When did you last fall victim to a social media trend-turned-aesthetic? Maybe it was the  ‘clean girl’ phenomenon, the  ‘office siren’ attire, or the ‘indie sleaze’ lifestyle. Regardless, open your phone and once you notice, it will be harder to ignore: looks are morphing into uniformity as faces, bodies, and wardrobes echo fleeting trends. But as with all things consumer-media related, ulterior motives behind the screen are pushing these beauty trends that come and go in cycles. 

I would like to start by discussing plastic surgery. Although no one owes anyone else an explanation for the choices they make regarding their body, I still feel that it is important to encourage a conversation about the wider issues it evokes. How much of the desire to tweak your features is truly an individual desire, and how much may be a result of constant subliminal and blatant messaging sent to women that there is a physical standard they must uphold at all times? I’ll provide some statistics to contextualize this. In 2013, women accounted for 90.5% of cosmetic surgeries in the UK. In the same year, boob jobs became the most popular cosmetic procedure (having increased by 13% since 2012) second being blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), followed by face or neck lifts. Over the past decade, and more so in these last couple of years, I have noticed the same set of features being highlighted as desirable – defined cheekbones, plump lips, tiny noses. The issue here is that the motivation to make these changes isn’t about self-expression anymore, but more about how close you can get to a nonexistent perfect-face template invented by social media’s portrayal of filtered everything. As Polly Vernon notes in Hot Feminist, women should undoubtedly have agency over their bodies and appearances. While this agency should not be questioned, Vernon ventures to say that the cosmetic surgery meant to turn our faces into Instagram-filtered versions of ourselves is an example of social pressure and normalization, not agency. The unfortunate truth is that plastic surgery utilized in this way is not the empowering choice women have been tricked into believing. 

Surgical treatments are becoming increasingly subject to the same fleeting cycles fashion trends seem to run through. Let me explain – every few years, the ideal for the female body and look evolves. Strive to be flat, then curvy – never mind, now as thin as possible again! This is all presented with false advertising, promising, “You too can become exactly what the female body ideal is (today) just by implementing clean eating!” Are women expected to completely change their body type every time the social media pendulum swings a certain way? These fluctuations do not reflect an organic change in beauty ideals over time; they are constructed by influencer culture, mass media consumption, and behind it all, an industry that profits off of making sure you never get too comfortable in your skin. These trends are not meant to be attainable to the average consumer who wants to fit into each mold, rather, they ensure that the aesthetic chase doesn’t have a finish line. Changing the ‘ideal’ female body type every year just encourages people to achieve that standard in ways that risk their health. And it’s not just about faces or bodies anymore; the endless transformation bleeds into fashion and peoples’ styles. Clothes and makeup become micro trends with extremely finite life spans exemplified by those “core” aesthetics we all seem to be familiar with, thanks to social media putting each style into a given sector. TikTok and Instagram pump out a new archetype for “it girls” to follow practically weekly, which soon enough becomes oversaturated, and then deemed “out of style”. Brain rot memes aside, people do not realize that this is the truest, and most harmful form of brain rot that social media has to offer.

This is harmful for a number of reasons. First of all, as I previously mentioned, these aesthetics are not meant to be attainable, and if they are, social media will make sure there is always something new ahead so you never can catch up completely, all while filling influencers’ pockets. Second, it motivates so much unnecessary, and otherwise easily avoidable, overconsumption. It is a ploy to get you to spend money on things you do not need and will be deemed essentially worthless before you know it (which also has serious negative implications for our environment). Lastly, these romanticized ideals and aesthetics are causing a loss of authenticity in peoples’ styles. Buying into these short-lived microtrends, whether it’s as drastic as a cosmetic procedure or seemingly minimal as a piece of clothing, is like trading in the charm of your style to be a picture-perfect copy of everyone else online. They’re selling a lie, unsustainability, and a dystopian society in which everyone wears a uniform for a face. 

A prominent example that comes to mind when I think about this is Hailey Bieber’s brand, and I am not just talking about Rhode Skin, but more so the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic and sub-genres of aesthetics she sells. Recall the craze that was Hailey Bieber's ‘glazed donut skin’ in 2022 (which by the way, is literally just having clear skin and putting moisturizer on). Another aesthetic worth noting is her ‘strawberry girl’ makeup which – spoiler alert – just means heavily applying blush and having a couple sparse freckles. I do not mean to slander Hailey Bieber’s marketing, quite the contrary because it is successful for her, but my goal here is to unmask these aesthetics for what they are, and maybe to de-influence you from buying a product you do not need.

We like to think we are the ones solely in control of the curation of our image, when in actuality, our algorithm is what feeds us with most of our ‘individuality’. This system is not accidental. When women are made to believe their worth lies in presenting themselves a certain way, industries keep them insecure, endlessly spending money to ‘update’ themselves. Social media platforms, predominantly run and shaped by men, capitalize on this vulnerability by pushing content to compare yourself with. Algorithms show you what will make someone a profit, not what genuinely benefits you. So, for the sake of preserving your individuality and in the long term, your peace of mind, it is worth rethinking where your attention – and more importantly – your money goes. Stop investing in influencers who perpetuate these unrealistic and redundant beauty standards. Hailey Bieber didn’t invent dewy skin. The Kardashians and Jenners aren’t the spokespeople for ‘the perfect body’. These people should not be looked up to as lifestyle role models; they are walking marketing campaigns with an endless Facetune subscription. Bodies and styles are not, and should not, be marketed as malleable trends.The bottom line is: it really is that damn phone.