Cosmopolitan - November 2016 UK

iology, stupid. Countless peerreviewed
studies show that, on a very
primal level, even babies are most
attracted to fuller-lipped, wide-eyed,
symmetrical faces. “It’s the look that
gets the likes,” says Montano. “And so
scores of young women will jump
through hoops to get it. For women
of my generation, it’s hard to swallow.
We fought hard not to be defined
by our looks and sexuality, so this
feels like going back to the dark ages.”
I hear her. It’s as if we unshackled
ourselves from the kitchen stove,
only to handcuff ourselves to the
dressing table. But are things really
as bleak as all that?
Go compare
“Give women some credit: doing
make-up is a hobby for lots of them,”
says psychologist and media
commentator Honey Langcaster-James.
“So to an extent, yes, this is a case of
young women just having fun. The
snag is, if remodelling your face,
whether it’s with surgery, fillers or
industrial amounts of make-up,
becomes a way of life, the implicit
message is that you’re not good
enough as you are. And that’s when a
discrepancy develops between the real
and the transformed self. These days
I see that a lot in my practice.”
Plus, of course, it’s far from just
ourselves we’re competing with.
Online comparison culture, or the act
of browsing other people’s lives and,
more often than not, finding yourself
lacking, has been shown in numerous
studies to lead to social anxiety,
emotional distress and body-image
problems. “It’s an epidemic that’s
warping our collective identity as
women,” says Langcaster-James.
“Comparing yourself to others is
a natural way to understand identity.
But now we’re trying to emulate, on
a mass scale, the kind of women whose
lives and looks have nothing to do
with ours, let alone that these lives
and looks aren’t actually real.” I thank
my lucky stars for growing up with
Get the
latex look
Are the doll-like faces that are ruling
Instagram for real? Frankly, we can’t tell
CHLOE KHAN The CBB
housemate is bent overin
most of her pics – maybe
it’s the weight of her lips,
boobs and bronzer?
LIL’ KIM Where she
finds the rubber-finish
foundation and near-red
sculpting powder, we
truly are at a loss to say.
CHARLOTTE CROSBY
Now makes a career of
chronicling her plastic
surgery and weightfluctuation
‘journeys’.
KYLIE JENNER Took
on the image of half-sister
Kim K by “simply using
lipliner”. That’s what
make-up can do, people.
PIA MIA Jumbo lips
parted, nose downsized,
camel lashes, dead-eyed
gaze: yes, Pia has become
the sex doll of dreams.
only three TV channels and nobody
to pose for but my brother and his
Pocket Instamatic.
Beauty is a state of mind
Our ambition-driven, individualistic
culture makes us extra-vulnerable to
competitive comparison. “In the West
and any Westernised country, we
celebrate individual success over that
of the community,” says Langcaster-
James. “Also, capitalist society is
founded on an ‘imperfection’ mentality
that says you would be great if only you
had this or that.” In other words, feeling
not quite good enough is ingrained in
our culture – and social media, where
everyone else’s life seems glossier, sexier
and more successful than yours, only
serves to ram the point home.
In contrast, Sharmadean Reid, MBE,
the 32-year-old entrepreneur behind
Wah Nails, grew up “as part of a wide
female family network. In Jamaican
culture (as in many others), kids are
told continuously that they’re beautiful
just as they are; that’s why Jamaican
women are so sassy! Actual, physical
social networks and tribes are so
important. If you’re not surrounded
by loved ones who offer continuous
support and affirmation, you’ll look
for completion in all the wrong places.”
When I asked a 21-year-old
Cosmopolitan intern why she loved
online tutorials, she said it was because
“I’ll never have to make mistakes with
make-up like your generation did”.
And there’s the rub. Experimentation,
creativity, individual style, pushing
against the establishment: all the
things that being young and playing
with make-up were always about are
seen as embarrassing mistakes by an
Instagram generation brought up on
conformity and perfection. And it’s
time that changed, says Barber. “There’s
huge potential for counterculture and
diversity online, but not if followers
and likes are our reason for living.”
Girl power
And – hallelujah! – individual thinking
is seeping back into the mainstream.
This season’s big campaigns are awash
with startling-looking, androgynous
models. Ruth Bell, Andreja Pejić and
Isabella Emmack are all arresting
because they look different.
And if you want to see how beautiful
that can be, look at Alicia Keys. Sick
of the way the entertainment industry
tried to make her fit the ‘foxy, skinny,
perfect’ mould while leaving her
increasingly insecure, she wrote on
Lennyletter.com (Lena Dunham and
Jenni Konner’s feminist website):
“I don’t want to cover up any more.
Not my face, not my mind, not my
soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams,
not my struggles, not my emotional
growth. Nothing.” She now performs
in freckles, free from make-up and
looking impossibly young for her
35 years. “I hope to God it’s a
revolution,” she says. Me too. ◆
PHOTOGRAPHS RANKIN/TRUNKARCHIVE.COM, GETTY IMAGES, REX FEATURES, WENN.COM
74 · COSMOPOLITAN