Who is creating "appearance anxiety"
Originally only wanted to treat acne, but she was cut off a double eyelid. This summer, Chen Meiqi, a senior who wanted to be beautiful, became a "European-style double eyelid" confusedly.
However, her anxiety about her appearance did not alleviate, "It always feels unnatural, not like herself."
Before that, she had been troubled by the deep and shallow acne marks on her face.
As soon as I turn on the phone, various social networking software, short video platforms, and beauty bloggers’ live broadcast rooms, celebrities are all "touting" beauty, including showing up and telling how to change their appearance by cutting double eyelids, hydrating needles, thin face needles, etc. Beautiful "tutorial".
Chen Meiqi decided to treat her skin.
At a well-known beauty agency near her home, the "doctor" gave her a full face assessment and said that not only should she take care of her skin, she should also adjust her eyes to become a beautiful woman!
The "doctor" told her, "You have a single pair of eyes. The big and small eyes are very obvious. A double eyelid operation will immediately make you look better."
The “doctor” took out many before-and-after photos of successful cases of her own manipulation, telling her that “the ugly duckling becomes a swan” is not a dream.
This made Chen Meiqi's heart fascinated.
Without checking the "doctor"'s medical license and the business qualifications of this beauty agency, she lay on the operating table.
Not long ago, the China Youth School Media conducted a questionnaire survey on the topic of appearance anxiety to college students across the country. Among the 2,063 university students interviewed, 59.03% of them said they have a certain degree of appearance anxiety.
The reporter learned from interviews that the rapid growth of medical beauty and beauty institutions and the popularity of various facial value scorers in recent years have contributed to people's "appearance anxiety" to a certain extent.
According to surveys, from 2014 to 2020, the size of my country's medical aesthetics market has grown from 50.1 billion yuan to 179.5 billion yuan.
The majority of consumers of medical aesthetics are young people, with the highest proportion of 20-25 years old.
The post-90s and post-00s groups are the main medical aesthetics consumer groups. Among them, many college students have also become the target of the medical aesthetics industry.
"The college entrance examination is over, you can become beautiful", "Good-looking people, do everything right" "Save your face, change your fate against the sky"... Many slogans about "beauty" are facing pressure from job hunting and marriage. Of young people are quite attractive, as if being beautiful can change their lives.
"Which one doesn't look at the face when looking for a job or a target?" The 19-year-old Li Ming couldn't wait to cut his eyelids right after the college entrance examination, his eyes were too big and he still felt not perfect, he raised his nose, and had a face-lifting shot and a thin face. Leg stitches.
The medical beauty agency hung her "beautiful" photos in the door window, attracting more of her peers to pay for the beauty.
Li Ming told reporters, "There are too many good-looking and capable people around, and I'm too ordinary, and I'll be left behind even further if I don't change my beauty."
The beauty photos in the circle of friends, each with bright eyes and white teeth, white skin and beautiful appearance, also made her look more and more anxious.
Who is going to evaluate the level of "face value"?
At the moment, various "face value scorers" are also emerging in endlessly.
Some institutions have launched AI facial value testers, who only need to take a few photos and claim that the artificial intelligence that analyzes the aesthetic preferences of thousands of people will give you a score for your facial value.
Many people are no longer calm in the face of their scores, and medical aesthetics organizations take advantage of this to create a demand for consumers: you are not perfect, but you can get better through medical aesthetics.
On some e-commerce platforms, the "face value scorer" who evaluates looks and temperament for customers is sought after by many young people.
"Each time 8.8 yuan, give a point for your appearance", a Taobao "face value scorer" seller, set the appearance value scoring standard from 1 to 10 points.
A score of 1-3.5 is not good-looking; a score of 3.6-4.9 is lower than ordinary; a score of 5-5.9 is upper-medium; a score of 6-6.9 is an entry-level beauty; a score of 7-8.3 is a school beauty or net red beauty; 8.4 -9 points belong to stars who can debut; 9.1-10 points belong to Daming stars.
The seller said that based on the few photos sent by the buyer, they all use manual and objective scoring. Those who participate in the scoring are makeup artists, medical beauty consultants, or art professionals.
Each time 3 people are selected from 10 people to score, and the scores are both men and women, and the results are as objective as possible.
This store has received more than 4,000 buyer reviews.
Some buyers think that the evaluation is objective, and they can also give some suggestions that suit them. For example, "Hairline is a bit high, you can try to cover it with bangs to modify your face" "Miss sister's nose can usually be decorated with makeup and shadows. If you have the conditions, you can try medical beauty" and so on; others think that the evaluation criteria are too single, and only a certain style can get a high score.
What is the use of scoring like this?
The reporter interviewed a number of college students who had tried to provide facial value scoring services.
Some of them expressed that they hope to get others' affirmation of their appearance through scoring; more they want to get some suggestions to improve their appearance, so that they can get more favorable impressions in job hunting or interpersonal communication.
It is worth noting that invisibly, this kind of facial value scoring can only make more young people kidnapped by the so-called "facial value standard."
Liu Fenglin, deputy director of the Department of Education and Engineering of Tianjin University, has been in charge of student work for many years. In his opinion, the phenomenon of young people falling into "appearance anxiety" also reflects that many young people now "just want to succeed easily."
With the rapid popularity of many online beauty anchors at the moment, it will also give some young people the illusion that as long as they become beautiful, they can find a shortcut to success.
He reminded young people not to be trapped by various marketing techniques and public opinions in society, to establish correct values, and to work hard to find the direction in life that suits them best, because "struggling youth is the most beautiful."
(All college students in the text are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Hu Chunyan and intern Qu Ruichao Source: China Youth Daily