When Pretty Isn’t Pretty Enough

Last summer, an internet firestorm erupted when a man named Nick Verola tweeted a picture of Margot Robbie and said that she was mid. For those unfamiliar with the term “mid” it’s an insult used to describe a woman who is seen as average and nothing special.

Since Margot Robbie was already in the news due to her new movie Barbie coming out, this tweet ignited a fierce debate about beauty standards in America. The tweet was viewed 64.9 million times and was part of an unfortunately larger trend that had men tearing down the looks of many female celebrities, including Emilia Clarke and Selena Gomez.

Most people rightfully called out Nick for his tweet and said that Margot Robbie is a beautiful woman and doesn’t deserve to be cyberbullied. The minority of people that agreed with Nick’s opinion gave rationale, including that she was getting old (she was 32 at the time) and she doesn’t have perfectly symmetrical facial features.  Nick also created the image below to defend his reasoning behind calling Margot Robbie average looking. It’s clear he has a lot of time on his hands to judge someone’s looks so harshly and to feel justified in creating this picture.

The most concerning part about this trend is that if Margot Robbie isn’t considered beautiful then who is?  She fits the typical all American beauty standards with her blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and thin body, but even then, she still is not good enough. Many women chimed into this discussion to say that beauty standards are becoming increasingly more unattainable and that being pretty is not even enough. It also sparked a conversation about ageism and how women are often seen as only valuable when they are young. Unfortunately, women’s worth in our society is based on how attractive they are and not whether they have good character. Inner beauty is not as important as outer beauty in our society, but this is quite backwards. Being a kind, honest, hardworking, intelligent, and thoughtful person should be what we aspire towards, instead of focusing solely on our outer beauty.

When I was young, I felt that we were making tremendous progress on challenging unrealistic beauty standards, but social media came along and created more issues. Typically, when posting on social media, people only show the good parts of their lives and post carefully curated photos.  According to the Pew Research Center, 75% of young women reported using filters on social media, along with 58% of young men. Sadly, young women still compare themselves to the filtered pictures of Instagram models, even when those pictures are not reflective of true reality.  Spending long amounts of time on social media can also lead to depression and anxiety (Royal Society for Public Health, 2017).

While Nick aimed to be a bully and tear down Margot Robbie’s looks, many people rose to her defense and an important discussion about unrealistic beauty standards took the world by storm. I know Nick won’t be the first or last person to bully somebody’s looks, but it gives me hope that things are shifting toward the better. It’s important that we do not tolerate bullying of anybody’s looks and remind people that inner beauty far exceeds outer beauty.

References:

Pew Research Center. (2022). Teens and social media: Use of filters and impact on self-image. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/07/21/teens-and-social-media-use-of-filters/

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). (2017). #StatusOfMind: Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Retrieved June 30, 2024, from https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html

Verola, N. @NicholasVerola. (2023). She’s definitely not. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://x.com/NicholasVerola/status/1679999838807547906

Verola, N. @NicholasVerola. (2023). This is her without makeup. Definitely mid. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://x.com/NicholasVerola/status/1679128423648710660