Summary:
- Addiction comes in many forms, and people around you might be struggling in silence.
- Slurs dehumanise people, and contribute to intense stigma around drug use and abuse.
- Using words like “Ad*ict” and “Ju*kie” normalise their place in our common language, where they have no place.
Addict. Junkie.
Via the Oxford Dictionary: slur noun: an offensive term used deliberately to show a lack of respect for a particular group of people.
These words are both slurs – they are derogatory, stigmatising and loaded with moral judgement. They suggest people who use drugs are less than, weak, dangerous, morally questionable, inhuman and “other”.
They carry unfathomable amounts of connotation, bias and judgement hidden behind them – and years of finger pointing, blame, shame, stigma and hate ingrained in their curved shapes.
The Power of Language and Its Role in Stigma
Language is powerful. This is widely known and accepted.
Words are our daily communication tool and are ever more integral to contemporary online communication – one word can have many meanings and connotations.
These Terms Don’t Belong in Your Username, Hashtags or Trends
They are not terms to use for your beauty account handle or hashtags.
If you truly knew and fully considered the damage, stigma and societal discrimination an actual, real-life addiction can cause to your life, social and interpersonal relationships, career, physical and mental health – the enormity of such a thing – you would not wish to align yourself with the concept in any way and you would have more respect for the term.
Addiction Is Not a Trend or a Punchline
These words are not to be jokingly referred to or used in daily convos like:
- “oohhh X+Y is so addictive/-ing!!”
- “I’m a beauty junkie”
- “I need to go to skincare AA”
They need to be eliminated from the general conversation – and reclaimed by the affected population, if they wish to keep them.
Ask Yourself: Why Are You Using These Words?
I strongly urge all to consider if you use these terms – why do you use them?
And ultimately, how can you do better by amending your language to a viable alternative?
What Words Can The Beauty World Use?
Let’s embrace more accurate words that don’t harm or further stigmatise people.
Here’s a word bank to use to share about your love of beauty and skincare:
- Skinthusiast / Enthusiast
- Passionate
- Lover
- Devotee
- Aficionado
- Connoisseur
- Explorer
- Collector
- Insider
What Can You Say Instead When Speaking About Someone Who Uses Substances?
Here are respectful and accurate alternatives when speaking about someone struggling with dependence on a substance
Referring to a drug user? Try:
- Their name
- Person who uses drugs
- Drug user
- Person who has a dependence
- Substance user
- Person with lived / Living experience of drug use
Someone who uses a D&A (drug and alcohol) service? Try:
- Name of person: “John”, “Mary”, “Bob”
- Person
- Service user
- Consumer
- Punter
- (lastly – widely used, but I am not a fan as I find it clinical and distancing) Client
How to: Talk About Drug Use Without Stigma
Think you have an unhealthy relationship with an item or behaviour?
Say just that – please – don’t hide behind these slurs and continue propagating their usage.
In doing so, you’re promoting their acceptability.
Consider why you’re aligning with this language and how you can do better moving forward.
You might obsessively love and be wholeheartedly passionate about your clothes, shopping, chocolate or the beauty / skincare industry – but this doesn’t make you a junkie or an addict, nor does it give you the right to keep using these slurs.
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Supporting Words
Content Creator and Beauty Lover Minnie Isaac— How Should The Beauty Community Respond?
The words that seeped into our beauty-vocab, hashtags, and page handles are contributing to how casually they’re reached for to describe things and more importantly, people.
This is at the expense of individuals who are already ostracised and dehumanised in society.
The first step is: I’d strongly encourage you to remove these words from your vocabulary, bios, hashtags and usernames, and at the same time, I acknowledge that it wasn’t you as an individual that started it.
No, You’re Not Getting Cancelled
You’re not a ‘bad person’ for having not known the weight these words carry.
As someone who had used these words previously and ignorantly, it is confronting to change the words you use- especially when learning their true impact, which might feel removed from your personal experience.
I understand it’s from a place of not knowing that these stigmatising words were embraced in the first place- and furthermore- used to describe something lots of people draw so much joy from.
MECCA Beauty made the choice to remove the use of their famous hashtag #meccabeautyju***e from circulation, which is something I hope the industry and other brands continue to embrace.
It’s Bigger Than You or me
It’s affecting people who are struggling with addiction, and yes, this includes beauty lovers that are struggling with substance dependence too.
Industry icon Tati Westbrook opened up about her past struggle with addiction and her sobriety journey in a candid 2024 video.
She expressed hurt at the dehumanising language used to speak about people struggling with addiction while she was in recovery, and the stigma around her sharing her story with loved ones and her audience.
Westbrook shared during an event she was called out for not drinking.
“The president of this company looks across the table right at me, eye contact, and says, “That’s a virgin mojito?” I’m like, “Yeah… yeah,”…She’s like— and this is in front of a bunch of influencers, mind you— “What are you, AA?”
And I about like melted into the ground. I said something like, “No… uh, it runs in my family. I just choose not to drink.”
So, What Can Brands do?
- Brands hosting events can make sure to have readily available non-alcoholic options, as well as still water easily accessible.
- If they’re serving alcohol, there should be food that considers all dietary options. If brands are unable to meet that requirement, they should not be serving alcohol at all.
- Drinking should be completely optional, and brands as well as PR agencies should be educated to not pressure or continuously offer alcohol to guests.
- As an extension of accessibility, brands should make it clear that anyone can contact the team privately for any considerations, including not being offered alcoholic drinks at all.
Let’s Take The Step Together
Changing the words we use to be more accurate, and changing our behaviour around how people choose to engage with substances and alcohol is something that the beauty community should embrace with open arms.
We’ve shown time and time again we can be on the first lines to progress, and this is a small step in the right direction towards supporting people that should be shown the same care and respect.
Let’s stop using the hashtags and take the words out of our bios.
Resources: Struggling with drug dependance, or know someone who is?
- Ask Izzy: Ask Izzy Service Directory
- Drug information, Peers: NSW Users & AIDS Association https://nuaa.org.au/
- Drug information, Government: Alcohol & Drug Foundation
- Support for families & carers: Family Drug Support
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