We all love snapchat. From the clever geo-filters to face-swapping, the app is a ton of fun, and with it, everyone has their very own vlogging platform with a limitless audience. It is is a genius, fun and interactive way to stay connected and current on a variety of different topics and a large variety of people. I follow presidential campaigns, my university, Kim Kardashian, The White House, Hillary Clinton and even surgeons who post their procedures.
With all of these awesome features, there are a couple that are somewhat troubling to me: the “beauty” filters. Granted, this is not what Snapchat has officially named the filters, but among the app’s users, that is what they are commonly referred to. These filters lighten the subject’s skin, narrow their nose, widen their eyes and slim their jawline. Initially, I did not think much of these filters, I just thought they were creative. The first time I used one my response was, “Wow, I look pretty cute.” followed with a chuckle and a shrug.
Well, one day my 9-year-old cousin and I were playing around with my phone and she came across the filter with the floral crown. After she took the picture, she stared down at the phone and her head shifted between the mirror and the picture back and forth, back and forth. She looked at me and said, “This is what I should look like. This is how I want to look. All of the pretty girls look like this in real life.” She handed me my phone back and I, too, looked at the picture and then back at her. This filter had altered my BEAUTIFUL baby cousin’s face and ultimately screwed with her self-esteem. I realized at that moment that the perpetuation of euro-centric standards of beauty was alive and well in a very new and deliberate way.
There will be many people who read this and will make claims that I am being hypertensive and vociferously over-analyzing a harmless snapchat filter. I can assure you that this is an issue that is far bigger than snapchat. This is about the look in a 9-year old’s eyes that said, “I am not pretty, nor am I good enough.” This is about all of the women who look at their nose in the mirror and feel as if they look, “too black”. In Beyoncé’s “Formation”, she sang, “I like my Negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils.” These lyrics were written for a greater purpose than simply accompanying a hot beat, but rather, it was an attempt to the affirm the idea that black, physical features are beautiful and who we are is to celebrated nor is it anything to be ashamed of. From organizations like Black Girls Rock and Dream Defenders, who aim to defend and uplift the black community, I can only be sure that happenings comparable to that of my little cousin only doubles their fight.
As I mentioned earlier, Snapchat is loads of fun, but I would be remiss if I ignored the undoubted damage that Snapchat is either knowingly or unknowingly doing to the self-esteem and psyche of young girls like my little cousin…heck, even to adults.
