I read Mackenzie Newcomb’s article the other day, “Let’s Photoshop the Beauty Standard,” about a new photo editing app called FaceTune. This app is basically Instagram on steroids. Not only does it allow you to whiten teeth, flawlessly remove blemishes, and effortlessly remove the dark circles from underneath your eyes in a simple swipe, it can also physically alter you to whatever body type you please.
Larger breasts? Easy. Size 8 to size 2? No problem. Sick of your thunder thighs? Facetune has got your back. Just pay $3.99 for the body you’ve always desired. It’s simple. All you need is $4 in your bank account and about five minutes of your time. I didn’t really believe it at first. People get paid thousands of dollars to airbrush celebrity’s photos to make them look “beautiful.” I thought, “I can’t do this sh*t.“
But, yes, I can, and I did. All for $4 and five minutes of my time.
Why do apps like this exist? Well, it’s a simple supply/demand equation. Women everywhere are “demanding” they meet society’s standards of beauty. We spend countless hours at the gym while counting calories at the same time. We have perfected the best way to look skinny in a photograph, and even then, we aren’t satisfied. We skip meals, impulsively stepping on the scale, in hopes of shedding off those few pounds we packed on the weekend before. We set unattainable goals for ourselves, simply because society has told us to do. We are literally killing ourselves in the process of reaching for the impossible.
But, what if there was a way to eat whatever you want, pose however a certain way in a photograph, and still look beautiful? Now there is, and it’s called Facetune. Celebrities are no longer the only ones getting photoshopped; we can all do it with a few simple swipes on a smart phone. All of us “normal” people can finally be “beautiful.”
Millions of women everywhere are giving this app $4 out of their bank accounts and five minutes of their time. Millions of women everywhere are desperately trying to reach the unattainable. They putting so much time and effort into trying to meet these superficial standards that they are losing themselves in the process. Millions of women are falling victim to this ideal image of “beauty” that holds no merit.
Part of me wants to be angry at these women. Part of me wants to scream in their faces, “Why the F$%! are you doing this to yourself?” But, I hate to admit I totally understand why. I go to the gym every day, weigh myself impulsively, eat healthy, and I’m still not satisfied. I wish there was an easier way for me to attain the body I desire. I look in the mirror every day and wish I could “photoshop” my real self with $4 in my bank account and five minutes of my time. But, I can’t.
I can’t allow myself to be angry at the users of Facetune. Annoyed? Maybe. But I feel nothing but empathy for these people who have helped such an app reach a #1 spot in the App store. We are relying on our followers to give us reassurance of self worth, which is how apps like Facetune can thrive in a today’s society.
With apps like Facetune, we are not only relying on “likes” but we are also relying on fake versions of ourselves. Why look in the mirror and feel defeated when you can just look at a photoshopped version of yourself on your iPhone? I mean, it’s still technically a picture of you, right? Wrong. It’s not you. It’s your insecurities plastered on a screen. It’s that waistline you want to shrink, it’s that thigh gap that you’ve always wanted, it’s that blemish on your chin that just won’t go away. It’s not you.
Join Mackenzie and I and stop partaking in the “photoshopped beauty standard,” as she put it. Stop relying on society for reassurance about your body image and start participating in the fight against it. All photos belong to Beth Cormack.