册我们的电子邮件新闻通讯here.