Hi Musers, today’s post is a little off-topic from our usual mental health and body acceptance fare. It comes courtesy of my sister again. She has recently developed an interest in skincare to fix issues like rosacea on her face. Believe me, when she moves ahead with anything she researches it to death first. For this reason, she follows a lot of skincare influencers on IG and YouTube.

One particular influencer she follows recently posted a statement saying if you’re a skincare influencer and you’re not speaking out about political issues then you’re just pushing products. Needless to say, we discussed this a lot. The upshot was that we could understand why she was saying what she did but didn’t necessarily agree. Here’s why.

Talking About Things You Don’t Understand

I am absolutely a supporter of equality for all. I don’t care whether it’s fat acceptance, destigmatising mental illness, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, women’s rights, or freedom of religion. Everyone should be able to live their lives, in the way they want, free from prejudice. I will share posts on my Instagram page promoting these values. I also believe the recent assault on democracy in America is horrific. Trump’s whole presidency had been horrific in fact. one of my favourite bloggers The Fatphobia Slayer posted about it and I applaud her for doing so.

That doesn’t mean I feel comfortable talking about it. Trump’s Twitter account is the embodiment of how you can make things worse by saying the wrong thing. In his case, it’s quite deliberate but a lot of harm can be done by accident too. A poor choice of words, being ill-informed or having an unconscious bias.

A Dedicated Space

Even if we ignore not feeling qualified to talk about something it’s also possible to simply not want to talk about it. To make a place dedicated to one topic. One thing you’re passionate about. That’s the reason I started this blog. I’m not afraid to step outside the main themes of body acceptance, mental health and cooking. It’s my blog and so my rules! I don’t believe I should be required to if I don’t want to. Admittedly, I don’t have much of a following yet anyway but when I do I don’t believe it should automatically negate my right to choose my topics.

A Positive Space

The world is rough. It’s upsetting. There’s a lot of bad. I stopped reading the news years ago because sometimes it kept me awake at night. It was so bleak. Is it wrong to want a space that’s positive? I’m not in denial or closing my eyes as to how the world really is. I want a place where I can discuss serious issues but from a hopeful perspective. I can understand if other influencers want to create a positive space too.

What do you think?

Do influencers and bloggers, especially those with a large following, have a responsibility to speak out about political issues? Or should each person choose what they want to talk about. Let me know in the comments.

Love CMoo