By Grace Bousfield
As a twenty-year-old woman at university, I am a member of a younger generation of women reaping the rewards of the activism and determination from the feminist icons of our past.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe there was ever a time when a person could only access education IF they were male, or vote for a man IF they were a man. Nowadays, we women can apply to work the regular 9 to 5 regardless of sex or gender. However, despite our clear progress in the fight for equality, a new “IF” has emerged.
This “IF” is subtle and silent, it creeps its way into the lives of every woman, altering the outcomes of opportunities, ranging from making a friend to getting hired for that position you worked hard for. Our monster goes by the name of “Pretty Privilege”, and it has the power to not only stand in the way of our goals but also divide women by creating a false hierarchy, built on Eurocentric beauty standards and reinforcing the toxic patriarchal belief that a woman is only of value if she conforms to a man’s expectations of attractiveness.
In university, I mix with other women from an array of different communities and demographics. It can be overwhelming sometimes, not knowing where you fit in or which box you should cram yourself into. The world can feel lonely, especially when we are all so different. I decided to write this series to talk about the things we DO have in common. Despite our differences, we all feel the highs and lows of womanhood. I’d like to explore all the highs, and all the lows so that we can feel them together.
Recently I was speaking with Charlotte, another student at my university, when she rightly pointed out that a generous portion of the plot of the movie Mean Girls is based on pretty privilege, “when you watch the movie, throughout it encourages us to judge the characters based on which ‘clique’ or social circles they fit into – even going as far to create friend groups centred entirely around weight or race. I don’t know about you, but I first watched this movie when I was like twelve, it wasn’t a good message to be receiving at that age.” Thinking about this conversation with Charlotte, I couldn’t help but realise how right she was.
At age twelve, we were young and impressionable people settling into Secondary School, which presented a new social scene with a broader range of peers. How can our young people learn to perceive the world around them when society teaches them to categorize people by their physical appearance? Not only will this drastically reduce the quality of their life experiences and friendships, but this shallow way of thinking creates a hierarchy among women. With those at the bottom being isolated and berated wholly for that which is beyond their control.
Pretty privilege results in a female divide in confidence. Those of us lucky enough to comply with European beauty standards have had their confidence fuelled throughout their lives. They are indulged with more respect and admiration, whilst the rest of the feminine population simply watches and has their self-assurance knocked day after day wondering “Why don’t I have the same opportunities?”
This is what happens when, as a society, we put a certain demographic on a pedestal.
Society has this picture of what we should look like to be attractive or valuable. And this is even more important for our younger generation. Let’s teach them to love themselves and others regardless of physical appearance.
Why can’t we teach our children to look beyond the exterior? So they can build meaningful relationships based on values and personal compatibility. We need to lead by example and show the next generation how a strong woman can lead and inspire without enforcing any kind of discriminatory ideas, regardless of whether she conforms to societal beauty ideals.
Self-acceptance is important. But we deserve more than simply acceptance.
Over The Barbie Bias series, I will be discussing varied ways that pretty privilege seeps into our lives, the personal and societal effects of pretty privilege as well as delving into possible solutions to these issues and hopefully reaching a more positive outlook for the future.
The next few articles will explore the lack of inclusivity among the clothing brands we all seem to have a love-hate relationship with and how this can affect our mental health and the way we see ourselves. Using this narrative we can discuss how we relate to each other as women and how we can better support each other in a world full of division.
