Are you confident in your appearance? Maybe you take selfies. What about the people who are not confident in how they look? Some of those people use face filters to change their appearance. Many filters are used to “enhance the beauty” of one, and the users aim to fix insecurities. While this may not sound like a big deal, people have very different ideas of what beauty is. Recently, many filters on TikTok have become quite controversial because of the way they modify people’s looks. It reveals the problematic ways some people view beauty.

Many countries view European features as ‘more beautiful,’ and there are filters that reflect and enforce this beauty standard. Some filters alter the skin color, eye color, and even size of certain features of the user to fit into stereotypical beauty standards.

Patria Lee, a junior at UACHS, has used various social media platforms that have filters on them.

“I think people use filters to change their race either because they are ashamed of their own race or to make fun of the other race,” said Lee.

There was a filter called “Fix You” on Tiktok that lightened the user’s skin and made the user’s eyes blue. This filter pushed the idea that looking white is the only way to be beautiful, as it erases some defining features of people of color. Eventually, this filter was removed from TikTok, but other whitewashing filters still exist.

On the other hand, there are filters like one that is named “girl” on Tiktok that have upset people. This particular filter, which is still available to use, elongates and shrinks the eyes of the person using the filter, stretches the face out slightly and makes the nose smaller. East Asian people have been, and continue to be made fun of and ridiculed for the features that the filter seems to alter. 

Even some filters that seemingly have one purpose, like showing you what your brows look like when they are bleached, also have effects that change the shape of your jaw and make your nose smaller. These beauty standards cause many to be self-conscious about their appearance.

Not all filters are toxic and have a different purpose than to “enhance the beauty” of the user. Some filters morph a person’s face into an animal or swap their face onto a celebrity’s which are supposed to be all in good fun.

“I think the purpose of face filters is just for fun,” said Lee.

With filters being used more and more often, it is important that the users of filters understand that they do not have to fit a certain image to be beautiful. Everyone needs to acknowledge that certain filters cross the line and are unnecessary. The main purpose of the filters we all use is to have fun, as long as we do not forget that, we all can continue to use them.