real beauty
Feminism has always come naturally to me. As a teenager, I devoured literature by Sylvia Plath, Germaine Greer, Susie Orbach and Angela Davis. At college, I promoted Men Against Sexism workshops and applauded as Emma Watson cited that there was $28 trillion missing from the global economy due to gender inequality. Most recently, on International Women’s Day, I marched the streets of London with thousands of other women to protest against the rise of president Pussy Grabber’s (sorry, Trump’s) global gag rule on family planning. Everywhere I look, it seems feminism is top of the cultural agenda, refashioned into a solidarity movement lived out through social media. ‘The future is female’ or ‘Girls just want to have fun-damental rights’ is scrawled across T-shirts and make-up cases – yet the resistance at the root of these catchphrases has been, ironically, obscured by their ubiquity.
Has marketing spin usurped the politics? If feminism is increasingly in danger of become a self-serving brand, nowhere has that been more apparent than in the beauty industry. ‘This is an industry that is primarily driven by profit, and aims to tap into cultural trends’, says psychologist Vivian Diller. ‘If brands can meet women where they are, they’ll be more successful, therefore marketers are paying attention to the gains in female empowerment and, as a result, there has been a push back against the preoccupation with perfect, youthful looks and an increased interest in health and wellness.’ It’s no surprise then, that a brand’s captivating feel-good mantras can take o. on Instagram and Facebook, while most also side-step the issue of political inequality and gender disparity. Sisterly support is encouraged through likes, shares and 15-second stories – an easy way to get us to follow the movement, and the brands pushing it. Worryingly, the nuance that confidence and self-worth are what the feminist cause is missing appears to be seductive to consumers. Yet, women are becoming savvier about whose message is substance, and whose is merely surface.