Toxic Beauty Standards Are Back & It's Gen Z's Fault...

Toxic Beauty Standards Are Back & It's Gen Z's Fault...

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About Salem: Hey! I’m Salem. I make commentary and video essays on anything I want to talk about. New videos every week! Make sure to subscribe and turn on post notifications so you never miss a new video.

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[jpsings]

Toxic beauty standards aren’t making a comeback, they never left

[selunescorpio]

As a member of Gen Z, I feel like social media has done a number on us, because growing up alongside it, where everything can be recorded then posted to countless numbers of people, has made us fixate on appearance to completely unhealthy levels. No one can just exist in their skin without someone potentially recording them before posting the video/pic, trying to mock this total stranger, to millions of people on tiktok. Makes me not want to go outside ever again

[millia_honey]

can we normalize not caring *so much* about your appearance, I care about my health in stuff, but I just don't have the mental energy to obsess over every part of myself

[peoplesourmyvibes]

Beauty is subjective. There is literally no reason to shame a person on their looks just because you personally don't find them aesthetically pleasing. Especially when a lot of beauty preferences stems from very problematic and irrational historical society norms.

[mikkelline]

I was a teenager from 2000 to 2006 and trust me, we DON'T want to regress to those beauty standards. Don't let all this work for inclusivity be for nothing

[KatherineTheGreat]

The problem is in how people who don't participate in this beauty pageant on acid are treated like we don't deserve basic human rights. It's harder to get hired, taken seriously, it's just harder over all just to exist.

[freckle]

this whole trend of "acceptance But." is the whole reason i deleted a lot of my social media. i have an ed so constantly seeing these beauty standards and hypocrisy of my generation drives me nuts and halts my healing. thank u for talking about this !

[tzuyu]

“You’re so brave❤” is so innocently backhanded its ridiculous 😭

[millia_honey]

it's ridiculous how people feel like they're so much better than others just cuz they're stereotypically attractive
edit: I'm not sure why people think I'm saying being pretty makes you bad, I'm saying that seeing non-stereo typically attractive people as lesser for it, is.

[bougiepeaches]

I'm tired of seeing new beauty trends, I'm tired of us falling for it, I'm tired of Gen Z bringing toxicity back! When are we going to end this toxicity?!

[cicadeus]

Beauty standards are so dumb. Your features are the result of hundreds of thousands of love stories your ancestors took part in. Your style is the culmination of all the baby steps of society. You are an exceptional occurrence built on adoration and inspiration. That's your beauty, not just "really good cheekbones" or something bullsh

[timebubble]

this is why it's so dangerous to give kids a phone at a young age. kids should not have to be constantly worrying about how they look. it only increases the many incecurities that you already have to deal with in life. I hate how many toxic dumb people think they know it all are on the internet.

[millia_honey]

I hate this type of toxicity and judgement about appearances, we're all human I just want everyone to have a little more empathy and respect

[glitterbug]

People for decades trying to undo the toxic standards created by companies to sell products: "beauty is subjective, we all think different things are beautiful and that's ok"

People the moment the standards are actually starting to be undone and the views on beauty are beginning to change: "if we're all beautiful then no one is!!"


Edit: for spelling. Somehow beginning got autocorrected to "their"

[yournextlineis]

I honestly believe it isn’t that Gen-Z brought it back; it never went away. The standards just evolved. As long as media in any form exists, as long as people and women exist, toxic beauty standards do too. Toxic beauty standards go back as far as people can remember.

[yourlocaldummy]

Fashion shows should actually be diverse because it’s supposed to show how clothes fit on different bodies so likeee

[charlizechurcher]

my personal problem with the vs show was that it didn't have the vs glamourous aesthetic. Just because your model is plus sized doesn't mean she can't wear camp bedazzled lingerie with huge wings on her back. Maybe I'm crazy but I think they intentionally nerfed the show to get this reaction so they'll have an excuse to not be inclusive in the future

[candyisreading]

I think I'm trying to move from "everyone is beautiful" to "everyone has worth, " no matter if they are beautiful or not. I think we have been raised to see beauty (as in beauty standards) as central to our worth as a human being, almost exclusively so, esp as women. We can be smart, tough, funny, kind, empathetic, interesting - but first and foremost, we must be beautiful. Whether unconsciously or consciously so, we have been raised and many still believe that it dictates what we deserve and our treatment, whether we're listened to/believed/loved, even hired. For me, I love make up and skincare and clothes etc, but personally it is more powerful to work towards taking beauty out of the axis of my worth altogether, for myself and others, rather than saying 'everyone is beautiful' which feels like putting a plaster over a gaping wound (and for many lack of beauty is a wound). I think people call this 'body neutrality.'

Also I don't think this is a gen z exclusive problem at all - unfortunately all generations have such garbled hierarchical ideas of beauty 😭 they learned it from somewhere, it's in the air we breathe.

Hope this makes sense lol I'm very tired. Love your channel!

[pumpnix]

i’m a millennial whose teen years were 99-05, the heart of Y2K body shaming and horrible and toxic beauty expectations
seeing it coming back again with a vengeance is saddening
it was horrible to live through and thought gen z officially ended it!hate that a new gen is going to have to live through it because it is a toxic mindfk

[Danielle-zeds]

I think the solution to most of these problems is to just simply.. go outside. Hang out with your friends be social and you'll see life is more normal than the online world presents it as