All right people, I’m going to level with you here. As Jeannine’s beauty-obsessed intern it is definitely no secret that I like to play with makeup and take lots of photos of myself while doing it (whatever, at least I’m honest about how I waste my time). I was swiping through the app store the other day to get my hands on yet another photo-editor in hopes of finding the perfect filter when I found an app that made me pause longer then I ever had before to think about what I was doing. It was a new selfie app that literally makes you look thinner.
SkinneePix is a new app made for #selfie lovers (like myself) where you can take fifteen pounds off of your face with just the swipe of your finger, essentially PhotoShop for dummies. In other words, the creators of this app are basically saying, “Hey! Listen, sometimes a filter just isn’t good enough at hiding your flaws so why don’t you make yourself skinnier too?” How rude is that? So naturally, I hopped right onto my Google machine to look up exactly where this app came from and what I found totally shocked me.
Let’s start with some facts. Did you know that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful? Or, did you know that a shocking 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful? Yeah, neither did I. Obviously I had noticed that my #selfie game had definitely improved over the past few years thanks to the influx of filters, editing software, and lighting techniques I had learned or accumulated but not once did I stop to consider what I was really doing… I was so unhappy with how I looked naturally (because I didn’t look like how society said I should look) that I was changing the best parts about myself before releasing a photo to my nonexistent Instagram following. I know that SkinneePix is just meant to be a fun little app for users to use recreationally, but knowing just two facts about how women feel in regards to their looks, an app like this can really do damage. It promotes the idea that we aren’t beautiful the way we are and that we need to be as airbrushed as a model in a magazine to fit in on social media. Yes, social media… right next to the pictures of our cats and food. Anybody else find that ridiculous?
The women (yes, women) who created this app are claiming that they’re “leveling the playing field” as “the camera adds fifteen pounds” and that people felt better about seeing themselves skinner but sorry, I’m not really buying that. It’s no secret that the beauty industry is a broken machine. Even celebrities are refusing to retouch their images because, in the words of Lorde (my spirit animal), “Flaws are ok.” Ad campaigns are launching from beauty giants like Dove and Aerie by American Eagle specifically to tear down the walls that society has built up around what beauty is and how it is portrayed.
This app is exactly what is wrong with the industry and what needs to change. Creating an app like this a selfie app that sheds pounds should never be okay or acceptable, and I feel like women should know better!
Needless to say, I’ve since deleted every photo-editing app I’ve ever downloaded, and every selfie I put out into the blogosphere will be proudly captioned #nofilter. I don’t need a stupid filter to validate my awesomeness and neither does anyone else. Go spend your .99 on something worthwhile, like Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love” and thank me later.
