Between the fashion, accessories, beauty, gadgets, sports and diet industries and the mainstream media, we are constantly being sold a narrative that we are not good enough. We’re not beautiful enough. Our skin isn’t smooth or the right shade. We’re not skinny or fit enough, don’t wear the right clothes and are not on trend. We don’t look like models, which is almost impossible anyway, as (even though things are changing in this area) they’re almost without exception very young, slim, tall and white.
The ideal we have to live up to in the lifestyle business is ridiculously limited. We’re talked into having a problem, which makes whole generations of us develop a negative self-image. Businesses are getting rich thanks to our low self-esteem, doubts and insecurities, and the planet is suffering too. This commercialisation of our body image lies at the heart of our struggle to change our behaviour – as long as you don’t like yourself, it’s okay, because then you remain vulnerable for the idea that you can fix this by shopping. The pressure on our looks doesn’t only affect our happiness, and our mental wellbeing, but also how sustainably we can act.
Personally, I think we need to move towards a new system. Where we are all celebrated, included instead of excluded, and where (sustainable) products are offered that make us feel good about ourselves, which we can buy when we actually need them.
To give you an example – a few years ago I stopped shaving my armpit hair. Because that doesn’t really feel right to me. That hair just grows there, it belongs there, why should it go? (And, equally important, why should women remove it, and not men?) I actually like the look of it if I’m honest, I find it rather sexy. Yet this part of my body only needs to be erased, deleted, to sell hair removal products. Have you noticed that in almost all shaving cream or razor blade commercials, there is actually no hair in sight? They just set the products over perfectly smooth legs and armpits – it is such a taboo that even the ads don’t dare show it.
What I do sometimes remove, however, is my leg hair. I just don’t love that as much. This is not hypocritical or inconsistent: it is me making my own choices. It’s taken me years of my life to learn what my own preferences are; I’m not saying do not ever wear make-up or grow out all your hair. I’m saying take back your freedom and do you.