Erin Griffy and Victoria Munn:
People wanting to be hot is the one constant across history.
The end.
But actually though, everyone is ugly, even though we’re not, we still think we are from time to time. It’s some messed up, warped up, f***** up part of the human condition tossed into a soup of capitalism and marketing. Mhmmm doesn’t that soup smell complex? Yeah it does, it’s really complex. So how did we get to photoshop, fad diets and me failing to do a single push up for the fifth day in a row? Well, to understand my scrawny arms we have to understand the past.
This is what Erin Griffy and Victoria Munn set out to do. They studied tons of early modern European beauty recipes. Guess what the found out? Early modern Europeans were just as vain and self-centred as we are! They noted some beauty trends that were different or opposite to today’s trends, but in general, nothing much has changed. There were recipes for pale skin, dark skin, rosy cheeks, perfume, eye shadow, how to hide teary eyes after that b**** Edward Edwardian left me, and more.
Erin and Victoria showed me that wanting to look good is not some by-product of a shady deal between social media and beauty companies. But rather just a part of the human condition. By removing the heavy influence of the media in their research, they removed the simplified narrative of “Social media told me I need to be super, mega, really, foxy hot.” Thus they attempted to get a deeper understanding of why we use beauty products. I think that’s a question that will be tricky to solve for many more years, but they seem on the right track. Anyway, I’ve got to hop on my ab circle pro so I can flex in the mirror.
