The Road Further Pt, 5
- Ahmad Ahseek
- May 7, 2020
- 4 min read
I wanted to focus on either food, fashion and self-care (Beauty products).
On food my research was quite straight forward, in a hectic age, we make fast foods the trend and actually it's ain't healthy for ourselves.
There's also the bubble tea here in Malaysia which is one of the greatest local trend, but since it's very sugary it's not healthy neither.
When it comes to fashion....... Well it's quite confusing... Since it's all about preferences and some people would accept certain way of dress while other will reject that exact same style.
Basically it's either jeans and T-shirt, Jeans and shirts, just Dark colors, very colorful, slim and fit, all loose and finally working on a balance on the looseness and the slimness. Of course for guys there's the suit for 'handsomeness' as they say.
I've also found that the retro style is also being favored.
Here's a few examples;
You will notice how different their tips are from the others.
When it come to women, there's 2 main categories which divides itself even more afterwards.
The first category, I'd say is more towards teenagers, college students rather than working women.
You will notice how she takes into consideration of the colors and the 'layer' of clothing. And you will also notice that this is one of the simplest ways of dressing up.
Then there's others which are a bit more 'fancy' I'd say and they take great care of their silhouette instead.
putting up on corsets and whatever to better shape their body beneath their outwear.
This category is interesting to work on since, this is the main concern of most lately, their shape. And well... this part of the research was done like 2 or 3 years ago during my college days in Mauritius. I basically had to research on beauty shows, and I found out how it is well bounded by media and how the judges of the show would accept only slender women. So the reason why I think this category is interesting to work on is because it is a direct result of media.
Lastly, the beauty products. Of course women uses make up and skin care regularly, especially if a woman is insecure about her skin tone, and apparently they are also insecure about their pores, so their are some makeup that provides a smooth and clean surface. However, I found that make up can have some side effects such as irritation, allergy, dryness or acne. The TV commercials however will only display the product and what it does without warning about the side effects.
As you can see here in this makeup playlist;
I've also been looking into men makeup and concerning makeup there's mostly the transgenders and the androgynous people who wears makeup mostly. Many artist as well, specially the sfx artist in this case if we exclude the transgenders. However when it comes to men, research have proven that they are mostly interested in skin care product rather than makeup itself, including face wash, face moisturizers and they are available in a 'day version' and a 'night version'.
According to CNN a survey in Britain revealed that about 56 percent of the men claimed that they use skin care products.
It would sound as a conspiracy while saying that it was planned since from my research I found that makeup lines wanted to have men to start buying their products to increase their profit but there's also a recent trend concerning both women and men. They all wanna stay young and this is what brought all these intensive skin care products. I haven't found much on the men products, it's quite a new industry from what I read but on the women sides there are many cases where the skincare products themselves causes some flaws on the skin later on, some claimed that they have dry skins or that it makes their skin too greasy among others.
My conclusion on the beauty products is that they are selling more insecurities to gain money rather than a good useful product.
When it comes to food, I think it might differs a bit and when it comes to fashion, it's quite broad, people are mostly diving into self expression when it comes to what they wear so it might be tricky to represent the manipulative side concerning these 2 subjects. However when it comes to the beauty and skin care products, it directly triggers one's insecurities and the manipulative side of it is so obvious. I also believe that most people will be able to relate themselves better to it since it's true that nowadays most of us don't wanna get old. So my focus will be mostly towards beauty products.
North , Anna. “What the Rise of Men’s Makeup Means for Masculinity.”Vox, 24 Sept. 2018, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/24/17851190/makeup-chanel-queer-eye-maybelline-men.
Moshakis, Alex. “Evolution of Man: the Rise and Rise of the Male Wellness Sector.”THe Guardian, 17 Mar. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/mar/17/evolution-of-man-the-rise-and-rise-of-the-male-wellness-sector.
Petter, Olivia. “DOES THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY FEED OFF OF FEMALE INSECURITIES? EXPERTS WEIGH IN.”Independent, 23 Aug. 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/advertising-women-female-insecurities-body-images-does-it-experts-sexism-weight-loss-gain-size-a7888901.html.
Valenti, Jessica. “Beauty Companies Now Want Women to Feel Insecure about Our Insecurities.”The Guardian, 19 June 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/19/beauty-companies-women-pantene-sorry.
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