#unattainable
Influencer culture is fulfilling the same function that many women’s magazines once did: prescribing methods for being a happier, healthier person (and more beautiful, too!)
What’s so insidious about it is that instead of being given a still image of a stranger in a slinky sundress joyfully eating a salad, we are presented with a fully fledged human being that we can more easily identify with by knowing them on a (seemingly) more intimate level.
We insert ourselves into her daily activities: watch her meeting friends, going shopping at sustainable clothing stores, doing sponsored thred up hauls, making vegan meals with locally sourced produce, drinking iced lavender coffee in the park.
She could be anyone—she could be you if you would take charge and live your best life. She invokes a tepid politic through concepts of “mindfulness”, “manifestation”, and “the laws of attraction” never acknowledging the systemic inequalities that allow for her own thin, white, able-bodied brand of success. You could be her but you’re not and that’s no one’s fault but your own.
