August 2024
From filters to followers, social media’s negative impact on our mental health has been well documented. Experts note a direct link between social media filters and lower self-esteem, and the way we appear online is increasingly distanced from how we present ourselves in our everyday lives.
The metaverse has the potential to make this even worse. Even though it could offer a possibility for greater experimentation and an escape from oppressive beauty standards, it could also open the door to greater levels of perfectionism and self-criticism. We already know that filters are damaging for our self-esteem: could creating perfect avatars result in an analogous experience?
Our current definition of the metaverse is “a highly immersive virtual world where people gather to...
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The Mallen Streak7 Images
A version of this text was originally published 12 August 2019.
From medieval baddies to Instagram’s most offbeat it girls, the Mallen streak has grow to be the last word symbol of alt beauty: communicating glamour, danger and deviance. Naturally occurring (the results of a condition called Poliosis) or dyed, the Mallen streak refers to a bolt of traditionally but not at all times white hair styled at someone’s hairline, in a single stripe, block fringe or full half and half look. Throughout history, this forelock of hair has proven synonymous with evil and the identical symbolism has ricocheted throughout popular culture - think X Men’s Rogue or the Bride of Frankenstein.
Yet, regardless of these damning connotations, real-life...
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