on dark circles
in school, if someone pretty didn't want to grow up to have a camera facing job, or if a handsome adult wasn't an actor or a model for a living, we'd call it 'such a waste of good looks'. it was a silly teen-girl view of the world, but maybe not entirely off the mark. The expedited rise of a screen-oriented visual world has made it easy to see the profitability of looking a certain way. in my adulthood I've learned the appropriate term for what we meant — pretty privilege.
the thing about privilege is that to reap its benefits, one must not challenge the bar. but left unchallenged, this privilege is earned by enduring varying levels of physical pain or discomfort (w.r.t. the ridiculous beauty standards for women).
As a designer, I understand the commercial value of adhering to prevailing beauty standards, but my principles remain rational. This means that form that follows function is beautiful to me. Whatever be your school or thought, it requires pushing trends away from the mean — tapping into an "artist"-like conviction to redefine what's cool or beautiful — and sticking by your principles despite pushback. taking a page from the avant garde movement, if you will. sans serifs weren't born out of an adherence to trends. (They were originally called 'grotesque' for being outlandish and obnoxious compared to their more ornate predecessors).
It sounds dramatic, but some version of this is true in the tiny battles designers fight everyday. arguably it is how standards of beauty evolve and cycle through millennia. The problem arises in applying these rules to living beings — when we "objectify" people. we're a complex system of functions, always in flux, frequently dysfunctional. the question is, must we always convey a narrowly defined ideal (healthy state), or is there some value in allowing our expression of form to be truer to a present state?
In other words, do I allow my dark circles to speak to my currently tired self, or conceal them? Authenticity would cost me the benefits of 'pretty privilege'. to stand in my truth with a little more conviction, would need the valour of my inner artist. let them know I'm a little tired today, a little human.