THE INITAL CONCEPTION

The general definition of perfection is ‘having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.’ But my concern is, who decides what is desirable? The patriarchal ideology is the answer… the misogyny of Men. In the very early stages of life, from the creation of Eve for Adam that decided the fate of women in society, females’ expectations of themselves have been unrealistically dictated by men. This is what we call the Male Gaze. The male gaze ‘describes a way of portraying and looking at women that empowers men while sexualising and discriminating women.’ From a feminist perspective, the male gaze is considered to limit and define women in ways that are harmful and demeaning. Despite the ever-changing cultural shifts within society, this dynamic will always be present unless women take a stand. A lot of the time, females do not actually realise that they are conforming to the male gaze, as we are programmed to believe that this objectification is normal and that we should strive for perfection.

The idea of perfection has been intertwined into our brains since before we could talk, through organisations such as Walt Disney. The entire basis of Walt Disney movies is unrealistic stereotypes and expectations of beauty. It is very evident that we and the children of today are brainwashed to perceive beauty through an unrealistic lens in their creation of princesses that do not resemble any sense of normality. This contrast of conventional vs unconventional beauty standards is proven in the way that Walt Disney paints their villains to have features that are associated with common insecurities such as facial moles, wrinkles, to appear either cubby or extremely thin. This also supports the idea that women who fit into the conventional standards of beauty are valued more for their appearance as opposed to those who don’t. Walt Disney is guilty of the negative portrayal of female gender stereotypes, toxic masculinity, and unrealistic body standards. To strengthen the reliability of my research into conventional vs unconventional beauty, I conducted an Instagram Voting Poll for my followers.

Prior to the final stages of developing the concept for my final major project, I studied a variety of topics that have given me the knowledge to develop a successful campaign. To ensure that my primary research data was reliable I orchestrated an interview with the relevant interviewee and conducted an Instagram voting poll related to the different types of beauty. I also conducted secondary research such as investigating documentaries, critical analysis of articles and the 10x10 formula. The method that I find to be most effective in contextualising my ideas is the 10x10 formula, this involves indicating applicable adjectives associated with your study and transforming the words into questions to challenge yourself. At this point in my journey, I discovered that I ought to encapsulate a campaign that inspires a new perspective for Generation Alpha as a future consumer regarding the current pressures of the Gen Z consumer, but I hadn’t yet created a plan as to how. To add further depth to my campaign concept, I explored subjects that are to blame for the current pressures on Gen Z, to discover how to combat this issue for Generation Alpha.

I initially began with the interrogation into the negative effects that social media influencers are implementing on the Gen Z consumer. Despite the many positives of influencer marketing such as attaining a reliable face for your brand, however, how reliable is their digital identity? A study conducted by the City University of London revealed that 86% of females between the ages of 18 - 30 admitted that their digital identities were not true representations of their real lives while 70% of the participants expressed that they felt pressure to showcase a ‘perfect life’ on social media. I believe that the rise in social media influencers is partly to blame due to the individuals only displaying the small fragments of their lives that are ‘perfect’ rather than the real normality. Thus, leading to the fake façade of this almost utopian influencer lifestyle, that their followers crave because who wouldn’t want a ‘perfect’ life? however, this got me questioning where this need for perfection originated, because in retrospect influencers are not to blame as they too are victims of this idea of perfection.

The purpose of the Instagram Voting Poll was to gain a sense of how beauty is perceived by each generation. Enlisted in the information regarding the primary research, I included a small snippet of the concept surrounding my final major project, accompanied by the task. The task was to vote between a side-by-side collage of two female celebrities accordingly to my follower’s idea of beauty. I was tactical in the choice of female celebrities, as I chose two with similar positions within the industry but with almost opposite kinds of appearance, as I thought it would be interesting to see how they are judged for their outer exterior. I ended the information of the research by stating ‘Let’s celebrate every kind of beauty’ as I did not want my research to be portrayed a physical comparison between both females. The response to the Instagram Voting Poll was as I imagined, the celebrities who displayed more conventional features were chosen than those with unique features. However, surprisingly a small minority of my Gen Z followers were more lenient in the choice of unconventional beauty. With my primary research solidifying my secondary, I was abandoned by the thought of, what is the result of a society brainwashed to strive for perfection, in a world heavily oversaturated by social media influencers supporting the unrealistic expectations set by misogynistic men. The answer is a lack of authentic identity. The lack of authentic identity within society’s youth today, is a subject that I wish to tackle through the creation of my visually engaging campaign, to provide a solution for the issue of ‘perfection’.