You might be asking, did you just write a dissertation about memes? Yes and no. I researched how the internet changes our ideas of ourselves and how it influences economies specifically geared to women. It may seem obvious, but I’m curious to understand what is actually the allure of influences. What is so interesting about a stranger's journey with fashion, or beauty or everyone’s current favouite hot topic, wellness.
But what is wellness anyway? There’s an entire industry named after this amorphous, nebulous thing that no one can really point to. At this point, it feels like the #girlboss version of venture capital or hedge funds; we’ve all heard the name but who can actually provide an accurate definition. Perhaps this is why wellness is such a contested issue. It somehow means everything and nothing. Yet that is not to say it has no effects.
Wellness inherently comes with a pressure to be better. Incidentally, that betterment is often in regard to the body, particularly the female one. The fact that wellness is so convoluted, ranging from skincare to gut health, only underlines that there is an unachievable standard that we are still striving and inevitably failing at. In the wellness space, there is a crucial link between creating your ideal self and creating your ideal body. To be the best version of yourself, you are asked to discipline your body, which acts a visible and legitimate sign of being ‘in control’. And after all what could be more #girlboss than a woman in control.
Of course, this does not mean we should stop trying to improve, it is just a matter of what improvement means to each person. No one can go through life alone, it only makes sense to have mentors and guides around you. Sometimes that mentor is in your immediate community, sometimes that’s your comfort influencer and sometimes that is Gwenyth Paltrow and whatever she’s got going on at Goop.
