How to Get Out of the Culture That's Unattainable and Exhausting

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Sally Kohn: What would you say are the three things that someone should start by doing? She says awareness, interrogation, and then renegotiation. Kohn: If beauty work is labor, we can renegotiate the terms of the labor just in the same way as workers do with management. We're going to take a quick break, which I'm going to try and get into body sensualism.

Humans have always been captivated by beauty, and for almost as long, we’ve been marketed products and new technologies to help us achieve certain beauty standards. Elise Hu is a journalist and the author of “Flawless: Lessons in looks and culture from the K-beauty industry.” In this episode, she shares the fascinating insights she’s learned from years of studying the $10 billion K-beauty industry and the cutting-edge skincare, niche makeup products, and technology that promise to optimize our appearance. Elise and Chris talk about the real stakes of placing a premium on our looks, why a more inclusive version of “beauty” is worth pursuing, and how we can both enjoy and push back against the very human desire to feel beautiful. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts