The Future of Insecurity

From “cortisol face” to “facial harmony,” is the internet making us more insecure?

Julia Palor

Every time I open an app- it doesn’t matter which one- I feel overwhelmed by the slew of beauty messaging and resulting discourse. Probably because my iPhone already knows my target demographic and probably (admittedly) because I am alarmingly susceptible to clicking links, the barrage never ends.

No matter the era, the beauty industry has been bombarding women with unrealistic standards for hundreds of years. From the 1950s Marilyn Monroe blonde craze, to the infamous “heroin chic” of the 90s, to the ruthless 2000s paparazzi culture: there has been no shortage of insecurities to pick apart about our physical appearance. 

Evil never dies; it just reinvents itself. We’ve moved on from juicy celebrity tabloids and Tumblr-era thinspo to “ferritine face,” “facial harmony,” “cortisol face,” “septum arms.” There seems to be something wrong with every part of your body: your nose isn’t perfectly shaped? Your face doesn’t look like a celebrity’s after a million filters? You wake up slightly bloated? The answer is not to accept yourself but to constantly compare and desire change.

Marketing will never stop, especially in a social media landscape where one can actively profit on the insecurities of others. Insecurities have always existed, and at the risk of sounding bleak, they will continue to be manipulated on the internet as long as influencers are incentivized to spread self-hatred for a sponsorship. The internet isn’t the source; oftentimes it’s something deeper: a snide comment made on the elementary school playground, a bad haircut at a challenging moment in your life, a deep-rooted lack of purpose.

Insecurity will not disappear overnight, but I think it’s important to reframe our mindset regarding beauty. As Susan Sontag put it, “It is not, of course, the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be.” In other words, when women expend large amounts of time and energy into our appearance in comparison to men, we prevent ourselves from developing a sense of self that does not revolve around superficial and fleeting standards. 

It is easier said than done, and at the end of the day, women shouldn’t be expected to shoulder the burden of constant self-improvement. Which is exactly the point. Allowing ourselves to be just as we are is a good starting point.