Tiktok Encourages Women to Hyperfixate on Every Aspect of Their Appearances

Young, rising influencers such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae aren’t the only people on TikTok anymore. In the past few years, Tiktok has seen a new wave of users of all ages and backgrounds beginning to use the trending social media content platform for advertising every industry, from small businesses and start-ups to medical practices. It’s no surprise, as TikTok is a nearly ideal marketing tool that has proven effective in engaging audiences globally. For example, since the notorious hashtag #BBL went viral, the app has seen a recent surge of plastic surgeons and cosmetic professionals discussing various procedures and their recovery processes while simultaneously promoting their private practices and medical services. One specific doctor, Dr. Daniel Barrett, is a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, specializing in aesthetic and reconstructive surgery of the face, nose, and body. Dr. Barrett’s account is no different from the rest. In fact, his virality came from one specific product he promoted on his account: The anti-wrinkle lip injection straw. 

According to stellarlash.com, using a regular straw immediately after receiving lip injections “forces the lips to pucker, much like drinking from a straw or smoking a cigarette”. To remain hydrated, your only option is to drink water from a cup or glass for at least two days. This also means being careful when kissing and when eating. If not careful, your injections will migrate, and wrinkles will form around the mouth and cheek regions. The anti-wrinkle lip injection straw is a fifteen-dollar silicon straw attachment that counteracts the repetitive pursing of the lips that a normal straw requires, which results in unwanted wrinkles around the mouth. Doctors will claim there’s nothing wrong with smile lines and mouth wrinkles, but there’s also nothing wrong with wanting to prevent them early on. Of course, this sentiment is oxymoronic; if there's nothing wrong with wrinkles, why should I spend fifteen dollars on a straw attachment to avoid them? Doesn’t that insinuate that wrinkles are undesirable in the first place? Why do I need to hyperfixate on something as trivial as wrinkles to the point that I only use a specific type of straw?

The anti-wrinkle straw isn’t the only example of the minuscule attention to detail the public pays toward women’s appearances. As a result, the line between striving to be confident and striving for perfection is blurred. Microblading, semi-temporary lip blush, and skin pen micro-needling are all examples of small-scale procedures that address small-scale imperfections in appearance, most of which are not issues until you find a solution for them. TikTok users— both medical professionals and not— have promoted many methods to diminish every facet of a woman’s appearance, such as hyperpigmentation on armpits, hip dips (also known as violin hips— the inward curves on the sides of your body just below each hip bone that is quite literally embedded in our bone structure), or strawberry legs, which are tiny, harmless spots that form after shaving. The enhanced camera quality in newer phone models doesn’t help. Now more than ever, it’s easy to pick out every blemish and pore on our faces. As a result, young girls soon realize that there are too many things to fix about themselves, but it takes too much time and energy to do anything about it.

The target audience for this content genre is women. Videos outlining methods to target and diminish cellulite, stretch marks, hyperpigmentation, strawberry legs, and body hair are seldom made for men’s consumption. Society already does not expect men to conform to strict beauty standards as it does for women; TikTok brings these beauty standards to the forefront, a painful reminder of what we are expected to look like. The idea of social media exacerbating unrealistic beauty standards is a tale as old as time. And, as of now, things are not going to change. The beauty industry will preach natural aging as a horrible curse to make the most money. It is essential for everybody, especially women, to remember that aging is a blessing not afforded to many, and imperfections are what make us human, not CGI characters stuck behind a phone screen.