When I was about eight years old, I visited a dying man. The man was my parents’ college friend’s dad dying of multiple sclerosis. I approached the bed to which he was bound for over fifteen years. He reached out his hand to grab mine, though I barely knew him. He leaned in to me and said in his feeble voice, the first and last words he ever said to me: “Young lady, never over-pluck your eyebrows. They frame the face.”

Now, every time I hold a pair of tweezers, I remember the dying man who so respected the power of the brow that he used some of his last breaths to remind me to respect it as well. I also remember the hundreds of pictures and videos I’ve seen of eyebrow inspiration and eyebrow shaping tutorials. New products, trends, and even memes have popped up regarding eyebrows in the last year, making dramatic eyebrow shaping the newest required step in a full face of makeup along with contouring. As with any other trend, this one highlights triumphs and ills in the progress of society.

One of the benefits to eyebrow shaping being a trend is that the trend encourages women to grow out their natural brows. While the trend still requires a lot of grooming, women with thicker brows are encouraged to keep them thick. This trend towards thicker brows is in contrast to the ultrathin eyebrows of the 90s. Eyebrow idols like Cara Delevingne and Lily Collins validate women who naturally have more hair than others. This is important in a society that virtually requires women to shave, pluck and wax armpit, pubic, leg and sometimes arm hair.

The eyebrow shaping trend also comes with a healthy dose of confidence. The phrase “on fleek” first started closely related to women’s eyebrows. Women and men have since adopted the phrase to compliment others, and very importantly, themselves.

Both of these benefits, though, come with corresponding consequences. While society now praises women with thicker brows, women with thinner brows or women who prefer to do their eyebrows differently find themselves lacking. In a perfect world, the eyebrow trend would focus primarily on shaping, and not volume.

While eyebrow shaping and its associated language on social media gives confidence to those who partake, social media and its memes mock and belittle those who do not. Makeup gurus frequently contribute to the message that makeup is a choice and an art that the person applying the makeup chooses for herself. The eyebrow trend, however, seems to be one that paints eyebrow shaping as a mandatory step in looking presentable.

The eyebrow trend also means that corporations will sell products to this niche at ridiculous prices with advertising that convinces women that they cannot be beautiful without them. This phenomenon is in the same vein as clothing companies making women’s jeans with smaller pockets so women have to buy handbags. Corporations will take advantage of this trend to profit off of insecurities and “necessities” that they create for women.

While I respect a woman’s choice to do whatever she wants with her face, I also acknowledge that this trend has a powerful, and possibly negative, effect on the women of society. If you’re going to make sure your eyebrows are on fleek, just make sure you are doing it for you and not because you feel that you have to.