00:08all right I need to work something out this whole skincare as self-care thing is really
00:13throwing me for a loop everywhere I look there's a whole new skincare as self-care regimen and some
00:19of them are really complicated this is the first step in my skincare regimen apply this right
00:24underneath the eye sodium hyaluronate plus the lotus honestly my face feels so tight right now
00:30this routine might rival Patrick Bateman's in American Psycho it's that like girl don't get me
00:37wrong I love any excuse to look inward but I'm literally stopping at my epidermis on one hand
00:43I know I shouldn't care about upholding unrealistic standards of beauty but there's something so
00:50soothing about the illusion of control I have when I put on a face mask I spend my entire paycheck
00:55on serums and solutions preparing my skin for the future but if I'm so concerned about aging shouldn't
01:01I be putting that money into retirement I'm pretty sure I'm being exploited by the beauty industry but
01:06I kind of like it and I can't really talk about this with a lot of people because beauty is
01:11such
01:11a hot-button topic when one journalist wrote that skincare was a con the internet exploded with think
01:17piece after think piece after think piece dissecting whether it was exploitation or empowerment the
01:23debate over skincare is so contentious that when I asked a bunch of beauty influencers for some truth
01:29serum I had to protect their identity with sheet masks did they think that this was all BS or was
01:35it
01:35actually helping skin care is both a scam and a blessing it's all a ploy it's all a big scheme
01:43why are we
01:44judging women for how they spend their time and money when we put our intention behind the like
01:51wellness hole part we're all okay with it but when we put it behind the vanity part that's when we
01:57shame it the crazy thing is that skincare actually works it could be totally psychological but it does
02:02work skin care as self-care is extremely political simply because they co-opted the black power movement
02:09and put a freaking price tag on it the term self-care dates back to the black lesbian feminist poet
02:15Audrey
02:15Lorde who wrote quote caring for myself is not self-indulgence it is self-preservation and that
02:22is an act of political warfare the concept of self-care has political undertones because Lorde was referencing
02:28the work that women of color do to survive in a patriarchal racist and capitalist society you care for
02:35yourself so you can support your family and your community but fast forward to today Google searches
02:41for the word self-care reached a five-year high after the election but what are we really talking
02:47about when we say skincare is self-care I asked Gia Tolentino she's a staff writer at the New Yorker
02:54and she wrote this viral article about skincare as self-care so why do you think skincare is such a
03:04hot
03:04button topic for women the body is a locus of control where so much else about women's lives
03:10are uncontrollable and that does not always manifest in helpful ways and arguably never does the pressure
03:16upon women to look as good as possible and look better all the time has never been more strenuous at
03:22the same time that it's never been more taboo to talk about it in those terms and women have always
03:27been attacked for being superficial when in actuality I mean looks are like you know attractive people make
03:34more money at work like it's it's a real tangible benefit you know but it's that's an ugly thing to
03:38talk about is skincare political our choices are political right the importance that's placed on
03:44beauty is informed by a long history of women being seen as decorative objects you know like women's
03:51sexual value perceived sexual value or their appearance being perceived as the most important
03:55thing about them and that is political you know and you know everything we do exists within power
04:01structures that are worth analyzing I guess you know Audre Lorde when she was struggling with cancer
04:06you know it's like about a black lesbian woman you know being within a body that the world doesn't
04:12want to see that the world doesn't want to make space for that the world doesn't want to prioritize
04:15choosing to take care of that body is a deeply political act and it is sort of trickled down
04:21ideologically to like face mask articles about you know like ladies like we all know we need to like
04:27take a little time for self-care this weekend you know right it's almost it's so close to a really
04:32important idea why do you think skincare is so contentious part of it is an anxiety around there
04:37are so few controllable things about life as a woman in America right now and like maybe that's part of
04:43it yeah I think it's a it's a way of women working out now what do we expect of ourselves
04:50who is
04:51dictating that like how do we want to approach life as a woman now that we might be getting to
04:58set our own terms it's more controllable than a lot of other problems in talking to Gia I realized that
05:06skincare or self-care isn't just about adhering to or avoiding beauty standards it's about economic
05:12anxiety it's about women's pleasure and it's about the radical act of taking time for ourselves and looking
05:20better as a result probably doesn't hurt but the point is it's complicated and arguing how women
05:25spend their paycheck and their time isn't going to liberate anyone oh my god exactly I feel so seen
05:31but I'm also not about to age like some amateur that is a great name for a serum don't age
05:36like an
05:36amateur I'm gonna trademark that shit
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