Lily Huynh/The Cougar
Despite being labeled as things to improve your life, many self-help routines and items are often more predatory than meets the eye.
Industries for things like razors, makeup and online accounts dedicated to self-improvement, have a tendency to create more insecurities than they solve. This is especially true for products and content targeted at young female demographics that has led to things like depression, eating disorders and other mental issues among girls.
One of the most egregious examples of this lies in the popularity of razor companies. Though it’s a largely unknown truth, it was not common for women to shave before the early to mid-1900s.
Razor companies before around 1915 targeted entirely male demographics. It wasn’t often that women worried about their body hair like we do now, and this only changed when the industry decided to expand its marketing by taking advantage of changing fashion trends at the time.
In Gillette’s first advertisement aimed at women, the company referred to having body hair as “embarrassing,” specifically when it comes to going on dates. This initial ad began a trend of creating a problem to sell a beautifying product and resulted in razors becoming a household necessity among women.
In creating this issue to sell more razors to women, the market expanded to things like waxing strips and other products that promise to make buyers more feminine and attractive: something that simply was not considered before a century ago.
There is a similar issue among makeup companies with the perpetuating idea that natural parts of age are things that need to be corrected in order to be seen as beautiful.
Creams that erase wrinkles, formulas made to combat pimples and dark spots and face masks made to “rejuvenate and brighten” skin have become widespread through predatory marketing tactics that do much more harm than good.
All of this has only been exacerbated by social media, with girls so young that they haven’t even hit puberty yet worrying about supposed problems they’re shown online. Despite their age, girls have been made to fret over being seen as attractive when in reality, the images they’re trying to live up to are unattainable.
Accounts on sites like TikTok and Instagram based around self-improvement routines often perpetuate negative perceptions many users have, even without intending to do so. It’s become natural to suggest extensive routines that use the same language that beauty companies do.
The vast majority of people don’t need an extensive skincare routine with a plethora of products pedaled to us with scientific-sounding ingredients. If anything, people forcing themselves to keep these routines commonly results in burnout and depression when they either can’t keep up or don’t achieve the “ideal” body image they’re going for.
No matter how much they promise to keep you looking young and beautiful, these markets are driven by making you feel like you need to adhere to a certain standard, often dictated by male desires. They want you to be insecure to sell their products.
Things like body hair, skin blemishes and many other “imperfect” characteristics are natural, and our bodies should not be preyed upon as marketing ploys.
When browsing online, it’s important to keep in mind that the self-help blog pedaling the latest trends, or the beauty company reminding us that hair is “unhygienic” or blemishes are “embarrassing” may not have your best interests in mind.
Parker Hodges-Beggs is a journalism sophomore who can be reached at [email protected]
