We Do Everything For The Male Gaze And Its Ridiculous - Tumblr Posts

Can we talk about how the term "glow-up" used to mean that someone was looking healthier and happier, like perhaps they started going on walks and eating better, or maybe they dumped their boyfriend, joined CrossFit, and got a new job. Obviously it had the potential for some negative social effects, but overall, it was a fairly harmless term and I actually liked it because I felt like it was a nice way to compliment women who were making drastic changes in their life to better their personal health without being specific. Like I noticed a coworker who had previously mentioned her journey of training for a 10K to help get back in shape and lose some excess weight, had lost 20 pounds, so instead of saying "wow you looked like you lost a bunch of weight" in the presence of other coworkers, it was nice to be able to say something like "you look so healthy and glowed up!" to acknowledge her hard work.

Now whether you agree or disagree with that term being used to acknowledge women meeting personal health goals, I think we should all be concerned with what "glow-up" has come to mean. As I scrolled thru Tik-Tok recently, I noticed an ongoing trend of people posting "can we talk about (insert celebrity name)'s glow up?!" And most of these celebrities are young, early twenties or even 19 year old women whose photos are shown of their 15 or 16 year old teenage, fully clothed, minimal to no makeup, selves followed by their "glow up" photos. The second set of photos shows a 19 to 23 year old woman with a full face of makeup, extensions or some striking haircut, a variety of revealing outfits, and most likely at least one photo of her in some sexual pose such as straddling a piece of furniture. The ideal "glow-up" celebrity is trying to shed her "good girl" persona, and follows the directions society has given her to sexualize herself in every way possible. It breaks my heart that these talented young women using their sex appeal are being hailed as an "improvement" over their innocent younger selves.