Around this time last year, I never would’ve imagined I’d find myself in the world of photoshop. It may have been that I wasn’t mature enough to think seriously about my own self-image or the fact that photoshop culture simply wasn’t all that popular in my Western-oriented international school community. That’s not to say Western culture neglects or doesn’t pay much attention to female beauty, but Asian cultures tend to have a more standardized beauty expectation for women. Such harsh body image and beauty standards are a nightmare for many girls from a young age, and particularly for today’s generation. Nonetheless, this isn’t another article arguing against society’s tendency to shame women or how damaging the internet is for our mental health. Rather, I take the view that when it comes to make-up and photoshopping for girls, maybe they aren’t so bad.
The sheer number of easy-to-use photoshopping and filter phone apps is staggering. Most of us want the same thing out of these apps: larger eyes, smoother skin, whiter teeth, slimmer legs, thinner waist… the list goes on. Such apps even allow users to apply digital make-up such as lipstick, highlights, eyeliner, and lashes.
But what do girls really want out of these filtered results? Some may say that teenage girls are obsessed with manipulating their faces and bodies all in the name of social media likes and comments. And as someone who, until recently, wasn’t familiar with photoshopping culture, I thought the same. Yet, over the past year, I’ve met a community of friends who ultimately changed my mind.
As my friends introduced me to the “photoshop world,” I found myself downloading all kinds of apps that serve a similar purpose, and what I quickly realized is that it’s not entirely dissimilar from the centuries-old tradition of wearing make-up. The bottom line is that girls use photoshop to make themselves look prettier not just for others, but for themselves as well. Our intentions aren’t solely to attract attention or validation. Most of the time, trying to look prettier is about making ourselves happier and more confident.
Girls that retouch their photos or wear heavy make-up are routinely thought of as self-centered attention-seekers. At the same time, however, we praise and adore celebrities who treat it as a necessity. All of which begs the question: Do we have to be famous to be worthy of being more perfect?
For centuries, a woman’s position in society has been tenuous at best. It doesn’t take a devout feminist to realize that the world conflates women with beauty more so than men. When we are chubby, they say we’re not fit enough; when we are skinny, they say we are unhealthy. When we don’t photoshop our photos, they say we don’t look perfect enough; and when we do use photoshop, they say we’re faking it. There are always going to be haters and people who get in our way, and as a result, many girls are left feeling more insecure than boys.
Recently Chinese celebrity Qiwei was asked by a male celebrity, “Isn’t the whole point of making you girls look beautiful to attract the opposite sex and get boys’ attention?” Qiwei responded, “We do it for ourselves. I want to tell all boys out there that girls put on make-up and try to look pretty because it lightens up their mood. This is the matter of confidence.” Not all girls are born gorgeous or angel-like, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be.
I would argue that it’s in our nature to seek beauty. In fact, my friends and I joke that every image we photoshop is an artistic masterpiece created with our own hands. Dying our hair bright pink for a wedding, putting on full make-up even when we workout, photoshopping before posting on social media… It is our choice to decorate our lives however we want. People may be dissatisfied with their figure, and it shouldn’t be a crime to let them be the angel they want to be.
At the end of the day, we all need a little boost to our confidence from time to time. Frankly, the problem isn’t that the world is ugly. You just have to see it with an open mind. Maybe then, you can start to find the beauty in everything, even with a bit of photoshop.
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Images: Unsplash.com
