Individual grit won’t make men beautiful | Letters
The pressures to fix yourself are produced socially, by algorithms, markets, racism-coded aesthetics and status anxiety, says Dr Bruno De OliveiraYour piece on the rise of impossible male beauty standards...
By Guardian Staff · The Guardian Opinion
The pressures to fix yourself are produced socially, by algorithms, markets, racism-coded aesthetics and status anxiety, says Dr Bruno De Oliveira Your piece on the rise of impossible male beauty standards ( ‘There is no shame in being vain’: the relentless rise of impossible male beauty standards, 5 March ) captures something bigger than vanity, that of a neoliberal moral economy which turns the body into a private “project” and then invoices the individual for failing it. Mark Fisher called this magical voluntarism , the doctrine that we can will ourselves into any desired form, and that if we don’t, it’s because we didn’t want it enough. In that frame, a square jaw is “discipline”, hair loss is “laziness” and distress becomes personal inadequacy rather than a predictable response to platformed comparison, commercialised insecurity and precarious lives. Continue reading...