Micro-generations, Love Island, Social Media and Beauty.

The idea of a mico-generation is that there can be a shift in generations that isn’t big enough to warrant it’s own generation but rather its own seperate fragment.

Love Island is a game show in which conventionally attractive men and women from the US, UK or Australia are pulled from society and isolated on an island in Fiji, recorded 24/7 for 6 weeks, and paired up in couples in an attempt to find love, now I would go further into this but I feel most of this class is at least aware of the show.

Where generation gaps fit into this is what I believe are the rapidly chaning beauty standards in the US. I am specifically referecening the women on the show, and I will show the season 1 cast and the most recent season 7 cast.

I’ll say my piece on the guys first, it’s not really common nor percieved as attractive for a straight man to have some kind of cosmetic work done, so i would not say there is much of any difference, perhaps they are more toned and muscular now if anything.

I need to be very careful with my next segment, seeing as I am not a women, I’m going to choose my words very carefully, so I’ll begin with showing a picture of a cast of love island from season 1.

Notice the 3 women front and center, to me, everything looks naturally beautiful to me, and there are other gentlemen in this class that I think will agree, these are good looking women, now let’s show the season 7 women.

First Question: is there a noticable difference from the above picture? to me it’s undeniably yes and the biggest difference is the girl dead center, Huda. Something about her face is so unnatural to me, and even though I am no expert, I think her lip filler is obvious to see, as well as potential cheek filler and an obvious Breast Augmentation. I think several of them have a clear and obvious Breast Augmentation but the point is that in only 6 years, we’ve seen a major shift in what television considers a beautiful women. Why? Again fellas, would you say these women are attractive? highly likely, but I’m aware that there is a subset of men that don’t find the facial work attractive at all, so that begs the question, why? but first let me sight sources, again none of this is confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt.

Plastic Surgeon Speculation

Unofficial Before/ After photos

and so all is fair here are the men for comparison, Again no clear difference.

now onto the discourse, I believe this stems back to our old friend, social media and in specific,

I believe this started without our good friends the Kardashians, whom put on such a stain on the realm of beauty, and because our generation didn’t know any better, we believed it. I think a lot of this comes from a young girl who sees herself in the mirror, and thinks she’s ugly because she doesn’t look like a Kardashian, but whom doesn’t understand the amount of cosmetic work, lighting work and editing that goes into the photos she sees. Let’s be clear if I wasn’t earlier, this is not a thing that men care about at all, this is strictly a women on women issue. No man truly cares what you look like so long as you fall into the social accepted normal (Not fat, minimal acne, nice hair), it is true that some men have a preference for breast or buttocks size, but I don’t think getting work done will fix those issues, at the end of the day, you are either attractive to them or not, don’t chase what doesn’t want you.

Social media has damaged beauty in a way I don’t know is reconilable, so many women believe they are ugly because they don’t look like Kim or their other Celebrity of choice. Reality is this though, this is not a thing Men at large care about, they don’t actively seek out those with work done? Ok but they look better though, I hear you say, and I rebut that with you give men too much credit if you think they care deeply enough about this to always pick a women with work over a naturally beautiful one.

If you are struggling with this, 1. Put the phone down, take a deep breath, go for a walk, you’re not ugly. 2. This isn’t a real issue, this is a women-only issue, men don’t care. and 3. You absolutely do not need work to feel or be beautiful.

it’s also not always the safest, just saying.

Comments

9 responses to “Micro-generations, Love Island, Social Media and Beauty.”

  1. Claire Wilkerson Avatar
    Claire Wilkerson

    Would you say that this is an issue that only Generation Z faces, or every adult woman in the year 2025? Maybe in a best-case scenario, Generation Z is on the tail end of the plastic surgery trend and will stop having treatments done/reverse treatments already performed. I have heard a lot of speculation saying that unique, natural features will become the new beauty standard in the near future, and I am curious what your thoughts are on this.

    1. Mark Sayre Avatar
      Mark Sayre

      As a non-women, I can’t speak to what all women face, that wouldn’t be genuine for me to comment on, I can say I do think due to adult websites and social media perhaps Gen Z women likely face this at an elevated level, and that’s all I feel is right for me to say without being disengenuine or speaking on something I can never experience.

  2. Gigi Price Avatar
    Gigi Price

    The women in Love Island’s first season would have seemed too polished to us at the time. Now, we can almost date that season just based on their makeup, filler, plastic surgery–or lack thereof, in some cases. The women in Love Island’s most recent season make the first season’s cast look “ugly” by comparison: of course, they are VERY beautiful, not ugly, but when compared to the modern beauty standard, something about the first season is very “dated.” This just speaks to how quickly beauty standards change for women, how rapid the trend cycle is, and how fake it all is. Again, remember that those women were the epitome of the beauty standard at the time.

    1. Mark Sayre Avatar
      Mark Sayre

      It’s almost a shame how we “Didn’t know how good we had it” until it was “gone.”

  3. Madelyn Peterson Avatar
    Madelyn Peterson

    i’m sure that as you’ve stated, the “average man” (so-to-speak) does not actively search out women whose appearances have been altered by plastic surgeons in any way (regardless of lip fillers, botox, and other augmentations). i feel comfortable asserting that the general public does not expect every single person to look unnaturally beautiful 24/7, as social media has attempted to shove down our throats. at the same time i feel like there are a lot of generalizations you’re making. it doesn’t seem entirely correct to say that this an “only female issue” and “men don’t care” when i can link at least 5 different posts online made by girls complaining about their boyfriends following OF bots and models in bikinis. sometimes i even get thirst accounts on my instagram explore page against my will and when i instinctively click on the comments to make sure i’m not going crazy, i am disturbed by the amount of genX men commenting heart emojis and, to put it delicately, begging to take the lady in question home. my point is, beauty standards affect everyone – maybe such an effect is not equally distributed, but i would say the “tastes” of men (and women) in terms of the “ideal body” for a romantic and/or sexual partner HAVE been, in some senses, changed. it’s also not exactly fair to say it’s not a “real issue”. i understand and appreciate your intent but it 100% is. as long as we live under a patriarchal society, there is always going to be a woman who performs for the male gaze, and that is always going to be a real issue. even if some guy out there thinks that women don’t need plastic surgery to be beautiful, he can’t speak for the men who lust online and continue to perpetuate unrealistic, unattainable, unnatural imagery of the female anatomy.

    1. Mark Sayre Avatar
      Mark Sayre

      I absolutetely agree I made too many generalizations and shoud have taken more time and care to assert my claims more clearly, this is a media-centric issue that I feel most women are percieving as worse than it is, and I apologize for not taking more care in delivering that message. I do agree that the beauty standards have changed, but micro-generationally, and as for the patricarchal comment, I do agree but I feel that issue is best suited for it’s own seperate blog where we can give it the proper attention and care it deserves. The bottom line is that social media has turned beauty standards into a rapidly degenerate topic, where lustful men give cosmetic women as much as they desire and it’s a self sustaining cyle of degeneracy.

      1. Madelyn Peterson Avatar
        Madelyn Peterson

        i want to make it clear that generally, i agree with the point you’re making, and there was more nuance to your reference to the obsession with cosmetics/plastic surgery/unattainable beauty standards not being a “real issue”, but i made my point because i wanted to make you aware of how that kind of language can be misinterpreted

  4. Abby S. Avatar
    Abby S.

    All the points made I would absolutely agree with, especially relating to the change between the S1 and S7 women. Now, as a woman, I personally don’t see the point in trying to emulate celebrity “beauty” because, realistically, it is not feasible. One reason most celebrities put exorbitant amounts of money into staying “young and beautiful,” which is not (in my opinion) smart or beneficial long term. The other reason, as you already stated, is that a person (in this case female, but the same goes for men) is already beautiful. Money cannot buy real beauty, nor can it replace the fact that you are who you are. To me, it is all fake. Beauty is vain and an obsession with it will only hurt you in the long run. (Note: I am not saying it is wrong to wear makeup, do your hair, wear cute clothes, etc….Rather, I am trying to say that if you do all these things because you feel inferior or ugly and believe that these things make you beautiful, then you might be in trouble).

    1. Mark Sayre Avatar
      Mark Sayre

      I appreciate your reply and that you see past the unrealistic standards that the media has perpetuated.

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