Beauty Standards of 2016 - Kardashians, Instagram and Diet Teas

My perspective as a mixed woman with Caucasian and Indian roots… 

It’s no secret that in the last year especially from 2015 to 2016 there has been a strong shift in beauty standards.  Instagram has become the most influential platform when it comes to setting them and and establishing today’s role models for young girl to look up to. 

The beauty industry has officially taken over!

I think the shift in "beautiful body type" in general is a positive one, however the pressure and ideology of perfectness in beauty has gotten worse. In this article I want to quickly sum up my thoughts in the topic and not yet go into detail about the effect this has on younger girls...

I think it's a very interesting topic and I find both pros and cons about it, but I have to admit I'm enjoying the fact that my natural body type all of a sudden is appreciated and the pressure of "loosing weight pressure" has for now been defeated. 

As Helen Mirren put it: “I’m not into the Kardashians, it’s a phenomenon I just don’t find interesting, but — and this is the big word: B-U-T-T — it’s wonderful that you’re allowed to have a butt nowadays!..Thanks to Madame Kardashian, and before her, J-Lo. We’re also allowed to have thighs now, which is great too. It’s very positive.”

HERE ARE 5 BEAUTY STANDARDS OF TODAY:

1. BODY TYPE - SLIM THICK 

Not long ago the perfect body for a female was considered one with skinny legs (don't forget the perfect thigh gap), slim everything model-type. I was never that girl, I was always petite but with rather strong legs, no thigh gap, larger breast and with some flesh over my bones which was not the right measurement to have a "beautiful body" in the Western world. Even when you go way back to old school Hip Hop music videos you see that most if not all girls are really skinny. I'm not sure when exactly that shift took place, but the music industry definitely to some extent is responsible for the new "ideal body", supported by rappers like Drake, Nicky Minaj, and Fetty Wap.

2016 = The Pear , THE BOOTY ERA

As rapper Fetty Wap  “Slim thick” as he’s describing is basically a woman who has a flat stomach, slim waist, slightly large hips in ratio to her waist and an ample bottom. “Witcho cute ass” is him basically saying that he appreciates her “slim thick” figure even more because she’s cute as well. 

Anytime a new ideoology is created, the negative side effect of obsession for being perfect

Famous Instagram models made careers from trading their bodies for "the perfect body type".

All of a sudden for a very long time ideal Victoria Secret type is not considered perfect any longer..

Then for a long time the "large breast" was a focus of beauty standards not only in 1990 but still 5 years ago. For some girls, including myself they would have been better off to go through the growing up years as a teenager, during the Pam Anderson phase of beauty standards, as opposed to the Kim K one in which we currently reside, where the focus was on your front rather than your back..

As for today, it's all about the slim-thick figure, booty focused..

The new standard has also brought along a new lifestyle trend, the FIT LIFE! A strong woman with muscles and exposed abs would not long ago be labeled as "not feminine". Now a strong, healthy body, not just slim waist but also strong core is appreciated by society, isn't that great?

2. FIT CHICK MOVEMENT

This is probably the one shift I like the most. The promotion of a healthy lifestyle is probably the number 1 trend of 2016 and doesn't seem to stop, strongly in correlation with the "new body type". Before the hype not everybody had a gym membership, but all of a sudden you see everyone squatting and running. Living a healthy life and working towards getting stronger is a great thing and I love the promotion of it, but of course we didn't have to wait very long, until the market recognized the want for fitness products and took advantage. By now you are probably familiar with Instagram girls on your feed, promoting things like:

DIET TEAS

The slimming teas are extremely popular and #1 promotion product. They have been circulating around in hopes of giving girls a “fit” figure. They promote toned arms, legs, abs and a firm buttocks. 

WAIST TRAINERS

"Waist trainers are designed to help women attain that iconic hourglass silhouette while targeting the most troublesome areas". At least that is what the company hourglassexpress. Here is what Christopher Ochner, Ph.D., weight loss and nutrition expert at Mount Sinai Hospital as to say:"It ain't pretty: Think crushed organs, compressed lungs, and fractured ribs. You can't reduce the collection of fat in any one particular area of your body. If you push your stomach in, all the fat will go right back to where it was no matter how long [you wear the corset] for." Yes, some people can get away with wearing the waist trainer without any real harm done. But for a real, long-term weight-loss plan, you're better off looking elsewhere. 

for years known as "corsets". For over 80 years, from the 1820s until after the dawn of the 20th century, the most fashionable ladies followed a “custom” called “tight lacing.”

PILLS

Carb blocker, metabolism booster and many other diet pills are part of the hype, besides of course all the protein shakes. The idea is to help maintain a clean diet, loose weight, gain muscle and become more toned.

3.  FACE - CONTOUR & HIGHLIGHT

Not too long ago the word"contouring" was barely part of the beauty vocabulary, but today a quick Google search brings up over 75 million results. With the rise of Instagram - the trend, selfies - and finally countless tutorials on Youtube contouring is a solid part of new beauty standards, to enhance your bone structure. You can make your face thinner, pop out some new cheekbones or even give yourself a nose job..

The „Ethnic, but still accessible to the West“ look 

I personally think make-up can be fun and it's nice to play around with it, highlight the features you like and cover parts you don't, like a small pimple, red spots or dark circles. Contour in general I find no serious problem with, but just with everything, when overdone and applied to everything, it covers your real beauty. The word highlight is positive, just like you should highlight your strengths and not focus on your weaknesses I think it's totally fine to do the same with your looks, as long as you don't hide yourself behind it..

4. Full Lips

There is no doubt that Kim Kardashian has become one of the most influential people for setting beauty standards, but more recently the youngest sister of the clan Kylie Jenner stepping into her footsteps and taking over the beauty industry. Kylie Jenner’s overdrawn, full lips have made headlines around the world, with many women choosing to follow suit and heavily line their lips to give the illusion of a plumper pout.

 Kylie Jenner admitted that she’s been going for a more natural look lately. She explained that she’s trying to drop the dramatic lip injections and heavy makeup this year. Considering a large part of her audience is young girls, this should be very helpful in bringing back realistic body standards for young women. 

5. Eyebrows ON FLEEK 

This trend has got to be the funniest one for me, as I was born with naturally thick eyebrows and always hated it as a kid. Before the trend was a trend it was much more of a curse than a blessing. Now the beauty standards emphasize natural looking eyebrows and micro-blading a technique used to fill in your eyebrows making them look thicker) is  a common procedure. 

I first thought Cara Delevingne is responsible for the popularity of the hashtag "EyebrowsOnFleek", but I found out that in November 2014, Kim K brought the trend mainstream by posting a bleached brow photo on her Instagram account using said hashtag, and the beauty world went insane. Now everywhere you see girls showing off "fleek" eyebrows -  which is a variation of "flick," a word used by make-up artists — when eyebrows are perfectly groomed, filled and shaped. 

The list continues to go on..

For years the beauty standards have evolved around long-legged, white skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed females and now to to see a change in that is refreshing, and from my perspective it's somehow fun in a weird way that all of sudden my natural ethnic look, light skin, dark hair, brown eyes, rather short and strong figure has become a trend and a lot the insecurities I had growing up have turned into "goals" of many.

BUT here comes of of the problems.. Now that the new „Instagram Beauty Standard“ has been spread and established, girls who weren't born with a natural curvy figure feel excluded and lean towards unnatural help such as surgery, pills etc. This is not to say that the glorified body types are not attractive or great. But this constant glorification of one over the other generally excludes other body types. With the slim-thick figure, those who are only thick will try to slim their waists and those who are only slim might resort to unhealthy eating habits to become thick. The ones who don’t fit in any of those categories will feel excluded and ashamed of their bodies. All of these trends cost women their self-confidence and the appreciation of their natural body.

 We all have insecurities, but not too long ago I realized that insecurities in itself are based on beauty standards that are completely made up and they could change in one week. So for ages I thought my chest was too big, until a friend told me that she was jealous it. My insecurities suddenly switched, and I thought my legs were too strong for a girl, until another friend told me how trendy that is right now. It's almost as though we're taught that we have to have insecurities, so we make up new personal flaws every time a switch in beauty standards appears to happen.

Beauty standards that are made up and changed every few years only help keep that self-hatred up, a problem that we try to solve by buying and consuming products, which basically means that the beauty industry is alive because of the pressure we feel to match those standards, which is a never-ending process as beauty standards will keep on change over time. Through body positivity and a much more diverse attitude towards body representations in the media, however, the ideal body type may (hopefully) become a concept of the past.

I hope that more awareness gets raised towards "there is no beauty without brains", focusing on inner beauty first with a good amount of self-confidence, making looks not the focus and just that extra sweet bit that visualizes your true self, because THAT is what young girls 9-16 years old need to see and idolize, to be able to develop the right amount of confidence and brains to not get trapped in the pressure of constantly matching new beauty standards. Future generations need to KNOW that the image of supposed perfection, is a non-existent phenomenon and we have the right to simply reject it. 

YOU ARE

I could go on forever with this topic as it's a very psychological in-depth field to study and as you can tell I'm passionate about the subject, but I think it serves well as a first introduction to the topic. I myself am far from the image of "perfect" and I'm not trying to match the image of a given standard, but rather work towards becoming a better version of myself in every area of life everyday. I love to set myself goals, live, look and feel healthy, confident, strong and beautiful. Change is not bad, it means progress, but whatever you do and whatever you strive for,  do it with consciousness and question what makes you feel beautiful!

Much love,

- Mrs.Steemit

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