Started by a French woman on TikTok, this trend, which mainly concerns young women, encourages them to appreciate their beauty.
Clearly, social media isn’t just body positivity’s best ally. And the latest trend, which rightfully causes debate, once again encourages the evaluation of beauty by very subjective standards. All with a younger audience and therefore more impressionable and vulnerable, as it is on TikTok that the phenomenon has grown. Indeed, a French woman, Lily Rose, has published a video dedicated to what she calls an “average girl”, to understand the “average woman”. The concept. Physical self-esteem that strives to prove that he is “neither beautiful nor ugly.”
Thus, the TikToker gives his definition of what he considers the category he belongs to: or a woman who is a “5 or 7/10” but not ugly. Before adding: “If you’re 10/10, no boy will fail you”; or even “People tell me ‘you’re beautiful’ but not ‘you’re beautiful’.”
Other young women followed her lead, posting videos saying, “I’m a mean girl because…” They explain why they do not belong to this category. Among the most cited arguments we find the need to install filters on social networks to take responsibility, not to be “wow” and not to flirt with one of those people who don’t look back on the street. evening or even the fact of not seeing their stories reposted by friends.
Like @Rosiconique, a former reality TV contestant who insists that “she can’t see the flaws in her face because it bothers her,” “that we don’t. [l’]do not bring for the evening [son] physical” or that she spends her time “comparing herself to other girls even when [elle est] “above the top”. In the comments, some accuse her of fishing for compliments, while others point out that she confuses beauty with self-confidence. Several netizens, however, emphasize that they recognize themselves in what he said.
“This trend makes me more complicated”
But above all, some comments highlight the danger of such judgment. “Please don’t let this become a trend because apart from making other girls feel self-conscious, it’s useless” “Very toxic trend. Beauty is subjective, stop feeling self-conscious and putting complexes on yourself’, ‘more expressions to make girls feel self-conscious’… In fact, many criticize her for making this video, even though she is ‘beautiful’; the trend makes me more complicated, I realize the expected level”, “So this is the average??? Then what are we?’
Finally, some are upset. “But I don’t understand the concept, why do we have to put ourselves in these boxes?”, “Please, girls, in 2024, let’s stop putting ourselves in the societal and hierarchical boxes constructed by men”; or “Honey, your exes are toxic people.”
Self-esteem
In the second video posted on the topic, the originator of this trend is surprised by the scale of his video. And he denies that he started a sexist trend. “I have been accused of being an anti-feminist, of classifying women into a certain category: ugly, average, and beautiful. […] Basically, it started with me finding that I am. They didn’t tell me that, but they made me understand. That’s my opinion of myself.” Before concluding “Let’s be beautiful, let’s love each other.”
In any case, this trend once again shows the hierarchy of beauty and the negative effect that social networks can have on self-esteem. Because, as Paris psychiatrist Dr. Fanny Jacques reminded us in 2022, for many, “if we’re not liked, it means we don’t ‘fit’ the way we are. Teenagers perceive themselves only through the prism of filters, and this completely changes their perception, which we call “Snapchat syndrome”. They search for an ideal that they will never achieve, and this can lead to loss of self-esteem, depression or eating disorders. Certainly, the phenomenon that encouraged a group of experts authorized by Emmanuel Macron to propose in its report published on April 30 that access to social networks should be opened only from the age of 18, while in the US Florida passed a restrictive law. this access to under 16s a month ago.
Source: Le Figaro
