Growing up as a woman has meant seeing hundreds of iterations of the perfect body, an insecure, ever-changing goalpost that the media tries to convince me I should be pursuing. Back in the noughties, it was all about low-rise jeans and flat stomachs, with every high-profile model being incredibly thin and encouraging said thinness. Like Kate Moss telling us women that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” in Women’s Wear Daily. As women became more fixated with slim figures, with calorie counting and extreme diets, all in an effort to become thin (as thinness had become synonymous with beauty). The goalpost shifted. In the twenty-teens, it was all about glam- think Kylie Jenner lip kits and Khloe Kardashian gym workouts. As makeup was skyrocketing and media platforms were including more and more people, for example, YouTubers like Nikki de Jager (known as NikkiTutorials), the goalpost shifted again. This time to cosmetic surgeries and fillers and botox. It has never been easier to get your lips pumped, your tummy tucked, and your butt and boobs lifted. The perfect figure is simply a few surgeries away. Forget being skinny, forget the full glam, now is the time of surgical enhancement. Though, this will no doubt shift. With there already being signs of the surgery trend coming to a halt, as notable celebrities at the forefront of this like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, have been removing their fillers and BBLs.

There are certainly many instances where cosmetic surgery is a good thing and can be productive for women. But more and more often, it feels like the motivation behind the cosmetic surgeries comes from a damaging place and that the gross impact of this current trend is one that is hurting us more than helping. The media I’ve been brought up with has convinced me I need to contort myself into something I’m not in order to be beautiful; and beauty has been a coveted aesthetic that promises an easier life. But, I’ve come to realise neither of those things are true: those beliefs come from the impacts of patriarchy, capitalism and colonisation- honestly the more I worked on de-centering men, the more I was able to feel confident in my appearance. Women have frequently complimented my appearance, personality, and workability, but men have always been the first to demean me about those things. The truth of the matter is that no woman can ever be perfectly beautiful because then we’d be less incentivised to buy into the beauty market, to compete with other women, and to cater our clothing and bodies to the male gaze. That said beauty exists, and is everywhere, we are all beautiful in some way when we look at ourselves authentically and objectively, but the world wouldn’t be able to reap us of money, time and sanity, if we held ourselves in that regard.

Patriarchy and Pornography 

It comes as no surprise that the beauty standards for women are created by men at the expense of women. This desire for big lips, big boobs, and big arse is a male desire. One that, unsurprisingly, originates with men’s devotion to and obsession with pornography. The impact of the porn industry is devastating and multifaceted, but in this instance, I will be talking solely about its role in creating the perfect body. Before porn became readily-available, free videos that anyone can find on the internet, it started off (for the majority) in dirty magazines. The most iconised example of this being Playboy; its first issue came out in 1953 with a centrefold of a nude Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, was and still is, a renowned Hollywood beauty, and is a prime example of what was deemed to be the perfect body at the time: extreme hourglass figure, radiant skin, full lips. As the models in Playboy changed, so did the image of the perfect body, a phenomenon consistent across all media, not just the dirty magazines. Today pornography isn’t something that can be contained to a dirty magazine; it’s more so similar to the menu of your favorite takeaway, a menu list too long for you to read properly- so you always get the same thing, getting progressively less healthy and more addicted with each bite. While there is definitely versatility in body type, actors and sex in the porn industry, there is also an upturn of women getting cosmetic surgery to help sell their sex; women with curvy bodies, slim waists and fuller lips are currently seen as the perfect pornstar. This does not stay localised to porn, instead, it becomes the cultural standard for the perfect body. Both the perfect pornstar and perfect body are objectified for male pleasure. But the difference between the perfect pornstar and the perfect body, is that the perfect pornstar exists in the sex industry so is cognizant of being objectified and makes money from that, therefore, they are shamed, rejected and alienated by the very people consuming their image, (while women with the perfect body will often be aware that they’re being sexualised by someone, they may not always know, and they will never profit from it). Consequently, it’s clear that the porn industry has created a foundation on which the standard for women’s appearances is measured against male masturbation and pleasure. Women that are inside the porn-industry, are criticised, mocked, and dejected from society, so do not benefit from having the perfect body, outside of pornography. Women outside of the porn industry are influenced to change their bodies in accordance with what pleases the male gaze and are made to feel insecure if they don’t; no matter the appearance, there is no way, as a woman, to benefit from this.

Capitalism and the un-ethical beauty market 

It’s not solely the porn industry that has a stake in influencing beauty standards for women. The make-up, cosmetic, diet, and gym industry all profit off of setting unattainable standards for women’s bodies. These industries exist to generate profit and wealth from people’s insecurities; it’s inherently predatory for the media to create false insecurities like “hip-dips” and to then advertise big gym chains, and unhealthy diets as the solution. Notably, it is women that take the majority of this financial hardship; sure men pay for their gym memberships and Hello Fresh subscriptions too, but that’s vastly different to having to buy skincare, makeup and cosmetic surgery on top of that (which is a phenomenon that hasn’t been imposed onto men). The standards for women’s appearances are not only stricter than men’s, but they’re also costlier. The beauty industry is so cruel in its design, in that it relies on women’s insecurities, that they’ve helped invent. Looking in the mirror, inspecting your pores, wishing you were naturally beautiful like the girls with glass skin you see on TikTok? Well, why not buy the latest serum or the brand new H2O moisturiser that’s now only £30 at TikTok shop? Or how about you invest in that big plastic mask with UV lights? Can’t afford it- well, maybe poor people don’t deserve to be pretty… We probably shouldn’t be talking. The beauty industry is classically capitalist, as there is a class system. This is certainly true for the cosmetic enhancement side of things. A BBL, that doesn’t cost you your life, and looks somewhat natural, that’s high class; a BBL from an unlicensed doctor that leaves you dead or looking disproportionate, or WORSE leggings from a tik-tok shop that give a BBL illusion, that’s low class. Similarly, a facelift is classy, expensive, desirable- filler is cheap and classless. Whatever class you live in, you will be encouraged to get cosmetic enhancement, but this will be used to mark exactly what class you’re in. Think of it like the quiet luxury trend that was going around a few months ago- the point was the luxury items were quality and tasteful, not in your face, and often were from brands that went right over a commoner’s head. It’s the same here: the safe, invisible, professional procedures are a marker to people in the upper class of their own status, with the hopes that the appearance is just subtle enough not to be noticed by the rest of us. But us regular women, with botox, fillers etc. well to them it’s like we’re in a goudy fake Gucci tracksuit and fake pearls. However, we’re not totally divided here, regardless of how obvious your cosmetic enhancement is, you will be shamed for getting it; and if you don’t bother getting anything done at all, then -you guessed it- you will be shamed.

Colonisation and the alienation of Black Women in the beauty standard

The final influencing factor on women’s beauty is racism and the lasting influences of colonisation. The British Empire had control over about 120 colonies during its existence, and with that came the oppression and exploitation of those colonies and the people living there, most notably the exploitation of Black enslaved people. Black enslaved people were kept in inhumane conditions, forced into harsh manual labour, and were often sexually exploited and abused by the owners of the plantation. Sexual exploitation was something kept in the private sphere, as to outwardly admit to it would’ve been shameful- not because of the criminality or abuse, but because of the prejudices against interracial relations. This fed into the fetishisation of the black body, which we still see today. While Black enslaved people were brutalised and sexually exploited in the private sphere, the white body was being idealised in the public sphere to help spread the belief of white supremacy. White women were held on pedestals of beauty, from Hollywood stars like Audrey Hepburn to Victoria’s Secret Angels like Cara Delevine; meanwhile, there is still a lack of representation for Black women in the beauty industry especially. The promotion of the beauty standard, therefore, meant the promotion of the stereotypical white European body, one that’s slender, pale and lacks curves. We’ve seen in the media how this standard has shifted, however, to the standard now being curvy bodies and racial ambiguity. The Kardashians being a prime example of this, as they got BBLs and boob jobs to make their bodies curvier, while simultaneously getting intense tans to distance them from their whiteness. But it’s important to note that they are distant from whiteness, not non-white and that the standard calls for racial ambiguity, not any specific race that isn’t white. This is because the Black body is still meant to be fetishised in the private sphere. Even if the beauty standard resembles a body that is closely associated with Black women (curvy, textured hair, darker skin), they are still alienated from the beauty standard and the beauty industry for the very fact that they are black. Black women are consistently alienated from the beauty industry because of rampant racism and misogyny. Nigerian-American model Shokunbi was on the receiving end of misogynistic, colourist and racist abuse recently after starring in the Baby (it’s a crime) music video alongside artist Rema. In an interview with the Rolling Stone Shokunbi talked about the abusive comments with one comment saying she looked like she has HIV, and one comment saying “Rema needs to stop picking ugly black bitches for his video”. The language used against Shokunbi was cruel, misogynistic, colourist and racist. Degrading, de-feminizing and humiliating her because she is a dark-skin Black woman. The verbal abuse that she faced seems to be normalised, but this should never be the case- the fact that it is is telling of how much work we as a society need to do to deconstruct racism. Shokunbi details to Rolling Stone that racist remarks have been made against her her entire life, coming from family, schooling, and eventually the beauty industry. Shokunbi says in the interview that, “Being a dark-skinned black woman in general is hard, but in front of the camera is even harder.” In the beauty industry, there seems to be infinite pathways for white women to gain success when compared to their black counterparts, especially dark-skinned Black women who are often pigeon-holed into limiting looks. Shokunbi touches on this limitation when she says, “All your favourite dark-skinned models are bald or have cornrows,” she generalises, “Because we have to play into this slave mentality of the White man feeling like they saved us from something. The whole fresh-off-the-boat, they-look-like-they-just-came-from-Africa – that’s the realm that they like to keep the dark-skinned models in. That’s something that I’ve been fighting against for years. That’s why I wear so many wigs and do so many different things.” The racism that has scaffolded the entire beauty industry still needs to be taken down. Dark-skinned Black women face alienation, limitation in their expressions, and racist and verbal abuse in a way that white women simply don’t experience. At the same time, white women can get cosmetic enhancements and extreme tans, wear wigs with a different hair texture to their own, and take up spaces in the beauty industry that they don’t really belong in. This standard of beauty is archaic and is steeped in a bloody history of white supremacy and colonisation; while white women benefit from this, they still have to make themselves dangerously skinny or undergo dangerous surgeries to meet these racist standards. The same is true of black women, yet it is thousands of times harder for them to be recognised as beautiful, and on top of that, they still face hyper-sexualisation and fetishisation, which is damaging and physically dangerous. Upholding these standards in the media will continue the dangerous legacy of colonisation, continuing the oppression of women, especially Black women. 

The practical consequences of cosmetic enhancements

The impact of cosmetic enhancements is multifaceted and can cause issues physically, emotionally and socially; Faye Winter, who rose to fame when she entered the love island villa in 2021, is an example of this. In an interview with Closer, Faye explains that as young as 14, “I knew I wanted a boob job”, which she got when she was only 18. As a young woman, Faye also got Botox and fillers, as she puts, because “I just wanted to look a certain way”. Faye’s desire to use cosmetic enhancements to better herself is an insight into how young women everywhere are encouraged to think- whether said encouragement comes subliminally from adverts, celebs, trends, or explicitly from negging or bullying of your appearance. Unfortunately for Faye, in one instance where she was treated by an unqualified practitioner (unbeknownst to her), she was left with facial paralysis; she described the experience as “terrifying” and how she felt that it had “ruined my face”. Not only was Faye impacted physically, but she was left totally distressed by this, describing herself as being in “floods of tears”. Faye’s experience is one of thousands; in the UK, there is little to no regulation when it comes to filler, which endangers the people who purchase them. It only takes a day-long course to become legally qualified to administer filler, and on top of that, you don’t need a prescription to buy filler- meaning you can cheap out and buy worse quality filler instead of filler that has been quality controlled. This reflects the morals of the injectables industry- the priority isn’t rigorous training, using quality products or providing good quality and safe procedures- the priority is to cut corners and cheap out and effectively endanger customers. Consequently, it’s highly common for women to walk away from their cosmetic procedures, unhappy with their appearance, or like Faye, having physical consequences like filler migration and even paralysis. Things then exacerbate when people on or offline feel emboldened to comment on your appearance and so-called botched filler or botched body. People, especially men, have always felt entitled to comment on women’s appearances, but for some reason, people seem to think it’s more justified to do so if that woman has had cosmetic enhancements. There is a slew of misogynistic degradation that follows women if they choose to get fillers, botox, etc. Because getting cosmetic enhancements is associated with trying to make yourself look more feminine and more beautiful, the women undergoing those enhancements are immediately met with insults that de-feminize them and their appearance. Which is exactly what happened with Faye and the gross comments she received for pursuing cosmetic surgeries and fillers. But whatever motivations women have for getting cosmetic enhancements, they are personal and complex, and it’s needless and cruel to weaponise them against said women. It’s also needless and cruel to comment vile things about another person’s body and appearance. But because of the patriarchal society we live in, these unsolicited nasty comments are allowed to go on unchecked. Faye speaks about her experience of this, naming how her lips specifically became a “talking point” when she was in Love Island and how troves of internet trolls and bullies commented on her ugliness, even saying that this should’ve disqualified her from competing in the show. The harsh reception to Faye’s physical appearance reflects how everyday women who get injectables are treated; the appropriateness of dissecting women’s features (whether they’re natural or not) as a means to humiliate and shame them is something still left unchallenged. It’s an unfair and cruel society we live in where women are consistently told they need to fit into a specific mould in order to be beautiful and, therefore, respected, only to be torn down and degraded whenever you make a conscious effort to change your appearance to fit that mould. Shaming women will always be a tool that’s used to oppress and subjugate us, and that’s why it’s so important to give women like Faye the grace they deserve, especially in the current climate of social media trolling. Through Faye’s vulnerability in sharing her relationship with injectables and cosmetic surgery, we have an insight into how everyday women relate to the dangers they face when getting injectables, the emotional and physical damage it can bring, and the social alienation and humiliation that comes with it. It’s completely contradictory to encourage women to change their facial features and bodies in order to be seen as beautiful, only for this to be used as a reason to humiliate, shame and degrade them. It is also deeply unjust to create a business that is so cruel in its intention and, on top of that, has no regulations, endangering women’s health for capitalistic gains.

The intergenerational impact of the cosmetic enhancement trend

With more and more young people spending their money on cosmetic surgery, to look younger, more beautiful, more desirable, there is an increasing contention with ageing. It’s disheartening but undeniable that after a certain age, women become mocked and alienated by society, sending a clear message that your age defines your value; trying to look as youthful as possible has become an attempt to retain as much value as possible. A fictionalised example that reflects women’s conflict with ageing is the hit film The Substance (2024). Despite Elizabeth’s fame, years of hard work and notoriety, she is cast aside for the next younger and better thing (Sue) once she reaches her middle ages, all the while, Elizabeth’s much older, and definitively gross, manager, Harvey continues to ride on both of their coattails and retain his success and power. This is clearly reflective of Hollywood’s in-equal and misogynistic treatment of actresses’, yet it also speaks to societal ideals that impact me and you- just think about how many sexist and ageist jokes are made about middle-aged women in managerial positions. Funny that the but of the joke is always Sarah from management and is never John the boss-man- it’s almost as if men don’t get ridiculed based on their gender or age. In the case of The Substance, Elizabeth is allowed to revisit her experience of success, power and respectability by taking an injection that creates a younger, more desirable version of herself; similarly, in the real world, women are encouraged to get injectables, botox, boob jobs and butt lifts in order to reclaim the power and respect that was assigned to them when they were younger. Just like in the film, this creates a tension with your younger and older self. In the film, the more that Elizabeth ages, the more she isolates herself, the more she disdains herself (especially her body), and the more she becomes both manic and depressed. This speaks to society- the more women are persuaded to prize their youth which is fleeting, the more they’re persuaded to hold disdain for themselves when their body betrays them by aging. The Substance was able to articulate an anxiety I didn’t even realise I was feeling- I’m 21, how can I be afraid of ageing? But I’m 21, and I don’t have anything concrete to point at and prove that I’ve spent my time right, that I’ve made the most of my life and my youth, that I’ve been a success., I constantly have anxieties about the retrospective I’ll have on this life I’ve lived, and I haven’t even lived it yet! This manifests as more than just an internal struggle however, as more and more women use cosmetic enhancements in an effort to create an image of perpetual youth, they’re alienating older women, and poorer women who can’t afford this option, by proxy. Perpetual youth is the new standard for women, and if you don’t meet this- by ageing (which is inevitable), then you will be penalised for it, whether it’s through becoming insecure over your age, being ridiculed for it by younger co-workers, or having a once amorous partner fall out of love with you. If women were given the same grace as men, to simply age, this wouldn’t be a problem. 

Technology’s role in promoting cosmetic enhancements

It seems clear to me that now more than ever, the image of womanhood is distorted, more so than before, and this is both due to the technological revolution and the new market of cosmetic enhancement. Technology and cosmetic enhancement seem to exist in separate spheres but actually correlate directly together; injectables, botox, and BBLs get documented, advertised, blogged and inevitably normalised through social media. On top of that, on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, there are now different filters that alter your facial features and body- meaning you can give the illusion of having fillers, or use the filter to test out whether you want to invest in fillers in the future. It’s notable that some beauty filters lighten your skin tone and make your nose smaller in order to make the user of the filter appear more European- and, by proxy, insinuate that these white European features are what symbolise beauty. Here, the technological world is co-conspiring with the beauty industry to uphold racist and white supremacist ideals. Normalising the augmentation of Black facial features and the lightning of Black and Brown skin is dangerously racist and could impact people’s conscious or unconscious bias’ against Black and Brown people, as well as impacting the way Black and Brown people see themselves, possibly feeding into insecurities that arise from internalised racism. The cherry on the top has to be that these filters- predominantly used by women- which alter your facial features and even your skin tone, are self-titled beauty filters- making a clear declaration to the users on the platform that your normal, average appearance is not enough to be considered beautiful. When I scroll and see women with these filters on (sometimes they don’t explicitly mention that they’re even using one), I find myself comparing myself to them. I put a metaphorical magnifying glass to my pores, my un-symmetrical face, my stress spots, and I feel like my face has betrayed me by not being perfect, by not emulating a digitised version of myself that is bright and smooth and perfect. But my face is just fine, and I shouldn’t be spending 10 hours a day analysing it- when things are re-framed, and I can see that these insecurities are being imposed to keep me down and keep me distracted, I start to embrace myself more- just out of spite to the men and make-up industry that are profiting off of imposed insecurities that I didn’t have a few years ago. Living in the digital age means that the image of womanhood can easily be distorted online through beauty filters, editing software, carefully selected lighting and camera angles. At the same time, living in a cosmetic enhancement age means that the image of womanhood can easily be distorted in person through the normalisation of injectables, BBLS, boob jobs, etc, that can be both noticeable or not. This means that both online and in person, the pursuit of the perfect body, perfect face, and perpetual youth leads to a skewed image of womanhood. For the young girls of the 21st Century, the standards of beauty have never been more rigid and unattainable, the ramifications of growing up in the digital and cosmetic enhancement age will undoubtedly be harmful. The damage is already being felt by women and girls; the key difference between the experiences is that most women alive today have a reference point of a life before the digital age, and the normalisation of cosmetic enhancement, but young girls do not. We, as women, are, therefore, role models to those young girls who only know beauty filters, anti-ageing trends, diets, botox and more. This means that while more and more women are getting cosmetic enhancements due to the social pressures to uphold the beauty standards, the more it inspires young girls to do the same, the more insecurities among women and young girls are fostered and fed off each other. This is why it’s so important to uplift women wherever we can and stray away from shaming each other. When women are torn down for getting cosmetic enhancements, women are more likely to lie (out of shame) about their procedures to save face while perpetuating unfair standards, and this feeds into the culture that makes women (with or without enhancements) feel ashamed and undesired. 

To protect against the toxicity of pursuing female perfectionism, we need to recognise and rebel against the root causes of it: patriarchy, colonisation and racism, classism, and capitalism. One part of this is recognising the harmful consequences of normalised cosmetic enhancements, whether it’s a bit of filler once a month or tummy tucks and boob jobs. There are always going to be circumstances where cosmetic enhancements may be necessary, and that is something we can all personally discern; and even if it’s not a necessary procedure, it’s still okay for women to get enhancements that they are personally comfortable with. Knowledge is one of the greatest tools we have for liberation, and that’s why it’s important for us as women to have information about cosmetic enhancements available to us. It’s important to know the possible physical harm that can be a consequence of cosmetic enhancements. It’s important to know that patriarchy, capitalism and colonisation are the power structures that have influenced if not totally created, the beauty standards that are imposed on us today. It’s important to know that the constant shaming of women and the choices they make over their own bodies is a tool of oppression against women. Truthfully, I don’t know any women who haven’t at least considered getting cosmetic enhancements; it’s something spoken about so colloquially- to the point that it’s kind of alarming. Women are so casual when they describe the physical faults of their bodies and the different surgeries and enhancements they’d get to fix themselves. It never stops depressing me that I and the other women in my life can rattle off our physical imperfections like water off our tongues but struggle endlessly to accept the beautiful parts of ourselves. It feels like we’ve been conditioned to check ourselves for symptoms of ugliness like it’s an illness we need to cure, when in reality, we’re just regular people with regular faces and bodies, and there’s nothing wrong or sickly about that. It’s important for us as women to challenge the notion that our value in society is defined by our beauty, especially because our beauty is defined by patriarchal, racist, and capitalistic standards. Even though it shouldn’t be, living in our natural bodies is a retaliatory statement, one we should all aim to be making. Through the imposition of the male gaze and inescapable beauty economy, the image of the perfect woman has strayed away from a specific body type or face type into an image of whatever combination of injectables and surgeries is trending at this time. But God forbid you have that body or face type naturally, or God forbid you actually get the surgeries to acquire this- to be in any way conscious that you fit any mould of desirability is to be immediately cast out from it. It’s time we, as women, ascribe our own value to womanhood outside of the beauty industry and that we celebrate what constitutes beauty to ourselves. It’s time we get out from under the needle.

To find out more about Faye Winter and Halimotu Shokunbi and their experiences, you can read the articles I referenced here:

Love Island’s Faye Winter: ‘Budget fillers left me paralysed’

Rema Chose This Leading Lady for His New Video. Why Was She Attacked?