harmful to individuals and large portions of society who don’t fit into these categories that are favoured. Especially when we start to look at examples of how society puts different levels of pressure on different groups. Features that are associated with being white such as straight hair are favoured and desired in society, but for black people there are different pressures on them to change their natural hair and will even be punished or even rejected in the workplace for being ‘unprofessional’. My own experiences will be very different to those of black, Asian, disabled and all minority groups as I am a white individual, many of these pressures I will never experience purely due to my skin colour. As a society we can do so
much better. Especially to those who are marginalized. Whilst I cannot be the voice for all, maybe you can relate to feelings of not feeling valuable and just feeling worthless because you don’t look good one day or experience situations in where people will treat you very differently though seems on the surface as nice… is usually always for other negative intentions. We are all affected differently by these pressures, and we need to change narratives and I believe it starts in the fashion industry. When brands have a group of models which is diverse and representative of society, pressures on people to appear feminine or appear masculine enough, will fade away and truly make way for happiness in society.
FASHION STANDARDS for Young Individuals BY ANONYMOUS As the pandemic arrived and still hasn’t left… the country is noticing the extent to how important mental health is in young people. As well as disorders like eating disorders within the young population on the rise. Reasons behind this may be due to growing up with social media. Since the rise of social media, we have access to see people’s lives (fabricated and carefully selected moments of their lives may
I add). We see photos of ‘perfect’ people who seem to be flawless and have amazing clothes and are living their best lives. Before social media, in primary and secondary schools, we start to realise that what we wear and how we look can produce negative and positive reactions from people and sometimes is how we are valued. Or when we look at older people’s reactions to the youth by believing they should dress up or
27 • I SSUE 44 • S TUDENT LIFE
