As a boomer feminist, it is so infuriating to see young women being conned by capitalism. Beautiful young women are bankrupting themselves to chase an impossible ideal. All that money would be better spent on a retirement fund.
1) Being "high maintenance to be low maintenance" suggests that these people don't keep laboring to meet beauty standards for the rest of their day. I doubt that! I assume after the "shed" they do a makeup and hair routine too, and if they do salon or medispa treatments of any kind, it goes on and on...
2) The "DreamSpace" is a term I found in Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, a Black theologian and performance artist. I believe she is the originator. Capitalism colonizing the "dream space" is totally in line with the book and I encourage everyone to check it out as well as her project The Nap Ministry!
My eyes have rolled so hard they might be somewhere in outer space. I mean, just what? Who has time for any of this? I went for my annual derm check up today and I mentioned your mission (Jessica) to her and she loved it. This is the woman who - when I asked about eye creams - informed me that even with the initial uplift due to caffeine in the long run they do nothing and it's better to just sleep and drink water and eat real food most of the time. I also asked her about deep facials and she said I was welcome to try the ones in her office, but I really didn't need them (currently 48). I wish there were more derms out there like her!!
thank you for writing about this. I got a few of these videos on my fyp and it is a horrifying trend. We can't be left alone to just exist for a single moment.
Before today the only thing I'd seen coming anywhere close to this was mouth taping during sleep to make you breath through your nose. Even the thought of that makes me feel claustrophobic but this is on another level.
I know there have been a couple of movies and books that explore the horror aspect of beauty culture but I think there's more to explore. Althpugh maybe it's something like The Onion, where nothing fictional cam come close to the horrors we see on our screens.
Sure! The only movie I can think of is The Substance, about a celebrity that uses a black market drug to create a younger version of herself. I believe there's also an episode of Black Mirror about a beauty MLM. I hope there's more out there.
I can think of more in books. There's Allie Rowbottom's Aesthetica, about an influencer undergoing a treatment to reverse her surgeries. (I think Jessica did an interview with the author!) There's Ling Ling Huang's Natural Beauty, about a former violinist who starts working at a suspicious spa/wellness purveyor. There's also EK Sathue's Youthjuice, about a beauty copy editor.
I used to be a beauty writer (I remember seeing your bylines when we were both at Hellogiggles!) and I remember going to an event where they promoted "knee masks," essentially sheet masks for your knees.
I remember looking around the room, desperately trying to find someone to make eye contact with who would agree about how dystopian it all was, and this makes me feel the same way!!!
The NYT had an article the other day that touched on this, but also mostly covered the idea of "sleepmaxxing," which is an effort to fully optimize your sleep, usually with lots of consumer products, and it turns out that worrying too much about how you sleep isn't actually good for your sleep. It was an interesting read (as was this--I was not familiar with sleepmaxxing or the morning shed) and even more interesting that they followed it with their usual list of related articles, which were mostly tips on how to improve your sleep and things you can buy to improve your sleep. *sigh*
Oh WOW. I'm not on social media, especially not on TikTok (and am having this decision reinforced with your post) so I had no idea. What women do in the pursuit of beauty! I do think it's obsessive and compulsive, as you stated.
I always appreciate you keeping me up-to-date on the trends -- and the real science and simplicity. I forward your articles and quotes to several Gen-Zs that I love, as I know they are being highly targeted.
The amount of single-use products involved in this latest beauty nightmare makes me gag
Same same.
I have a Jessica in my head now who screams "MICROPLASTICS!"
As a boomer feminist, it is so infuriating to see young women being conned by capitalism. Beautiful young women are bankrupting themselves to chase an impossible ideal. All that money would be better spent on a retirement fund.
1) Being "high maintenance to be low maintenance" suggests that these people don't keep laboring to meet beauty standards for the rest of their day. I doubt that! I assume after the "shed" they do a makeup and hair routine too, and if they do salon or medispa treatments of any kind, it goes on and on...
2) The "DreamSpace" is a term I found in Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, a Black theologian and performance artist. I believe she is the originator. Capitalism colonizing the "dream space" is totally in line with the book and I encourage everyone to check it out as well as her project The Nap Ministry!
I don't have anything smart to say, that first TikTok simply makes me want to throw up???
My eyes have rolled so hard they might be somewhere in outer space. I mean, just what? Who has time for any of this? I went for my annual derm check up today and I mentioned your mission (Jessica) to her and she loved it. This is the woman who - when I asked about eye creams - informed me that even with the initial uplift due to caffeine in the long run they do nothing and it's better to just sleep and drink water and eat real food most of the time. I also asked her about deep facials and she said I was welcome to try the ones in her office, but I really didn't need them (currently 48). I wish there were more derms out there like her!!
thank you for writing about this. I got a few of these videos on my fyp and it is a horrifying trend. We can't be left alone to just exist for a single moment.
Before today the only thing I'd seen coming anywhere close to this was mouth taping during sleep to make you breath through your nose. Even the thought of that makes me feel claustrophobic but this is on another level.
I know there have been a couple of movies and books that explore the horror aspect of beauty culture but I think there's more to explore. Althpugh maybe it's something like The Onion, where nothing fictional cam come close to the horrors we see on our screens.
Awesome thank you so much!!
Mind naming those books and movies? I’d love to get into them!
Sure! The only movie I can think of is The Substance, about a celebrity that uses a black market drug to create a younger version of herself. I believe there's also an episode of Black Mirror about a beauty MLM. I hope there's more out there.
I can think of more in books. There's Allie Rowbottom's Aesthetica, about an influencer undergoing a treatment to reverse her surgeries. (I think Jessica did an interview with the author!) There's Ling Ling Huang's Natural Beauty, about a former violinist who starts working at a suspicious spa/wellness purveyor. There's also EK Sathue's Youthjuice, about a beauty copy editor.
Women willfully taping their own mouths and jaws to silently morph into a... Stepford Wife? Horrifying.
I’d never heard of any of this until now, and that first photo with the husband/boyfriend looking a little scared? Well, that says it all for me.
I used to be a beauty writer (I remember seeing your bylines when we were both at Hellogiggles!) and I remember going to an event where they promoted "knee masks," essentially sheet masks for your knees.
I remember looking around the room, desperately trying to find someone to make eye contact with who would agree about how dystopian it all was, and this makes me feel the same way!!!
I'm sorry . .. .what????
The masks were supposed to make your knees less wrinkly, truly psychotic lol
Heaven forbid we have the amount of skin necessary for our knees to bend!!!
🤯🤯😂🤯🤯
😂
My first thought was: are these people having sex with all this crap on their head?
The NYT had an article the other day that touched on this, but also mostly covered the idea of "sleepmaxxing," which is an effort to fully optimize your sleep, usually with lots of consumer products, and it turns out that worrying too much about how you sleep isn't actually good for your sleep. It was an interesting read (as was this--I was not familiar with sleepmaxxing or the morning shed) and even more interesting that they followed it with their usual list of related articles, which were mostly tips on how to improve your sleep and things you can buy to improve your sleep. *sigh*
I need to stop reading about the nonsense young people are up to on tik tok because it's making me depressed *goes to read full article*
Oh WOW. I'm not on social media, especially not on TikTok (and am having this decision reinforced with your post) so I had no idea. What women do in the pursuit of beauty! I do think it's obsessive and compulsive, as you stated.
The mouth tape! Ugh. Just SEEING it makes me uncomfortable!
NO TALKING OR KISSING PAST BEDTIME.
I always appreciate you keeping me up-to-date on the trends -- and the real science and simplicity. I forward your articles and quotes to several Gen-Zs that I love, as I know they are being highly targeted.