The ideal woman looks beautiful, happy, carefree, and perfectly competent. Is she really? To look any particular way and to actually be that way are two separate concepts, and striving to look carefree and happy can interfere with your ability to feel so. The internet codifies this problem, makes it inescapable; in recent years, pop culture has

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I think taking pride in and putting time and money towards your appearance is a positive thing if coming from a place of love for oneself, as watering a plant is done because you want it to stay healthy and grow. I think the emphasis should be less about beauty and instead about decentering men and refusing to fit inside the box the patriarchy puts... See more

“feminine narcissism” to describe the process whereby women are encouraged, both directly and covertly, to become so excessively preoccupied with their appearance that it leads to a pervasive self-alienation, a sense of shame, and a greater awareness of one’s own “deficient” body.