I like wearing makeup. I like putting on mascara, I like being able to cover up any blemishes that I don’t want to draw attention to and I like the confidence boost that I get when I go out wearing makeup. But when I don’t do all these things, I feel as though I am unworthy of being viewed by others.

This is a recent development in my life, as I used to claim that I was better than that and wouldn’t succumb to the societal concept of beauty. But I did. And I do.

Even as I write this, I am sitting at my desk, looking in my mirror and at my face (which I just think everyone should do, not for beauty reasons but for health and hygiene), and I cannot stop obsessing over everything I’m unhappy with, like my nose, cheeks and forehead— there are more features, but I’ll spare you the details.

I know I am not alone in feeling this way; every woman I’ve ever known has complained about the way she looks and how she feels as though she does not fit into any standard. I mean, even just by going on Fizz, you can see Creighton students constantly criticizing the way they look. Why do we do this?

The beauty industry has defined itself in our culture as something women need to buy into. It sets unaffordable, unattainable standards that the vast majority of the population can never reach. And yet we still want to attain those standards and are upset when we don’t.

This topic is constantly being debated; I feel like every other week, I see a new article degrading women for wanting to fit a beauty standard, and I don’t want this to be another one of those pieces. There are psychological reasons as to why we feel this way, but there are also economics behind the beauty industry as a whole.

We have an inherent need for affiliation; we want to engage in positive interactions and be liked by others. In order to be liked, however, women feel like they have to look a certain way. This happens daily in social situations, but also in the workplace—in order to be taken seriously as a woman, you have to look the part.

We are afraid of failing, so we pour our frustration and insecurities into the way that we look; if we are able to control those aspects of ourselves, then we have some sense of control over the situation. If you went to a job interview in your pajamas and didn’t get the job, you would immediately blame your failure on the fact that you were wearing pajamas, not other reasons you may be unqualified for the position.

The expectation of presenting in a particular way can create unspoken rules for how we look in certain situations. But that’s on a universal level; the “rules” for how women should look are spoken about. That’s the problem.

Regardless of what she wears, a woman in a job interview is taken less seriously if she is a blonde. There are real studies about this: the journal Labour Economics reported that brunette women are taken more seriously by their male counterparts because they are perceived as “intense” and less likely to cause problems in the workplace.

We all know the stereotype of a “dumb blonde,” but that stereotype could actually cost someone a job, regardless of her qualifications. These standards and expectations are real and continue to be supported by the beauty industry.

The beauty industry has done an incredible job integrating itself into our everyday language and thought. It’s an astounding market; the Wall Street Journal wrote an article in April about how the beauty industry defies inflation!

No matter what the economic state they are in, people still want to look good, whatever the subjective definition you want to prescribe to “good” is. Even in times of national recession, the beauty industry still thrives. The marketing strategies surrounding beauty products are heavily invested in, with Superbowl commercials, billboards, ads all over social media– you name it.

But even on a smaller scale, whenever I compliment someone on their outfit or makeup, their first instinct is to tell me where they got the product.

We’ve been conditioned to become walking advertisements for the clothes on our bodies. This is happening all around us, and we don’t notice it anymore. We’ve become so accustomed to the beauty industry’s attempts to sell a version of ourselves to us that it doesn’t even seem like a problem.

We buy into it and believe that in order to be beautiful, we need to put makeup on before we leave the house, or we will be unworthy of love if we don’t. None of this defines who we are as people. Beauty standards have conditioned us to judge people by their outward appearance instead of who they actually are, and that’s the biggest problem.

I wish I could say I have a solution to stopping the spread of beauty standards, but I don’t. I don’t really know where we go from here. I think being informed about the effects that they have on people, in both the bigger picture and here on campus, is just the first step towards changing our conception of beauty.