Beauty and The Blogger

Recently there has been a lot of hype around the blogger Zoella after an article by Charlotte Hamilton was released on Tuesday. To summarise, very briefly, Chloe suggests that Zoella is not a good role model for young teenage girls due to her providing tutorial videos for teenage girls on how to do make up, hauls on what products to buy and so on, thus Chloe evidently felt that Zoella saying "girls should not fret about their appearance" is contradictory.

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not on either side of this argument, it just raises a rather interesting debate I think. A lot of things I post on my blog particularly are very "serious" I suppose, truthfully I would love to publish more beauty related things but I'm conscious that it may come across as contradictory since a lot of posts deal with feminism, body issues and serious topics like this.

I suppose more broadly this raises issues of feminism and beauty. Are you expected to not wear make-up if you believe in gender equality? I've recently discussed this with some friends and I suppose come to some sort of conclusion.

As the very amazing Lena Dunham reminds us in her Questionable Feminism video she reminds us that feminism is about providing choice. This I strongly agree with, the importance of women having a choice about what they wear, make-up and bodily issues is perhaps one of the strongest aspect of some feminist agendas. In relation to the Zoella argument I think it's great that she is suggesting to young girls not to fret, considering she is on a public platform and has some level of influence. This may appear contradictory as she continues to vlog about make-up and do tutorials, however it's clearly her passion and I don't think that should be dismissed or she should have to change this.

I also agree with Chloe that for younger girls who may be insecure that Zoella may come across to be promoting make-up and more broadly this may come across as make-up being a necessity. This I feel is where the true argument lies, girls who feel that make-up is a necessity is a problem, when it becomes excessive or people feel that they "don't feel like themselves without it." You are not your make-up! One must remember that the beauty industry needs insecurities in order to make money - your skin isn't smooth/matte/sheer enough, your lashes aren't long enough, your lips aren't red enough as just some examples of this. Whether or not you realise, you as a female may have been affected by some of these industry influenced insecurities.  This is something, speaking from personal experience, girls learn in their own time to reject.