Has the proliferation in online porn – along with its superficial beauty tropes – subconsciously impacted the way we approach our own beauty style?
And more importantly, should we be concerned? Bethan Cole thinks so...

If 2013 was the year that the hyper-sexualisation of pop culture became an unavoidable issue thanks to Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke, it was also a year when we started to question the way pornography, now so prevalent and easy to access on the internet, seemed to have seeped into every niche of our lives. And yes, this even included our beauty routines. We are accustomed to hearing arguments about how porn has influenced everything from fashion editorial and advertising to pop videos and little girls' underwear – but beauty? Surely the way we beautify, the innocent application of a little mascara, cannot have anything to do with the sex industry?

"Over the last decade we’ve seen the mainstreaming of a fake look that owes much to the world of pole dancing, lap dancing and porn itself."

Well, yes and no. Over the last decade we’ve seen the mainstreaming of a fake look that owes much to the world of pole dancing, lap dancing and porn itself. Think about it: Brazilian bikini waxes, vajazzles, breast implants, hair extensions, false lashes, orange fake tan, acrylic nails, plumped up injected lips, clear lipgloss and in extreme cases genital cosmetic surgery (which has increased five fold in the last decade) do all contribute to a mainstream beauty aesthetic that owes a lot to the mien of the female porn star or sex worker. We can see this look in abundance on stars such from Kim Kardashian to the Ecclestone sisters to Kesha. These women may not, consciously, be intending for their beauty routines to channel porn, but the way they look (a look that tends to be very influential on teenage girls) undeniably bears a lot of similarities to the grooming norms of the sex industry. And perhaps, this should be giving us cause for concern.

In tandem with this is the fact that women in the media, fashion and music industries appear to be wearing a lot more make up than a decade ago. Even traditionally ‘natural look’ demographics such as the Made In Chelsea set have succumbed to hair extensions and fake tan. Fifteen years ago, a teenager getting ready for a night out might have indulged in shampoo, body lotion, eyeliner and lipgloss. Now there is a seemingly endless to-do list. The pseudo-porn look is nothing if not high maintenance.

"Perhaps what’s strangest of all about the fake beauty look is that it is that curiously post-modern phenomena of a fake of a fake."

But why is this happening now? According to feminist author Natasha Walter, the reason for the rise of this look is due to the mainstreaming of pornography and the way in which quasi-pornographic images have seeped into all aspects of our culture. What feminists are angry about is not necessarily porn itself, in its context, but the way in which it has insidiously permeated pop culture and the media and yes, our beauty routines too. This coincided with the rise of the term post-feminism. The very term post-feminism made the assumption that we didn’t need feminism any more because equality had been achieved and thus we could disport/beautify ourselves like porn stars because it was fun, edgy and ‘empowering’. But the problem is that equality of pay and representation in positions of power hasn’t been achieved, so women are labouring under a delusion or false consciousness that looking like a pole dancer is actually furthering their cause – hence Miley Cyrus calling herself ‘a feminist’.

Perhaps what’s strangest of all about the fake beauty look is that it is that curiously post-modern phenomena of a fake of a fake. Women adopting the fake beauty routines that mimic the look of women who fake desire (porn stars). It is, what the theorist Jean Baudrillard might have called a doubled simulacrum –a simulacra being a phenomenon where the false has replaced the real.

"You may not buy into the fake look in all it’s exotic entirety but the chances are one or two of the aforementioned products or procedures have made it into your beauty routine."

You may not buy into the fake look in all its exotic entirety but the chances are one or two of the aforementioned products or procedures have made it into your beauty routine – whether that’s false lashes on a Friday night, a spray tan before you go on holiday or the occasional Brazilian. It might not seem pernicious, but it is this subtle seep of porn into our everyday beauty routines and the normalising of it that we should be questioning. Thankfully a new wave of feminists are.

At the Edinburgh fringe, stand up Nadia Kamil performed a set including a feminist burlesque, stripping off eight layers of clothing to reveal messages such as 'pubes are normal' and 'equal pay'. In her best selling memoir-cum-polemic ‘How To Be  A Woman’ Caitlin Moran rails against Brazilian and Hollywood waxes, arguing that the resulting look is that of a ‘skanky Lidl chicken fillet’. 'Lying in a hammock, gently finger combing your Wookiee whilst staring up at the sky is one of the great pleasures of adulthood,' she muses.

What’s more, thankfully we can make choices about the kind of women we want to emulate in the pantheon of public figures. There are plenty of alternatives to the Barbie/fake/porn look, from burlesque star Dita Von Teese with her pale skin and red lips to plus size model Tara Lynn. And hopefully, one day there will come a time where young women will eschew aspiring to be women who merely creative narratives around the fake modifications they have had to their bodies or beauty routines, and replace them with women who deal in ideas about politics and philosophy instead.