Each morning, high school students wake up hours before the school bell rings to apply and touch-up their make-up, worried about how their peers will judge them. Many students are concerned about what others will think of a particular cosmetic choice that they make for the day. While I would like to say that you need not worry about others judging how you look, unfortunately, I simply can’t. There have been countless times throughout high school when I’ve overheard people mocking another’s appearance, obsessed with the erroneous notion of a standard form of beauty.
A trend I’ve recently noticed is for girls to judge others for how much make-up they have on. Any make-up look that is a bit of out of the ordinary or unusual is often granted a few subtle glances (or glares) by other girls who are taken aback by it.
This issue is a prevalent problem in high school, as students tend be particularly concerned about their own and others’ appearances, but it is also apparent outside of the classroom. Women of all ages can be found critiquing each other for how they look, especially about how and in what quantities they apply their make-up.
They scold others for “trying too hard” to look pretty, and for caring too much about perfecting their appearances, which insinuates that they themselves are not that obsessed with beauty. This is a bit ironic to me, as they are still perpetuating a standard of beauty. However, instead of it being focused on a made-up face that looks appealing with the help of a few colorful make-up products, it is centered on having a “natural” look. While they say that they prefer this look because it lacks the need for much make-up, they still are creating a standard of beauty for others to live up to, which is, at its heart, the main cause of peer judgment based on appearances.
The media helps feed this problem by praising celebrities for their natural look, but not necessarily because they’re confident enough in their appearance that they choose not to wear make-up. It’s more that they already look attractive without make-up — which again, creates a standard of beauty to live up to.
To me, it doesn’t matter if you feel best wearing no make-up at all or if you prefer to use your face as a canvas to express your creativity with make-up. Frankly, the world would be a much better place if society stopped putting so much emphasis on beauty. I can guarantee you there would be a lot less issues with low self-esteem and a bit more self-confidence, which is always a good thing, I would think.
To quote the random, sobbing girl from Mean Girls, “I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy”…or at least get us to stop critiquing each other so much on looks. There are a lot of better things to judge people on rather than their appearances, like maybe, oh I don’t know, their personalities or their actions. I know it sounds like a radical idea, but just bear with me (note the tone of sarcasm, please). People should be able to feel comfortable with however they look and remember that their appearances are not the ultimate determiner of their worth. I hate to be cliché, but beauty is really only skin-deep, so appearances need to stop being used as one of the most important criteria on to which to judge people.