Beauty Demands

Earlier this year, Norway passed a law requiring that social media influencers who edit their appearance on promotional posts must add a disclaimer label declaring this editing. In this excellent post from 2018, Jasmine Fardouly explores whether such disclaimers are likely to be effective: (For more recent research with similar findings, see Livingston, Holland & Fardouly's 2020 article in Body Image journal) Whether you are reading a magazine, scrolling through social media, or just walking past shop fronts or advertisements, it is likely that you will come across glamorous images of thin women living a seemingly perfect lifestyle. These images generally promote a very narrow beauty ideal that is unattainable for most women. These images are also often edited, using appearance-enhancing lighting and photo editing filters, apps, and programs. Thus, the beauty ideal being promoted in these images is not real or achievable. Decades of research suggests that looking at these...

By Marsha Wichers , cosmetic doctor and designer. Medical technology will bring us more ways to perfect our appearance. Over the past decades, the use of Botox has increased enormously.  What started as a drug against muscle spasms and strabismus is now a widespread way of preventing and treating wrinkles in the face, and is becoming part of the beauty ritual of more and more women in the Western world. In my medical cosmetic practice in the Netherlands I see (mostly) women who come to me for advice. They want to look good for their age, or want to get rid of a tired look. But almost all of them say very explicitly ‘please make sure I will stay looking like me’, or 'I don't want to look overtreated and unnatural'. But what exactly are they referring to? We all have a feeling and an idea what this is about. But to precisely describe what makes a look unnatural, is quite difficult. That is why I decided to research and visualize this phenomenon during my master stu...

In this post, Fiona MacCallum (University of Warwick) discusses how the sharing of idealised images via social media is influencing individuals' perceptions of body image and wonders what actions can be taken to counteract the negative consequences of  selfie culture. We’re used to seeing adverts telling us that we can have perfect skin in “3 easy steps” or “just one week”. However, digital technology claims to speed the process up further with apps designed to improve the photos we post on social media, such as the “Instabeauty” app which offers a “one-tap makeover” to give the user “flawless skin”. This raises the interesting question of what effect engagement with social media, and particularly with a stream of carefully chosen idealised images, might have on individuals’ satisfaction with how they look. Evidence has shown that exposure to visual mass media depicting idealised bodies is associated with higher levels of body image concerns (e.g. Grabe, Ward & Hyde, 2...