Mona Tougaard by Mert Alas for W Magazine September 2023
More you might like
this is fucking ghoulish
ID: Tiktok captions reading "Taking my daughter to my laser hair removal appt [appointment] so she learns about self care and doesn't feel guilty about it whe she gets older." End ID
the way enforcing harmful and patriarchal beauty standards has gotten rebranded as “self care” and something that is no longer done to please men but now something that is “liberating” and something you do “for you” now is fucking insidious . taking your four year old daughter to watch you get laser hair removal is not “teaching her about self care” it’s teaching her that there is something wrong with her from a very young age, and that she’ll need to spend the rest of her life getting it fixed . you cannot reframe indoctrinating your own fucking daughter into this as a girlboss self care queen move . this is insane.
self care is when you shave your legs… for yourself! self care is when you get a nose job…. for yourself! self care is when you when you spend 200$ on wellness products and diet tips and buy buy buy so much makeup that you need to put on everytime you leave the house or else you are an ugly pig … for yourself! self care is when you buy what the tell you to buy and do what they’ve always told you to do but don’t worry girl. you’re doing this for YOU this time . girl slayyy you are so hashtag crushing the patriarchy. i want to kill myself.
Forget myself, myself. […] Abandon my ego.
Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath — 16th September 1959