00:08all right I need to work something out this whole skincare as self-care thing is really
00:13throwing me for a loop everywhere I look there's a whole new skincare as self-care regimen and some
00:19of them are really complicated this is the first step in my skincare regimen apply this right
00:24underneath the eye sodium hyaluronate plus lotus honestly my face feels so tight right now this
00:30routine might rival Patrick Bateman's in American Psycho it's that like don't get me wrong I love
00:38any excuse to look inward but I'm literally stopping at my epidermis on one hand I know I
00:44shouldn't care about upholding unrealistic standards of beauty but there's something so soothing about
00:51the illusion of control I have when I put on a face mask I spend my entire paycheck on serums
00:56and solutions preparing my skin for the future but if I'm so concerned about aging shouldn't I
01:01be putting that money into retirement I'm pretty sure I'm being exploited by the beauty industry
01:06but I kind of like it and I can't really talk about this with a lot of people because beauty
01:11is such a hot-button topic when one journalist wrote that skincare was a con the internet exploded
01:16with think piece after think piece after think piece dissecting whether it was exploitation or
01:22empowerment the debate over skincare is so contentious that when I asked a bunch of beauty
01:27influencers for some truth serum I had to protect their identity with sheet masks did they think that
01:34this was all BS or was it actually helping skincare is both a scam and a blessing it's all a
01:42ploy it's all
01:43a big scheme why are we judging women for how they spend their time and money when we put our
01:49intention behind the like wellness hole part we're all okay with it but when we put it behind the
01:55vanity part that's when we shame it it's a crazy thing is that skincare actually works it could be
02:00totally psychological but it does work skincare as self-care is extremely political simply because
02:07they co-opted the black power movement and put a freaking price tag on it the term self-care dates
02:13back to the black lesbian feminist poet Audrey Lorde who wrote quote caring for myself is not self
02:19indulgence it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare the concept of self-care has
02:26political undertones because Lorde was referencing the work that women of color do to survive in a
02:31patriarchal racist and capitalist society you care for yourself so you can support your family and your
02:37community but fast forward to today google searches for the word self-care reached a five-year high
02:43after the election but what are we really talking about when we say skincare is self-care I asked Gia
02:51Tolentino she's a staff writer at the New Yorker and she wrote this viral article about skincare as
02:56self-care so why do you think skincare is such a hot-button topic for women the body is a
03:07locus of control where so much else about women's lives are uncontrollable and that does not always
03:12manifest in helpful ways and arguably never does the pressure upon women to look as good as possible
03:18and look better all the time has never been more strenuous at the same time that it's never been more
03:24taboo to talk about it in those terms and women have always been attacked for being superficial when
03:29in actuality I mean looks are like you know attractive people make more money at work like it's it's a
03:35real
03:35tangible benefit you know but it's that's an ugly thing to talk about is skincare political our choices
03:41are political right the importance that's placed on beauty is informed by a long history of women being
03:49seen as decorative objects you know like women's sexual value perceived sexual value or their appearance
03:54being perceived as the most important thing about them and that is political you know and you know
03:59everything we do exists within power structures that are worth analyzing I guess you know Audre Lorde when
04:05she was struggling with cancer you know that it's like about a black lesbian woman you know being within
04:11a body that the world doesn't want to see that the world doesn't want to make space for that the
04:14world
04:14doesn't want to prioritize choosing to take care of that body is a deeply political act and it is sort
04:20of
04:20trickled down ideologically to like face mask articles about you know like ladies like we all know we need to
04:27like take a little time for self-care this weekend you know right right it's almost it's so close to
04:32a really
04:32important idea why do you think skincare is so contentious part of it is an anxiety around there are so
04:38few
04:38controllable things about life as a woman in America right now and like maybe that's part of it yeah I
04:45think it's a it's a way of
04:46women working out now what do we expect of ourselves who is dictating that like how do we want to
04:53approach life as a woman now that we might be getting to set our own terms it's more controllable than
05:01a lot of other
05:02problems in talking to Gia I realized that skincare self-care isn't just about adhering to or avoiding beauty standards
05:10it's about
05:11economic anxiety it's about women's pleasure and it's about the radical act of taking time for
05:18ourselves and looking better as a result probably doesn't hurt but the point is it's complicated and
05:24arguing how women spend their paycheck and their time isn't going to liberate anyone oh my god exactly I
05:30feel so seen but I'm also not about to age like some amateur that is a great name for a
05:35serum don't
05:36age like an amateur I'm gonna trademark that shit
05:41so
05:42you
