So yeah. It's thing. But let me press on.
I love examining trends on the internet, especially when, and please pardon the use of an old term, these trends are relevant to my interests. Such as makeup, and youtubers who talk about makeup.
The intense marketing of cosmetics was countered about 2 years ago with the increased prevalence of anti-hauls, declutters, and project panning. This is not to say these types of videos did not exist before then, but it is safe to say these types of videos entered into our collective consciousness around that point. Approximately.
Anti-hauls, especially, took off. Everyone, including the big-name, million-subscriber influencers were doing them. And some did them well, and some did them not so well.
But what does it mean to anti-haul well? It seems as though people wanted an analysis of a product, a break-down of a product's significance in the cultural and economic milieu.
But now I am seeing a shift.
A lot more bloggers are responding negatively to oversimplified and rather shallow applications of anti-consumerist rhetoric. There is now a greater emphasis on the phrase "personal responsibility."
Where do I stand on this? On one hand, I see anti-hauls and anti-consumerist youtube videos as a way to attain or reclaim personal responsibility. If they are hyperbolic, that's fine. They are premised on the fact that at the end of the day, the card/money/paypal button is at my fingertips, and based upon my thinking I decide if I want to spend or not.
However, I think less mature and worldly perspectives have misunderstood this, and blamed influencers for pushing them to buy a product, or contributing to obsessive behaviors regarding consumption and spending. Are they completely incorrect? No, if they mean that influencers all have a role, nay, a job, to do- and that means push products. What a person decides to do with that information is up to them. But being informed is important.
Is there such thing as purely ethical spending? Purely ethical living? A situation where the clothes you buy, the food you eat, the materials and resources you consume are entirely divorced from exploitation, or violence?
The hard truth is no. Perhaps things are getting better, but I do think there is a bit of cognitive dissonance at play if one thinks that at this point in time there is an accessible way to live like that.
That's my little philosophical u-turn. Back to the essay.
"Personal responsibility" is a lovely term, isn't it? It smacks of "free will." And in all cases of liability and agency, it comes down to what constitutes free will, doesn't it?
The thing is, I love makeup. This is going to sound super trite, but I do express myself with it. I feel better about myself and more confident when I wear it. That is due to how aware I am of how others perceive me. It is what it is. I might as well have some fun with it.
The counter to the wave an anti-consumerism seems like good direction to me because it's a learning process. And a move toward nuance. A move against sweeping generalizations and an examination on an individual's place within a global network. As a consumer, mind you.
Ultimately, and I can't believe I am concluding like this, I am ambivalent. I am not bothered or offended by someone being upset about a beauty influencer. Nor am I upset or offended by an influencer selling product. As long as the influencer is honest and discloses clearly this information. If it's a business, which is it, transparency is nice. As for the consumer, you can implore the heavens to smite Jaclyn Hill about limited edition palettes and PR....but....
A long time ago, I used to watch Channel Awesome. But then ultimately I stopped because I was creeped out by the fans, and the dynamic that was going on. Because those content creators were perceived to be more accessible than a celebrity, the fans acted like they owned them. And the same thing happens in Beauty Youtube Land, even with the middle of the road and smaller influencers and bloggers. It's an exchange. So even if bloggers at all levels claim they are anti-consumerist or minimalist or somewhere in between, it does not matter if one is more genuine than the other. They all want views, they all want engagement, they all want promotion, etc. etc. It is not bad. It just is. But they are overreaching a bit in their capacity to reflect the values of an actual consumer, because they are not.
A far more scary thing is going on, I think, as consumers, hobbyists, etc., reflect the values of influencers. And as much as the person on your screen is telling you it is or isn't the fault of the influencer, the company, or the brand, their stance is ultimately colored by the role they have assumed.
No comments:
Post a Comment