Happy Nice Mall

Amy Niu studies selfie editing behavior as part of her PhD in psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2019, she conducted a study to determine the effect of beauty filters on self-image for American and Chinese women. He took pictures of 325 college-aged women and filtered some of them without telling them. He then surveyed the women to gauge their feelings and self-confidence when they saw edited or unedited photos. Their yet-to-be-released results found that Chinese women who viewed edited photos felt better, while American women (87% white) felt the same if their photos were edited.

Niu believes the results show large differences between cultures when it comes to “beauty standards and how sensitive people are to these beauty filters.” “Tech companies realize this and make different versions. [of their filters] to adapt it to the needs of different groups of people.”

It has very clear manifestations. Niu, a Chinese woman living in the United States, uses both TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin (both are made by the same company and share many of the same features, though not the same content.) Both apps have a “beautifying” feature. . There are modes, but they are different: Chinese users are given more extreme smoothing and skin tone lighting effects.

She says the differences don’t just reflect cultural standards of beauty, they perpetuate them. White Americans prefer filters that make their skin tan, whiter teeth and longer eyelashes, while Chinese women prefer filters that make their skin lighter.

Niu worries that the massive proliferation of filtered images is making beauty standards more uniform over time, especially for Chinese women. “The beauty standard in China is more homogeneous,” she says, adding that filters “remove many differences from our faces” and enhance a certain look.

“Really bad”

Amira Adawe observed the same dynamic in the way young girls of color use filters on social media. Adawe is the founder and executive director of Beautywell, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that aims to tackle colorism and skin lightening practices. The organization runs programs to educate young girls of color about online safety, healthy digital behaviors, and the dangers of physical skin lightening.