Everyone wants to be unique but no one wants to be different.
When you turn on a tv show or movie from the 90s through early 2000s you’ll notice that people have their own individual style, unique beauty, and distinct makeup look. Makeup in the past used to be a form of expression, you could tell what ‘group’ they belonged to, what people were interested in, and what they thought of themselves – people used to have a distinct identity. The early 2000s and 2010s had scene, indie sleaze, tumblr, 2016 beauty guru and more. Now we’re in a clean girl epidemic.
Life is becoming a stale colourless capitalist selling point. Everyone wants to be unique but no one wants to be different. The past had subcultures. Makeup used to tell a story before you even spoke, it wasn’t just about looking good, it was about identity. Now everyone seems to follow the same blueprint, same brows, lips, eye shadow, everything in a similar notion. We used to look at someone and see their personality first, this new wave of makeup doesn’t showcase that anymore.
A quick scroll through any social media and you’ll come to the devastating truth, everyone looks the same, people used to look human with distinct features but now the robotic stiff look is in. The face is distinctly white but ambiguously ethnic, picking apart from various other cultures but still pushing them down, desperately clinging onto Eurocentric features.
The look is a copy and paste off-putting rip off of the original, rooted in colonialism. European powers imposed political economic control over the world and tied social status, employment, and virtue to eurocentric standards. These Eurocentric standards that control what is ‘appropriate’ for certain places. The beauty goals and standards have changed over time but consistently fall at taking from different cultures and wrapping it into something for the masses, without acknowledging the cultural ties and meanings of it. What used to be made of mockery now becomes something desirable until it changes again.
The filters, cosmetic surgery, and constant changing of ‘body standards’ is evolving at a pace that no one can keep up with. We are living through an aggressively homogenous life and look. Personality is devoid. It starts to beg the question, are we all going to end up with the same face?
Makeup has to become an art form again, and has to follow whatever you want it to be. The same homogeneous look is a devastating commentary on life and the fear of being an individual, especially when focused on groups that do not have Eurocentric features, erasing the self to become homogeneous. Being an individual helps you establish your own self identity and who you truly are. Without that you can start to feel lost.
Social media and the desire to be homogeneous in Eurocentric beauty standards has ruined the uniqueness of makeup, fashion, and the individual, the fear of being too different outweighs the desire to be yourself. It is becoming hard to see people’s individual self and features. Makeup and fashion need to be about play and self expression again, so that everyone doesn’t end up with the devastating fate of having the same face.
