Dear Snapchat,
I am a user of your product and, usually, I thoroughly enjoy the entertainment it provides. It's a fun way to keep in touch with my family and friends from overseas, and a great way to connect with my fans.
However, when I went to use your "selfie" filters today, I found one incredibly troubling and I want to bring my feelings on it to your attention.
You've made a few filters that are makeup related. Some that are more subtle, and others more dramatic. I've used both, and while I have a voice in my mind that says "don't perpetuate the standard" I also want to feel pretty and relevant - so I use them. My little voice can't be silenced by societal standards today though, because I don't know what you in your office call this picture, but I have been referring to it as the epitome of “what women should look like filter”, and it's disgusting.
You made my eyes bigger and bluer, my nose smaller and higher on my face, my lips enormous. You blurred my skin to hide my pores and blemishes, and you slimmed my face and made my neck look bonier.
Why?
As one of the largest social media companies on smart phones today, I believe that you have a responsibility to your users. I don't think you're staff are naive, and I struggle to afford them a contemplative "maybe they thought...", because being such a prevalent social media platform, your staff are not adverse to the Internet. They do not dwell in caves, or live in Lollypop Land - they are living breathing contributors to society, and this time they messed up.
Every day women are bombarded with how we should look. On magazine covers at the grocery store check out, on billboards we pass by, by comments on the Internet, films and television shows. “Be skinnier! Not that skinny. You need some curves! Well, now you’re just fat. Be more sexy! No, now you’re slutty. Be more confident! Ew, you're too masculine. Wear makeup! Why do you look like a clown? Dress like a girl! You’re asking for it, you know.” This inequality, this imbalance makes every day a struggle for us even when we aren't aware of it. Our brain is always seeing and absorbing these ideals and at the end of the day, we're left confused and hurt and worthless.
My question is why are you making filters that are encouraging “you are not enough - here’s how to be better”? Who made the decision to make a filter that augments a person's face to look like they just had plastic surgery to achieve the epitome of the Hollywood look? Who decided that this was appropriate for your audience? Who didn't think for a second that maybe, just maybe this was perpetuating a terrible standard of beauty, unattainable for all.
Because when I tell my sister that her nose is beautiful - what are you telling her instead? When I tell her she has beautiful skin; it’s tanned (unlike my very British skin) and she has cute lines from smiling which make her glow - what are you telling her instead? When she says she has little eyes and that they disappear when she smiles (which I say I love because mine do the same) - what are you telling her instead? With this filter, what are you telling women about societal standards?
You're telling her, me and every other women who uses your application, that we are not beautiful as we are, "but don't fret - for we have the answer". You're exacerbating the notion that not only without makeup are we not enough, but now the actual structures of our face need to be cookie-cutter too. How are my sisters and I supposed to live up to such literal unrealistic expectations? We simply cannot, and it was inexplicably irresponsible for your company to perpetuate such a damaging notion.
Because on the left, I thought I was beautiful, but when I compare it to the right, I don't know anymore. And that is not a feeling anyone should ever have to feel; ever. Certainly not me, certainly not my sister, and certainly not the millions of young users on Snapchat.