Free range Cherry Lip

Wendy Lineham

Free range Cherry Lip, 2025

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oil on board

910mm x 910mm 

$3,500

 

"The modern obsession with perfect beauty is a manufactured cultural phenomenon that generates massive profits while fuelling widespread insecurity. This impossible standard, airbrushed, filtered, and constantly shifting, ensures no one can ever truly achieve it.  Selfie culture has weaponised this anxiety, transforming everyone into their own photographer and editor. People spend hours perfecting their appearance for social media validation, creating addictive cycles where self-worth depends on likes and comments. The psychological toll includes increased body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and anxiety, particularly among young people.

Who benefits? The beauty industry profits billions annually from collective insecurity. Social media companies gain engagement, medical aesthetics explodes with younger clients, and advertisers perfect the art of making people feel inadequate while selling "solutions."  This system teaches that appearance equals value, diverting energy from meaningful pursuits. Breaking free requires recognising that perfect beauty is designed to generate profit, not wellbeing, and that true confidence comes from accepting ourselves as we are.

Who Profits from Perfection?'        Wendy Lineham