A woman on TikTok has spoken out about the downsides of being beautiful, prompting polarized views from social media users.
US-based TikTok user and model Emily Adonna recently took to the short-form video-sharing platform to reveal the difficulties she faces due to what she calls "pretty privilege".
Glamour Magazine UK recently penned a piece on the realities of pretty privilege, writing that term is used to describe: "The benefits associated with conforming to society's beauty ideals. It's conditional - think white, thin, cis-gendered, young, non-disabled figures."
Throughout the piece, it is explained that the prettier someone is, the more society views them as being smarter, funnier, healthier, more sociable, and more successful. "Pretty people hold the key to a door of opportunities, connections, and choices which are shut, locked, and barricaded from others," the article reads.
Emily - who lives in California and is signed to LOOK Modeling Agency - described this in her TikTok reply to one of her follower's comments that read: "It's always a privilege and it's okay. Everyone would use it if they could."
"Pretty privilege is a thing, I'm not here to deny that," she says in her reply.
Then she goes on to add: "But it comes with disadvantages. I've never been in a job where I haven't been harassed. I've rarely been in social situations where I haven't been harassed. People don't usually take 'no' as an answer with me, because they think I'm something to be possessed. People do not ask before touching me in public, I am grabbed regularly."
"I was once passed up on for a business opportunity because they said that I was too young and beautiful," she adds. "They thought that would be distracting for the other people in the industry."
Emily adds that she notices a significant difference in the way people treat her when she is dressed up and wearing makeup, versus when she sports a more casual style. Due to her looks, she says she is often sexualized.
"I am treated differently, and it is night and day, when I go in public with a mask and raggedy old oversized clothes, and looking how I am right now. When I look raggedy, people don't touch me, they don't feel entitled to me. It's the idea that because I'm present and because I'm pretty, there is a sense of entitlement to that space, or that I'm automatically associated with something sexual," she says.
Many of her 35,500 followers are divided, however.
Some people felt the need to leave nasty comments underneath the video, with one user choosing to write: "So grab a spatula and scrape the 'fake-up' off. Go natural and see if you are so oppressed."
However, one of Emily's followers highlighted that the negative comments were simply proving the model's point, writing: "So many haters here. They're only hating because you're pretty; they're partially proving your point without even realizing it."
"A ton of pretty girls feel this way along with a harder time making genuine friendships and connections. It can be very isolating," another person wrote.
Another user chimed in: "My job is photographing models and many are generally the [loneliest] people and can't make friends. You start feeling bad, I definitely understand."
"Say it louder. Just because this isn't how I move through the world, doesn't mean your [experience] isn't valid [...]," another comment read.
What do you think? Have you ever been affected by pretty privilege?
