You Can't Buy An "Authentic Self"
There’s a vanity to even thinking there is a self to be found
Everywhere I look it seems like someone is selling me my authentic self. Through cosmetic surgeries, through therapy, after downloading this app, I can discover who I really am. It’s reached the point where I feel like that’s what being young is now. Coming of age isn’t about fulfilling duties or responsibilities or milestones, it’s a search for one thing: finding your true self. Or, more accurately, buying it.
The beauty industry is a good example. Like this breast enhancement surgeon in Beverly Hills who believes that a “breast makeover is about more than resculpting your figure—it’s about resculpting your confidence with a body that finally resonates with your true self.” Or these surgeons describing a Brazilian Butt Lift—the cosmetic surgery with the highest death rate—as a “life-changing and empowering experience” that’s somehow part of being “Your Most Authentic Self” (Book now on RealSelf.com!) And it isn’t just surgeries, it’s everything—it’s all the beauty marketing girls are growing up with. “Radiate your authentic self” with fake tan! Buy some SELF LOVE EYELASHES to “express your true self”! Try these butt-enlarging gummies to “let your authentic self shine!”
Other industries do it too. The pharmaceutical industry (feel like you again with mental health medication!) The wellness industry (connect with your inner self for €350 a month!) But the worst examples of this marketing always seem to target trans people. I know it’s a sensitive subject but if you find the messaging of the beauty and pharmaceutical industry objectionable, please hear me out: it’s the same. Same industries. Same tactics. But doubling down on this narrative that you need clothes, cosmetics and surgeries to discover who you really are. Beauty brands like Dove tell us how hair and beauty routines help form trans people’s identities. Surgeons urge trans people to embrace their true selves with gender reassignment surgery. Maybelline teaches trans people how to find their true selves through make-up. Even FaceTune, the editing app used to distort your face and body, lets trans women see their true selves. And so all over the internet trans people are sharing how much effort it takes to be authentic, how expensive it is, how they had to get 10 Hours Of Transgender Facial Surgery to reflect who they really are (of course part of an online series called Get Real).