012 - How to stop being ugly
Looks like we failed to fix beauty standards. Where do we go next?
It’s almost a decade since the ‘body positivity’ movement exploded, can you believe. But trends are veering dangerously close to the unattainably thin ideals of the 00s again, and we can still hardly move for brands telling us how to be more beautiful.
So, what went wrong? Why didn’t the body positivity movement work the first time? And is there really a way to eradicate ugliness?
Spoiler: yes. Founder of Polyester and author of Poor Little Sick Girls Ione Gamble investigates.
Our current concept of beauty is in flux. One quick browse of TikTok and you’ll discover that trends are changing weekly if not daily. In the past six months, we’ve been seduced by siren eyes, urged to create beauty out of misery with crying girl makeup, seen beauty pivot to wellness with the clean girl aesthetic, and beckoned in a return to old-world elegance with coquette beauty. No-one can seem to decide on the look of the moment, let alone what beauty means to them. While these micro-subcultures exist in different realms of the internet, one thing can be agreed upon; beauty standards are bust.
In 2023, the ways that racism, ableism, fatphobia and transphobia intersect with the beauty and fashion industries is common knowledge. Consumers can sniff out tokenism a mile off and refuse to be pandered to by brands that aren’t making any meaningful strides toward inclusivity.
Yet still, nothing changes. Plus size offerings by both high fashion and high street brands are paltry at best. The shade range of many beauty brands is still lacking in darker skin tones. Even those who produce inclusive campaigns rarely replicate that offering in store, as demonstrated by Paloma Ellsesser’s i-D cover wearing the Miu Miu mini skirt — which had to be altered with separate panels at the back in order to fit her.
Now, as we teeter towards a decade of body positivity and self love, the fashion industry has decided that, actually, being skinny is good again (see: the return of low rise via the viral Miu Miu mini skirt, Kim Kardashian’s latest body transformation, and the diabetes injections that are allegedly helping celebs drop the pounds). The culture we’re living in is beginning to feel eerily similar to the toxic, diet obsessed media industry of the early aughts.
Meanwhile, celebrities such as Julia Fox and Doja Cat are rejecting beauty entirely, choosing to bleach their brows, shave their heads, and don ‘unflattering’ makeup looks in a bid to reject the male gaze. In another corner of the internet, trans, fat and disabled women are still fighting to be deemed beautiful at all. But whether your own taste in aesthetics leaves you more drawn to ugly beauty, yearning to be thin or pushing for a return to traditional glamour - it feels as though the current status quo is working for absolutely no-one.
It begs the question: how did we get here?
We feel as though we’ve been fed more body-posi campaigns and editorials than pages in the bible. But in reality, body positivity (and the fourth wave feminist social politics that have reigned since the mid-2010’s) focused too heavily on individualism to foster any real, meaningful change when it comes to how we view beauty.
Yes, (some) runways, advertising campaigns and influencers showed us alternative types of beauty, but this perceived inclusivity failed to match up to the reality of hundreds of thousands of women. Our demands for inclusivity so often came with a crass commodification of our politics and little material change - no wonder we checked out.
Now, in rejecting these socially progressive ideologies outright, the pendulum has swung the opposite way - ushering in the damaging cultural norms that led us to hate ourselves so much in the first place.
So, where do we go next?
No matter how much we reject beauty, reject the liberalism that led to body positivity, or attempt to defy the male gaze altogether; beauty still plays a huge part in all of our lives. But our relationship with how we look doesn’t have to be one of war.
The fact that Julia Fox - a skinny, white woman - feels like such a breath of fresh air amongst our cultural landscape speaks to how little we are really offered when it comes to a perspective on beauty that truly feels radical. To meaningfully disrupt a century of backwards beauty standards, we need to stop fixating on what beauty means to us as individuals. Instead, we must take a wider view of breaking down these standards and stereotypes on a societal level in order to shift them.
This means start exploring its potential to uplift communities through collaborating with existing organisations that truly connect with marginalised people, rather than trying to build trust with new audiences from scratch. We need to become weirder than a bleached brow, a bold graphic blue eyeliner or a microtrend that will pass as soon as we’ve thought of a name for it.
We must confront our own biases while consistently pushing beyond them. We have to accept that most of us have some sort of fatphobia rooted in us, as well s the deep conditioning that has centred Western beauty standards for decades. By actively working to challenge, undo, and discredit all the harmful thoughts that sit inside us, we open up the possibility to really change things for the better. Start following people that look more like you, or at minimum don’t look like every other single person in any number of fashion campaigns that still centre skinniness. Try to neutralise your own language around body weight; whether that's praising someone for losing weight, or judging yourself for gaining it.
Brands, meanwhile, aren’t going to fix discrimination with one diverse ad campaign - the change needs to be consistent and holistic. See brands like Ester Manas, which has catered to plus size women since day one. Fenty Beauty changed the game when it comes to the range of skin shades. Communities such as my own publication, Polyester, consistently push for our current notions of beauty to be abolished.
A new path can be paved that consistently questions our narrow notions of beauty while widening the spectrum. By looking towards smaller businesses that not just consistently caters to all groups, but bring them into the company's DNA, we can push beyond fickle representation and towards true inclusion that liberates us all from the tyranny of beauty.
With all that said, here’s a list of some brands that are changing the way we view beauty and our bodies <3 Give us a shout on @morning.fyi for more to add…
Topicals - Incredible campaigns and products that don’t shy away from talking about skin conditions
Syndical Chamber - Fostering the glamourisation, and not just acceptance, of plus size people
The Fat Zine - A growing community of fat creatives looking to change the landscape of magazine publishing
Fashion Brand Company - Ethically produced size inclusive small brand
Dialogue Books - Not fashion related, but a real game-changer in terms of spotlighting marginalised creative people without boxing them in to - and only allowing them to write about - their identities
Sick Sad Girlz - Game changing community highlighting chronically ill and disabled women, a super interconnected group with regular meetings, whatsapp chats and more. Really an industry leader in not just showing inclusivity on a surface level, but fostering it through action too
Hot Lava - Ethically produced and size inclusive small brand
Glisten Cosmetics - Queer led makeup brand
Dizziak - Beauty for every hair and body type
…and while you’re here, we want to learn about how you use social media today. Is it possible to have a healthy relationship with it? Does it do more bad or good? What would your Dream Social Media look like?
Spill your thoughts (and maybe some tea) here.
Right, that’s all for now! Til next time, Misfits 👹
Words: Ione Gamble
Editor: Letty Cole