Stella, a girl, loves manicure and once ran a manicure shop during her college years. This shop opened on the site of the dormitory, and it is also a classmate's business, so the price is very low. After receiving a series of customers who gave her a headache, she deeply felt the truth that the price affected the customer base. "It seems that everyone thinks that if they do a manicure, they can hook up with exquisiteness."

One of the girls who impressed her the most was her first contact with nail art. "She used to be the kind of girl who could even cut her nails." Stella thinks the girl may be determined to dress herself up, so she plans to start with getting her nails done. However, the girl's aesthetic level fell below Stella's imagination. "I recommended some of the most versatile solid colors to her according to her appearance, but she insisted on making the one full of rhinestones. Seriously, I dare not look at the effect after making it, but you can't imagine how happy she is after making it."

"Looking back now, the customers who came to my place for manicure may all be' exquisite pig girl'." Stella said.

Who is the exquisite pig girl

At the moment when thinness is the beauty, more and more girls in Weibo, Zhihu and other social media are scrambling to give themselves the title of "pig", and the title of "exquisite XX queen" also appears frequently. According to the popular saying, the "pig girl" may not have a high level of aesthetics and the appearance conditions are not outstanding, but the efforts in dressing themselves are no less than those of bloggers. Sometimes, even if they just go downstairs to take out the garbage, they will spend two hours making up.

"Pig girl" is said to have originated from the content posted by a Weibo user @ Leisure Lu. She pointed out that cats and dogs are out of fashion, and pigs will be the next animal sought after by people, and gave the definition of pig girl, which refers to those girls who are stupid, silly, with a low laugh point and a big nerve but are very loyal to their friends, but it does not have a clear derogatory meaning. Later, users on social media added "exquisite" attributes to pig girl. For example, they love to take selfies, either with exquisite makeup or masks. Usually, white-collar girls living in cities or students enjoying campus life in universities shout "Today is also an exquisite pig girl" or "Even if life is difficult and dangerous, they must persist in being an exquisite pig girl", but their so-called "hard life" is only overtime at best.

With the popularity of buzzwords, there are matching expression packs. The image of Peggy Piggy, the protagonist in the British pre-school education TV cartoon Peggy Piggy, has been used by netizens as a textbook model of "Piggy Girl". Because Peggy Piggy's animation style is minimal, the expression theme is clear at a glance, and with the guidance of copywriting, the popular expressions in adult entertainment gossip are contrasted with the contents of the animation itself, which has become a massive expression pack library for netizens to fight for pictures. In addition to Page, a photo of a girl with baby fat was also labeled as an exquisite pig girl.

Optimism and progress are the key words in the life attitude of pig, pig and girl. Some netizens found that the American TV series "The Great Ms. Mercer" is highly consistent with the definition of this type of girl, with a score of 9.3 on Douban. The heroine in the drama has to change a suit almost every ten minutes, and one of the classic clips is widely circulated on the Internet: in the video, after saying good night to her husband, she turns off the lights and goes to sleep, she secretly gets up and goes to the bathroom to remove makeup and curl her hair, and then goes to the bathroom to put on nude makeup before her husband wakes up. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Mercer to experience a marriage change, but it didn't affect her to maintain an independent and exquisite life, which made a group of "pig girls" stunned and regarded her as an example.

The fragment of The Great Ms. Mercer

Shallow and exquisite

Exquisite pig girl gradually evolved into a kind of artificial label in the process of word of mouth. This phenomenon-level vocabulary relies on viral spread, reminding everyone not to fall behind in network hotspots. There is a saying of "meme" in linguistics, that is, information is copied in a broad sense in the process of imitation, which is the communication motivation behind most online buzzwords. Users do not know it in the process of imitation, but they copy the information source unconsciously, and every netizen constitutes a part of meme.

The label represents a life attitude and lifestyle, and it is also a kind of standing. The application of similar labels has developed from snake essence to pig essence in recent years, and with the recent Buddhism and middle-aged girls, maybe everyone can sit in the right place after the fashionable buzzwords.

Image source: interface data set

In a sense, "pig, pig and girl" represents ordinary people. On this basis, the attribute "exquisite" is added, which shows that the public has new requirements for living standards in the current environment where the material consumption level is pushed to a new height. This process is also accompanied by the development of business. For example, all kinds of brands are using new consumer demand for marketing, trying to create an atmosphere and culture in which consumption is constantly pursuing upgrading.

It was the beauty celebrities in Weibo who first made the name "exquisite pig girl's favorite Korean makeup limit". Bloggers and KOL's blog posts also used "exquisite pig girl" as a propaganda role to recommend products such as Amway lipstick and eye shadow to consumers, or recommended local care products such as hand protection and hair care. Consumer-friendly brands such as household necessities are also teaching consumers to pay attention to details, saying that this is "real exquisiteness", while online celebrity stores with food and beverage are even more.

However, these so-called "exquisiteness" are more superficial, which are explicit exquisiteness and exquisiteness that others can see ―― even if you are poor enough to go home and eat steamed bread, you should buy the eye shadow tray recommended by the blogger, and every pig girl who may not have a good life should "look good". This is a kind of performance, and it is the most common daily life without any emotional tendency.

Only in this Internet age, performance has a more independent stage in the virtual space. Nowadays, the Internet and the media have obvious instrumental features and hidden routines and skills. Compared with the era when the Internet was not popular, people nowadays have saved the embarrassment and estrangement face to face, shortened the time from acquaintance to acquaintance, and in most cases, people can establish their impression on others through words and pictures on the screen, which makes the process of self-presentation easier and faster, and easier to operate.

In fact, for "exquisite pig girl", it is "exquisite" that characterizes the value orientation of the word, which reflects the girls' desire to control their lives. "Pig" is just retreating for progress, and it exists only to make boasting on social networks more subtle. After all, girls choose one from hundreds of selfies and then post it online for two hours. Who really thinks they are "pigs"?

Modern women are under more and more social pressure, and they need to increase their mastery of life through some small things within their power. When they are too busy between working overtime and raising children, they may put on a mask or lipstick to get themselves out of it, which is called "controllability" in social psychology. The improvement of life controllability is directly proportional to life satisfaction, and it is also the most basic life demand. Compared with the earlier popular "pig girl" with derogatory meaning, "pig girl" is an optimist's self-mockery, which gives women a step of "weakness" and declares that behind their strength, they can also have more personalities and choices that are not attached to people, pleasing people and inconsistent with mainstream values.

Beauty bloggers recommend lipstick

The sense of belonging of online vagrants

However, does this mean that "exquisite pig girl" is a kind of feminism? I'm afraid the answer is not that simple.

In the United States, there was once a trend of "pig girl", which was Miss Piggy born in 1974. You must have seen her face or seen her story. In the American TV show Muppet Show, Miss Piggy grew up in a small town in Iowa. Because her father died when she was young and her mother was not good to her, Piggy grew up in a bad environment, which gave birth to her idea of leaving her hometown to participate in a beauty contest. Since then, Miss Piggy has demonstrated the inspirational story of how to become a beauty after tomorrow. She is optimistic and never gives up. She looks like a "pig version" of Watanabe Naomi, online celebrity. More and more famous Miss Pig gradually has her own variety show, which is also the only TV program focusing on female roles in the last century. With the popularity of this role, Miss Piggy quietly became a leader in the feminist movement in the United States at that time, proclaiming that women trapped in their family environment and their own conditions have the right and the courage to pursue their dreams.

While upper-middle-class women in the United States balance and choose between family and career, self-pursuit and social identity, well-educated women living in first-tier cities such as China, Beishangguang and other cities are now facing the same problem. An article entitled "Why Scandinavian women make the world jealous" was widely forwarded on social media. The article wrote: "The 213 Global Gender Gap Report shows that Icelandic women basically have everything (referring to the breadth and depth of family, work, political and economic participation, and personal happiness), and their sisters in Finland, Norway and Sweden are also doing quite well. In this report, these countries occupied the top four, while the United States ranked dismally 23rd, slightly lower than last year. " Therefore, the author points out that American women could not find a sense of belonging in the community because the equality between men and women was not satisfied. In 217 in China, from the advertisement of SKII's "Little Dream VS Fearless" to the TV series "My First Half Life" and "Ode to Joy", the topic of women was constantly raised and discussed.

Miss Piggy has become a benchmark for women from poor families

But in fact, metaphors do not only happen to women. Previously, the most popular thing was to divide boyfriends into dog boyfriends and cat boyfriends. Dog boyfriends refer to those boys who are more active and outgoing, like to play sports and have some nerves, while cat boyfriends refer to boys who are more introverted and cold, often keep people away, and are not good at dealing with people but have very delicate minds. In addition, there are statements such as a lion boyfriend with explosive leadership and a warm koala boyfriend. Whether this is anthropomorphization of animals or anthropomorphization of human nature is not easy to distinguish, but in essence, they are all symbolic.

symbols facilitate people to define themselves and find the same kind, and also promote the deconstruction of consumers in the business world. In the digital economy, the symbolic clustering effect is much more obvious for women than for men. "Her economy" determines that women are the biggest word-of-mouth spreading group on the mobile Internet. When they buy certain items, if they meet people who buy the same items, they will be more likely to have a buzz. Over the years, the popularity of the internet has also made symbolization have a rapid development space, and network terms and patterns have become the carriers of symbolization. According to the 4th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China released by China Internet Information Center, as of June, 217, the netizens in China are still mainly 1-39 years old, accounting for 72.1% of the total. Young netizens have caused the rejuvenation of online buzzwords, and they are more inclined to joke and satirize the processing of online terms and symbols. However, whether they are self-deprecating or spitting at others, this is a signal to people around them to confirm whether they are of the same kind. At this point, humans are no different from any mammal.

This is also the reason why major brands are cultivating communities nowadays. The biggest benefit of this strategy is to provide a sense of belonging, just like people used to divide tribes by tattoos. From "pig girl", "Buddha girl" to "dog cat boyfriend", there is no lack of identification and identification of identity. In the words of philosopher Wittgenstein, "The world that can be spoken is the world that we can master. If we can't say it, that is, the world that can't be symbolized and simplified, we have to remain silent. "

-Finally, we asked practitioners in three industries how to define "exquisiteness", and here are their answers.

Yu Wei, a clerk in a luxury store

If exquisiteness can be equated with things, it is estimated that almost all our customers are exquisite girls.

A singer from CCTV once came to our store. I just joined the company a short time ago, and I was still a child. When she saw that I couldn't hold her back, she pushed my luck even further.

In the process of fitting, she will deliberately be picky. She will only try on the one on the shelf and not accept the goods taken out of the warehouse.

These people just treat us like people. In their concept, money means goods, so any matching suggestions we put forward in the service process will be regarded as disrespect for their eyes, and being scolded will be commonplace. The most important thing is, sometimes you come around and leave without buying anything.

Although it's not good to say this, some VIPs dress up like a decent person, but their behavior is no different from that of the aunt in the vegetable market.

Judy

Eyebrows are too important for girls.

Many girls come with photos of stars, and let us make an identical eyebrow shape. It's really hard for us to say that the makeup of a star is actually of little reference value, unless your face looks like a star except for the eyebrows.

Most people still want to have beautiful eyebrows after removing makeup, especially those girls who live with their boyfriends. After all, people with eyebrows are more energetic. I can understand this reason, but no one can guarantee that it will be exquisite 24 hours a day. Life is already very tired. A boyfriend can't accept his worst side, so why should he have your best side?

A little girl is extremely demanding. She chose the most expensive and simulated style in our store, and kept telling me to do it naturally in the process of making it, in order to have an interview in two weeks. She thought that making an eyebrow would make her more confident.

to be honest, this girl is already beautiful.

Jeanne, a beautician

injections are a common occurrence.

Everyone's requirements are different. Some girls just want to get rid of acne, and they will feel satisfied if their faces are clean and smooth. But now the development of medical beauty is too fast, and some girls are addicted to water-light needles and face-lifting needles. But who can resist the temptation to become beautiful with one injection?

All the people who come to our store should be exquisite girls. Even if they are not, they want to be exquisite girls.

The most important thing now is beautiful girls. There are a lot of them in the street, so it's hard not to be anxious. When chatting with customers, you will find that many of them come with psychological problems.

header source: Peppa Pig