The “average girl”, the girl who devalues ​​her physique on TikTok to get compliments.

“I’m certainly middle-aged… when I wake up, I’m not a natural beauty. I get criticized for my appearance, I’m too thin, too white. To meet the criteria for beauty in the summer, I have to use self-tanner.”, young French TikToker @Maelysse turns around in front of the camera. PBY (515 subscribers). This user takes on TikTok’s popular “I… of course it is…” challenge to convey personal reality through anecdotes.

But this time, the trend towards the “average girl” – a woman who is supposed to be “average”, that is, neither truly ugly nor perfectly beautiful – adopted by many young people of Generation Z makes it clear: implicitly, the influence of increasingly expensive and guilt-inducing criteria for beauty. The first person to popularize it on TikTok was undoubtedly @Lunaindaclub (75,000 followers). “I know I’m middle-aged because the only compliments I get are from my family.”, she said in March, amid a series of assertive statements, the video has been liked more than 330,000 times. Many users ask questions in the comments: if this rather pretty girl is “average”, then they are even more so. In short, behind the apparent lack of guilt lies quite a complex and sophisticated machine. False modesty or a real cry for help? Hard to tell. The fact remains that presenting yourself as a girl of “average” height seems to be an effective strategy for getting a lot of compliments.

Frantic search for confirmation

If TikTok wants to become the slick anti-Instagram (where there are countless copies of the idealized beauty parade) by promoting authenticity, the reality is very different. Indeed, according to media investigation Interceptionin 2020, the algorithm tends to censor posts from users rated “ugly”but also “poor”For “to inspire” new users, in particular thanks to biometric facial recognition, which assigns beauty scores. As a result, on the Chinese platform, plastic is becoming increasingly visible, enhanced with structuring filters, increasingly difficult to notice on the face, as on the body, and retouching (in three seconds we can whiten teeth, smooth skin, etc.). .).

Unfortunately, however, this is increasingly leading to “digital dysmorphia,” which is the negative psychological and emotional impact created by technology that can make it problematic for a person to perceive their own image. The whole problem with the “average girl” is that she objectifies herself by referring to subjective criteria of beauty that develop cyclically and depending on the country. So in a sense it is unattainable. As a result, she becomes part of a frantic (and pre-lost) search for validation, which is quite manly. Having forgotten her human qualities, she exists only as an object of contemplation, which devalues ​​itself in order to be better revalued. The real problem is that the “middle-aged girl” is probably spending too much time on TikTok.

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