Beauty Opinion: Beauty and Politics and the Downsides of Brand Activism and Cancel Culture

As someone who would describe herself as a lover of beauty since early childhood, makeup and skincare have continually been something of a sanctuary for me, especially in darker periods of my life. The same has also been true in more stressful times on a collective level. Of course, there is perhaps no greater example of this than in the wake of 2020-- pandemic and beyond.

While everyone has their own views on situations relevant to any given moment in history and macro-stances on politics, world affairs, and consciousness in general and has a right to those things, I think it becomes prohibitive and problematic when the opinions of individual go so far as to affect the way their business is either run or is perceived on the whole.

It seems more and more we are in a time where both beauty brands and consumers feel the need to make blanket statements in support of things and condemning others. This can be seen as being "active" or "taking a stand", and certainly, the concept of "voting with your dollar" as a consumer is nothing new. But I do think there are inherent downsides of both companies being so quick to take stands in response to any current issue at hand and in consumers being so ravenous to react in either the fervor of agreement or in the fury of antagonism to those actions, especially the latter. In other words, cancel culture.

Consumers have the inherent right to think and to choose their next courses of action based on the information that they are given by the brands' themselves. My heart questions though, for one thing, why do brands feel the need to become political to begin with? Is it out of true support, conviction, and compassion for a situation? Is it an effort to follow a trend or stave themselves off from any backlash in customer feedback, boycotts, financial ruin, or criticism of anything they do that might be construed as wrong or else complacent? I don't know, and I suppose the true answer to any of that is not only something that lies in the heart of every individual brand owner or member of an executive team but is also something that we as the consumer will never really know. Nor will we ever really know how they came to any of their opinions because, at the end of the day, each individual is unique and is just as much a stranger to us as any one of us would be to them. This is a lesson in truth, individualism, and compassion that I think encompasses much more than a beauty blog.

Does this infusion of mixing opinions with the beauty business make anything right or better, or does it just breed more controversy where there doesn't necessarily need to be? This is up for debate, but we can agree how it does bring controversy. The aftermath of which can lead to many things but ultimately more dissention, not just in the relationship between the brand and its supporters (or former supporters) but among beauty (and any other type) consumers themselves. In other words, if there is a controversy or wrongdoing by a brand or person behind a brand, any positive feedback on a product from a brand on that level can be taken as being endorsing the wrongdoing or condoning the behavior of the people involved with that brand. As one type of example-- though not necessarily a political one-- I have seen this happen when a beauty YouTuber mentions trying to go more cruelty-free and they show products from a brand that sells in China where animal testing is still mandated in some instances . We don't know if that person knows that the brand is not or is not entirely cruelty-free by some standards. We also don't know if the person is just trying to use up what they have instead of tossing out the items and immediately buying new. This same situation also occurs when a brand or faces of the brand become "controversial" for any reason. It quickly becomes, "if you are not immediately or fully with us, then you are against us". That is not a healthy place for our world to be in any context and, too often, the public actions or the perception of public actions of brands drive us there.

Never should anyone ever support a brand that makes them feel uncomfortable, and how people choose to express their beliefs with their purchasing decisions is entirely up to them. I myself have not only my own viewpoints on sociopolitical matters and also in what I look for in how my products are made and marketed, and in effect, my opinions therefore have at least some influence on the products I share about here on La Petite Rose. But with many more brands becoming increasingly more political, I have become more and more reticent about posting reviews (and even have elected to not post some or keep some on the website) -- even when I am SUPER enthused to talk about about a product-- lest the brand or those associated with a brand make a controversial statement that I either don't agree with or that might be offensive to others, which, in theory ,could boil down to any possible opinion ever stated. Beauty product reviews ought to be simply about the products. In fact, makeup and skincare should be about the joy of the products and that mode of self-care in and of itself that anyone can enjoy regardless of age, gender, race, or even political beliefs or other personally-derived opinions. But as brands continue to be more political in their presentation, this joy and universality slips further and further away. The world becomes even more polarized and perhaps even more controversy ensues from this further polarization For me, this is heartbreaking.

I am not advocating for anyone to silence or disown their own belief system, and this includes people within the beauty industry at every level, even beauty enthusiasts such as myself. I am merely stating that some arenas are appropriate places to display one's opinions, but a business place may not be. No matter what side of an issue-- or the aisle-- you may fall on or lean toward, or even if you flail somewhere in the middle, I think we can all agree that in all the chaos of in our world, anything we can use to come together or to be a respite is greatly needed and always has been and will be. I can only hope and pray that brands will consider this in the future and have their image and products the reflection of the harmony and universality and sanctuary for everyone of every opinion out there, preserving the beauty that we love.