Beauty Blogger Breaks Bullies who said #YouLookDisgusting

4 days ago a young woman called Em Ford released a video on YouTube titled “You Look Disgusting.”  This video has already gained 5.6 million views and 125,000 thumbs ups. 

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Whilst the spiteful title is what immediately caught my attention as well the media's, the actual content of the video is what got the entire internet talking.

In her video, Em shows a series of clips of her without any makeup, then moves on to clips that show her applying makeup and then goes full cycle, as she removes said makeup.

The premise of the video reminds me of NikkieTutorials' “The Power of MAKEUP," which was shared in May and has since reached nearly 20M views. I loved Nikkie’s tutorial so I was ready for some more chest-puffing, heart swelling, girl empowering pride to burst out of me as I tuned in, but I was too shocked to want to scream "girl power" at the top of my lungs.

The main difference between these two videos is whilst Nikkie just spoke about how we should embrace makeup,  Em Ford shows what others have to say on the subject. Em inserted an array of comments which she has received personally from pictures she put on social media.

The comments on Em without makeup go a little like this: “You’re disgusting,” and “seriously…has she ever washed her face?” 

They change a little when she applies makeup, but even then they can go from “You’re so perfect,” to “This is amazing, but so gross” and “this is false advertising” and even “this should be illegal” (dramatic). 

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The comments get more and more abusive and even show a horrible streak of misogyny in users who call her a “damn sl*t" and make comments about waking up next to her. 

It's sickening that anyone could call a person those names, especially a man who is probably just bitter because he's had no female contact for the past 17 years. 

But anyway, I'm digressing because I am sure that Em has witnessed many spiteful females too. Who's to say those comments weren't from women in the first place? Ah, internalized misogyny...

I also couldn’t help but wonder how many comments Em received that were backing her corner. But I suppose, with every documentary type film you have to accept that they are biased to prove a point, so taking that out of the equation then you have to think: God dammit world? Really?

If I had watched any of her vlogs or tutorials before this, I would never have assumed that this blonde, confident ex-model would ever be subjected to bullying. But what I like is that she shows that she is. Even her. Someone that might be many girls’ role models is torn apart because of a skin condition. Now, that’s brave girl.

Without any background info on Em, the video is still a very powerful tool. Ending on a shot of her with no makeup and the statement: “You are beautiful” is a great contrast to the title and should be telling every girl out there that they are beautiful regardless of what social media has to say about them.

No-one is born with makeup on, no-one is given money to spend on luxurious makeup and not everyone is a dab hand at this makeup lark in the first place.

Em has got a makeup skill level of like… 2.5 trillion billion jillion. It took 9 minutes of vastly sped up video to show how she achieves this look. Her makeup is also probably NOT cheap.

I am concerned that Em is encouraging young girls to spend all their money on beauty products, when actually the natural Em receives the most support.

She looked beautiful either way. I can appreciate well done make up but I can also see in her other videos how funny and nice she is – no need to judge based on her skin.

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What Em did is clever, both in terms of her makeup and video skills, but what I have taken away from this video has nothing to do with makeup. It has proven that there are too many dumb people on social media and there are too many people willing to listen to these idiots and take their comments to heart.

Social media will always be a tool for bullies if we allow it, so maybe it's time to stop posting about them and rise above them instead. Easier said than done, I know. But it's got to be worth a shot. 

Megan Herdson

Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

 

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