You’ve seen them throughout your feed—#CleanGirl routines with dewy pores and skin, slicked-back buns, minimalist aesthetics, and pastel loungewear. Or #HotGirlWalks, the place ladies movie themselves power-walking in cute athleisure whereas listening to affirmations or self-help podcasts. On the floor, all of it appears empowering, even healthful. Who doesn’t wish to really feel polished and mentally sturdy?
However dig somewhat deeper, and a few persons are beginning to ask: are these traits actually about well being and self-care, or simply one other strategy to promote us the identical outdated food plan tradition in a contemporary, Instagrammable package deal? As a result of, for all their aspirational vibes, the “clear” woman and “scorching” woman aesthetics nonetheless heart a selected sort of physique, self-discipline, and life-style. So the query isn’t simply what these traits appear like, however what they actually imply.
The Wellness Glow-Up…or One other Disguise?
Wellness tradition has turn into the brand new face of what was known as weight-reduction plan. As an alternative of low-fat yogurt and calorie-counting, we get matcha lattes, intuitive motion, and “intestine well being.” It feels extra inclusive. It sounds extra conscious. However the core message usually hasn’t modified: smaller, prettier, extra managed.
The “Clear Woman” aesthetic is usually described as pure, easy magnificence. However what’s not often mentioned out loud is how a lot effort (and cash) it really takes. Serums, skincare instruments, particular outfits, and the sort of facial symmetry that’s usually praised solely when it aligns with white, skinny magnificence requirements. It’s much less about being “clear” in any literal sense and extra about showing polished, calm, and, let’s be sincere, socially acceptable.
Then there’s the “Scorching Woman Stroll,” which positions motion as a psychological well being device. That’s nice in concept. However like many wellness traits, it rapidly morphs into one other aesthetic: toned legs, every day progress updates, and refined stress to carry out “well being” for a web based viewers. Immediately, it’s not nearly feeling good. It’s about trying good whereas doing it.
If It’s About Well being, Why Does It Look So Homogeneous?
One of the crucial telling indicators that one thing’s rooted in food plan tradition? It excludes. Not deliberately, possibly, however constantly. The ladies praised as “clear” or “scorching” in these traits usually look remarkably related: skinny, white or light-skinned, conventionally engaging, able-bodied, and financially comfy.
The place are the women with zits, messy hair, seen disabilities, or full-time jobs that don’t permit for gradual morning routines and aesthetic walks at golden hour? The place are the individuals who stay in our bodies that don’t match the mould and by no means will?
Wellness that solely seems to be a sure approach isn’t wellness. It’s branding. And like several branding rooted in physique picture, it comes with a facet of disgrace for individuals who don’t, or can’t, purchase in.
Empowerment…or Management?
There’s nothing inherently improper with desirous to really feel good in your physique. Motion will be therapeutic. Skincare will be enjoyable. Rituals can provide construction in a chaotic world. However when traits begin policing what “good” seems to be like, they begin feeling much less empowering and extra like outdated guidelines in new garments.
Clear consuming turned intuitive consuming, which turned intestine therapeutic. Exercise plans turned “joyful motion.” Thinness turned “toned.” The language shifts, however the obsession with management, optimization, and visible perfection usually stays.
It’s the identical internalized stress, simply rebranded in mushy lighting and TikTok voiceovers. And if you happen to’re continuously questioning whether or not you’re doing it “proper,” if you happen to really feel like it’s essential purchase extra, eat much less, or carry out higher, then possibly it’s not about wellness in any respect.
The Bother with Aesthetic Wellness
Aesthetic-based wellness makes individuals really feel like well being is one thing you possibly can see. However actual well-being is usually invisible. It’s messy. It doesn’t all the time appear like clear pores and skin, matching units, or a curated playlist. And it’s totally different for everybody.
After we tie our self-worth to how we seem—whether or not we name it “scorching,” “clear,” or “nicely”—we threat decreasing complicated experiences into marketable checklists. And that’s when empowerment turns into efficiency. What’s particularly irritating is how these traits usually declare to be “for everybody,” when clearly, they’re not. They create a hierarchy of what’s thought of wholesome, fascinating, or disciplined, and disgrace creeps in for individuals who can’t or don’t conform.
Can We Reclaim These Traits?
Not all is misplaced. You possibly can get pleasure from a scorching woman stroll with out shopping for into perfectionism. You possibly can love skincare with out subscribing to Eurocentric magnificence beliefs. The hot button is consciousness—understanding the place the messaging crosses the road from assist to disgrace.
Ask your self: Is that this making me really feel higher in my physique, or worse? Am I doing this as a result of I like myself, or as a result of I’m making an attempt to repair myself? Would I nonetheless do that if nobody else noticed it?
When the reply is rooted in self-kindness, pleasure, or real care, you’re in all probability on the correct path. But when it’s about efficiency, management, or becoming into another person’s aesthetic, you could have each proper to push again.
Do you assume traits like “clear woman” and “scorching woman walks” are useful types of self-care, or simply one other model of food plan tradition in disguise?
Learn Extra:
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Riley is an Arizona native with over 9 years of writing expertise. From private finance to journey to digital advertising and marketing to popular culture, she’s written about the whole lot beneath the solar. When she’s not writing, she’s spending her time exterior, studying, or cuddling along with her two corgis.
