From contouring and highlighting to microblading, dermaplaning and dermal fillers, we all seem to be on a permanent quest to achieve the unattainable beauty standards that saturate the media and our Instagram feeds. However, a new movement of skin positivity is rising, empowering women [and men] to have the confidence to embrace who they are – acne, hyper-pigmentation and all.
The skin positivity movement was spearheaded by Em Ford of My Pale Skin, who in 2015 filmed “You Look Disgusting”, which detailed the horrific trolling she’d endured about her acne in barefaced pictures she’d posted on social media.
Now, she has returned with “Redefine Pretty”, a bold new project created with Youtube Creators for Change, which looks at women’s view of their appearance in relation to society’s beauty standards, exposing and examining the psychological effects such standards place on us.
In the video, Em works with Professor of Human Brain Research, Vincent Walsh, to test the brain’s psychological response to images of models wearing makeup, without makeup and retouched.
When the women look at images not traditionally seen as ‘pretty’, they present negative reactions comparable to that of traumatic emotions. Retouched images of stereotypically beautiful women, like those plastered across our Instagram feeds every day, do not garner such reactions. The video leaves you with an overwhelming sense of the damage social media has caused to how we ‘measure’ beauty.
While it’s heartbreaking to see the distress caused by society’s impossible beauty standards, it’s projects such as this that will continue the fight for skin positive representation in the beauty industry and empower women to live their lives with confidence and without the fear of being judged for their appearance.