The body is a project. Look at TikTok. There are more than 300 million views for the videos on #lipplumping and 1.7 billion for the videos on #glutepumping.
The beauty companies are part of a billion-dollar industry that thrives because we don't believe in the products they sell, but in the legitimacy of the problem they're trying to solve.
Gyms and personal trainers are supposed to promote health, but profit because we feel we must change our bodies to fit what's in style, currently in unnatural ways.
Sociologists say people need to constantly adjust to beauty and fitness trends.
Sociologist who study the body say that beauty standards may be changing more rapidly, and that we constantly adjust to them. Social media's pressure to present our bodies and lives in ways that deny messy realities and help us easily rid our bodies of natural imperfections is one of the trends.
Facebook officials knew about the negative mental health impacts of social media for teens.
Cary Gabriel Costello, an associate professor of sociology and director of LGBTQ+ Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said that body shape ideals change as quickly as fashions in hair. In the aughties, people plucked or lasered their eyebrows. Those same people have to get microblade eyebrow tattoos to have the lush eyebrow look approved today. If celebrities don't get new plastic surgery on their faces, everyone will see they are wearing an outdated facial style. That sentence would sound like science fiction before the 21st century.
Can the body ever be complete?
For each generation, a standard remains.
Sociology says that the culture has shifted toward more diverse bodies, which can be seen as a positive change for inclusivity, but which may not be enough to stop people from keeping up with trends.
Saguy says that beauty standards can be freeing, but still present traps.
A lot of women think that their body type is the only thing that makes them feel good. It's a problem when beauty ideals leave people uncomfortable when their bodies aren't in fashion.
Standards of beauty change. The differences between Gen X teens and Gen Z teens were pointed out by Costello. Thin was ideal in the 90s. Big butt was ridiculed in mainstream culture. Gen Z teens are experiencing a pursuit of the "thicc" form, which is big, firm butt and thighs with small waists, just a few decades later. Thicker lips. Glute pumping, Brazilian butt lifts and butt implants are related to the trends of which the Kardashians have become figureheads.
The pressure to look perfect and the nose job confession of KhloerKardashian.
The aesthetic seems to be more multiethnic and less Eurocentric. It can be seen as an appropriation by white people of features typical of Black and brown people, with white people getting all of the benefit and no discrimination when taking on these looks.
Is body positivity a thing?
Body positivity was seen as an alternative to beauty ideals. Love your body no matter what shape it is. Some experts argue that despite the movement's success in expanding visibility for more diverse bodies, and occasionally showing truly authentic ones, many body positive influencers may be perpetuating their own kind of damage. He points to the trend of no makeup.
Lizzo criticized body positivity.
The message is to celebrate body positivity by saying that celebrities are beautiful without makeup, since they are. He said that the "influencers are often wearing subtle 'no-Makeup makeup' - and that's just the tip of the iceberg." They have spent tens of thousands of dollars on plastic surgeries, lip-plumpers, line-fillers, and Botox, and implants, and extensions.
The analysis shows why society is obsessed with what older women wear.
When regular people take off their makeup and don't look like celebrities, they wonder what's wrong with them.
People of all genders feel anxious about their bodies, but men feel less so because they are defined more by their looks. The exception is queer men. Gay men are more likely than heterosexual men to want to have plastic surgery.
I follow sexy gay accounts. Is it hurting my image?
Women are particularly vulnerable to these anxieties as their worth has long been associated with their appearance, creating pressure to achieve a culturally desirable look. Trans and non-binary people are more likely to face pressure around their appearance than cis people.
How does my body feel?
The current beauty standard is largely driven by celebrity and influencer culture, made up of those often privileged enough to afford the interventions necessary to not only meet the current beauty standard but to adopt the next one. Many people driving these trends are reluctant to admit they have surgeries to achieve their looks. Ordinary people are left disappointed or ashamed when they try to do the same thing.
Linda Evangelista says she was badly scarred after CoolSculpting. What is it?
The consumer capitalist culture profits off of people's desire to constantly improve their beauty standards.
It's necessary to get people to buy more and more things in order to increase profits and expand the economy under consumer capitalism. It turns out that a great way to make people feel shame about something is to offer a product that will supposedly reduce that.
Facebook knew about the negative mental health impacts of social media for teens.
Saguy hopes that people will focus on what their bodies can do instead of what their bodies look like. She said that it can be a better project.
She said that it's important to focus less on the visual and more on how the body feels. We look in the mirror to make sure there's nothing in our teeth, but other than that, hopefully, we're outward-facing."
This article was originally published by USA TODAY.
