The present generation has got to experience the power of digital technology and social media. But we tend to forget that with great power comes great responsibility. And yet we do forget to utilise this power in a better way which leads to manhandling of responsibility. Let's see how
First and foremost let's get the concept of the clean girl aesthetic and make it clear in our minds. What is a clean girl aesthetic all about? The clean girl aesthetic emerged as a most popular subject in social media, particularly in tik-tok where it used to portray a woman with flawless and effortlessly beautiful skin with simple yet gorgeous makeup- no-makeup look along with a neat and tidy living space.
A Glimpse Of Aesthetic Cultural History
This clean girl aesthetic trend was started by Hailey and Kendall but before this aesthetic became a trend it has a historical perspective attached to it. Earlier, the clean girl aesthetic was particularly catered to black and brown households, where women used to wear jewellery made up of gold or copper with no or minimal makeup and maintain a proper household.
Clean Aesthetic Beauty - A Boon Or A Bane?
The clean girl aesthetic appears to be very happening and at the same time promotes simple beauty drawing its root from historic culture and hygienic conditions to live in that one might say. But this same aesthetic has a very different connotation when it emerged as a trendy thing in social media.
It not only sets standards of beauty that are thin, dewy skin, fluffy brows, low maintenance hairstyle focusing specifically on white and healthy women but also these set standards tend to exclude and demean those women who are plumped and brown. What an irony! The roots of the trend were duly discovered in those women who were naturally black and brown in colour earlier and yet we don't give respect to them from where it emerged. There should be a limit to such hypocritical behaviour.
There's nothing wrong with following clean girl aesthetic standards. The problem is that while following such trends one should not focus only on the aspect of beauty but also on how one should maintain a proper and neat lifestyle. But we only tend to look at the prettier aspect of it and give the least importance to what it has said about lifestyle.
Simple yet beautiful is a natural inheritance where people by birth are brighter and prettier or they are black and darker but that does not mean the former knows how to have a proper and clean living space and the latter doesn't. It can be the other way round. So simply excluding women from the perspective who are darker in colour complexion in clean girl aesthetic concept doesn't make sense at all, when you are not even considering the other side of it.
There is too an infinite wild beauty in being darker in tone similarly to being white and brighter and one must learn to acknowledge it. Even lord Krishna and kali in Hindu mythology are dark-skinned but are respected and loved by their devotees. So if we can accept them as they are then why not women who are darker in skin colour?!
Clean Girl Aesthetic - Feeling Welcomed Or Not So Welcomed ?
Also, as this concept of clean girl is only and specifically targeted to women it limits the scope of binary folk that is men and the LGBTQ community to be a part of it which in turn will not make them feel so welcoming about it.
This culture of clean girl aesthetic also tends to promote the portrayal of a perfect figure or a perfect woman. That is a woman is perfect and ideal by maintaining both her beauty and lifestyle. But in reality, we know that you can strive to be perfect but you cannot be ideally perfect. Every person has flaws in them. Nobody in this world is flawless. Everybody has pros and cons of their character. We must learn to acknowledge it rather than escape the truth and reality of not being so perfect!
Conclusion
In a nutshell, what I am trying to say is that making something a trend is not wrong nor is it demeaning work. It actually helps you to get to know about many subjects about which we are unaware. The only thing that I am trying to make you understand through this article is that making something in fashion or popular does not mean that you need to cut it from its roots or you need to insult the folk associated with it in order to bring and attach your own thought and perception to it.
Everything that is in trend today has a historic perspective attached to it, that can be cultural, emotional, political and economic or spiritual and we need to give it due consideration and importance as well as respect to it rather than changing its narrative and adding meaning to it which is irrelevant, illogical and biased.
Written By- Riya Upadhyaya
Edited by - Kritika Sharma
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