२४ ऑगस्ट, २०२१

"For the young, social media filters that smooth skin and inflate their eyes’ proportions are almost ubiquitous, like a popular 'Pixar' filter on Snapchat..."

"... that made its users look like the cartoons of their youth, or the popular Facetune app. It is a short leap to 'Facetuning' in real life. Patients used to approach surgeons with photos of celebrities; now it is more likely of their own filtered face. 'It’s exceptional now to see a photo on social media without a filter,' [says Dr Olivier Amar, one of London’s leading cosmetic surgeons]. 'Patients are comparing themselves to something that doesn’t exist. And because they may only ever see themselves on a phone, using their phone as a mirror, they may not even recognise themselves in a real mirror. If they get these treatments they feel they can have the life as people seem to have online.' Why, then, has this 'bug-eyed' face emerged ahead of all the other cultural standards of beauty? David Bainbridge, a reproductive biologist at the University of Cambridge, wrote in his book Curvology that females are more evolved than males: humans have smaller teeth, flatter faces, smaller chins and less hair than primates, especially females. Many of these qualities are emphasised in 'Instagram face,' the distinctive narrow-nosed 'heart-shaped' face. 'We do not know why women should be more "modern-looking" than men,' Bainbridge writes, 'but it has been suggested that many of the characteristics men find attractive are the same as those which make them look distinctively human.'"

The term "alien face" is used in the article. It's a reference back to cheesy 1950s movies and has to do with "diagonally pulled-up eyes... narrow nostrils and a glazed, expressionless stare" or something like "the image on the front of Space Raiders crisps, this kind of overbuilt cheek, overbuilt temple, skeletonised, sharp features that just didn’t look correct."

It's interesting to take that observation and extrapolate a reason why so many people would decide that's the most beautiful look. So Bainbridge offers his theory, that we somehow aspire to more and more evolution and are projecting into the future, trying to look like humans a million years from now. How do you know where evolution will take us? 

It seems as though you take your cliché image of a caveman, imagine what is needed to get from that to standard human being of today, then whatever you just did to the caveman, do it again to the person of today, and that's the ultra-evolved human being. Or — to follow Bainbridge's idea — you accept that a woman of today already has that "more evolved" look, so you plot a straight line from modern man to modern woman and keep going. What do you see? Now, get a plastic surgeon to translate that fanciful vision onto your actual face. 

Won't you look weird? Not if you've been using your phone as a mirror.

२१ टिप्पण्या:

Kay म्हणाले...

In lieu of surgery I wish they’d come up with a filter that just automatically activates whenever a camera is pointed at you. This way I can look ordinary in the ordinary world, but beautiful in the virtual world.

Enigma म्हणाले...

I don't think the bug-eyed, narrow-chin look has anything to do with aliens or evolving into a predicted future. I think it has everything to do with looking like a younger human. This look has elements in common with babies, kittens, and puppies. The Chinese ideal female standard has resembled this look for a long, long time too.

Adults are animalistic, as reproductive women are sexual creatures who likely suffer in finding mates if perceived as pre-sexual immature children. So, a functional adult female appearance involves a "youthful ripeness" to signify reproductive potential and the ability to reproduce for a long time. The evolutionary explanation also involves body part mimicry to explain why some female parts resemble and are routinely compared to edible fruit (e.g., melons, peaches, etc.) Human males are indeed often attracted to the youngest sexually mature females available. Human males need to eat, and they do eat ripe fruit...

None of this should be news to anyone. None of these ideas were invented by me. No need to overcomplicate what's going on, nor get lost in very recent social media analyses.

Humans and dogs are said to have evolved to resemble immature versions of apes and wolves respectively. See biological neoteny:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/neoteny
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny_in_humans

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Remember how some people agonized about getting the little picture that would go into their high school year book just right? Now everyday is spent doing that.

Howard म्हणाले...

Where's the body positivity?

tim maguire म्हणाले...

David Bainbridge...wrote in his book Curvology that females are more evolved than males

Another Althouse axiom demonstrated—it’s ok to discuss the differences between men and women so long as the woman is described as superior.

cubanbob म्हणाले...

If you use a phone as a mirror, you have problems a plastic surgeon can't fix.

Lloyd W. Robertson म्हणाले...

At the risk of being rude, I think there was a time when feminists were expected to show their "ape hair" proudly. I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist in Western countries today. On the contrary, I believe it has become somewhat common for men to wax their bodies. Ouch!

dbp म्हणाले...

If a woman gets surgery to minimize this and exaggerate that, she will have to turn the filter off, otherwise she'll be half this and double that.

But, maybe everyone else will have their filter on and so you'll look "great" IRL but horrible and bizarre in all images other than selfies.

Assistant Village Idiot म्हणाले...

So they are prefering being attractive online to being attractive live. Their online life has not only become more important, but more real, like the science-fiction short story "Call Me Joe."

Lars Porsena म्हणाले...

Time to show your kids the old Twilight Zone episode "The Eye of the Beholder".

Wilbur म्हणाले...

"Sharp cheekbones, big lips ... diagonally pulled-up eyes... narrow nostrils and a glazed, expressionless stare"

Sounds like Kim Kardashian to me.

Wince म्हणाले...

Patients used to approach surgeons with photos of celebrities; now it is more likely of their own filtered face.

Matt Damon's expression in this scene is priceless.

Readering म्हणाले...

Korean young women have been in the lead when it comes to sculpting faces to meet some fanciful ideal.

Mary Beth म्हणाले...

Are filters influencing plastic surgery or has plastic surgery influenced filters. Large, round eyes and small faces are what gets compliments in the K-dramas I watch (and J-dramas and C-dramas). Since South Korea is the world's plastic surgery center, the look that is idealized there is bound to become popular in more places.

The thought of jawline shaving makes me cringe, but it's a popular procedure, which seems weird to me since the models (supermodels) that I remember seeing on magazines in my youth seemed to have fairly strong jawlines.

gilbar म्हणाले...

Maybe a woman like this, might herself be a comedienne doing a character.
Maybe it's All a Joke, right?
I mean; Maybe they're NOT Insane, maybe it's all just an act
This is known as whistling past the graveyard

Narr म्हणाले...

I've been using my mirror as a phone. Keeps the conversations short.

Used to be, you had to pay an artist to make a flattering image of yourself, but now everyone is a self-portraitist.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Groucho Marx says the word of the 21st century is 'Narcissism.'

It's one thing to dress well, comb your hair, and try to look presentable.

It's another to obsess over your appearance, and spend hours each day photographing and videoing yourself.

That rich bastard who invented the selfie stick knew a thing or two about human nature.

Magson म्हणाले...

I've been watching a lot of Korean and Chinese tv shows lately and since I followed a few of the actors and actresses on Instagram, I now get served up constant suggestions of "reels" of various Asian channels, and a lot of the women in these short clips (especially the Vietnamese and Chinese channel, though Korea's not exempt just not as prevalent) look very alien in their faces and in their body proportions. The Chinese ladies especially appear to have had their legs extended somehow and it's really disconcerting -- I think it makes them look almost spider-like, somehow. And then the oddly shaped faces that some/many have with the shaved jaws are just creepy.

I haven't seen too much of it in the west -- boobs, butts, and lips still seem to be the alterations here -- but I wouldn't be surprised if the Asian face re-shaping makes its way here eventually also.

Achilles म्हणाले...

The world will be a better place when people are not held hostage to genetic randomness as far as physical appearance is concerned.

This will force many people to look inward.

Most "attractiveness" measures involve slight deviations from the mean in a particular direction.

Women naturally consider their personal height "average" and seek out partners that are slightly taller than they are. They are also attuned to look for men with slightly longer than average legs.

Slightly larger eyes. Slightly larger breasts. Slightly longer necks. Slightly wider hips and slightly thinner thighs providing a "thigh gap."

These are all just unconscious signals. Women have to be more selective for obvious reasons but the same general pressures apply.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Gilbar for the win!

Ron Winkleheimer म्हणाले...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHtXKTHwDDE

Also, a couple of years ago a street artist drew a picture of me when I was in Paris. When a friend of mine saw it he said that it didn't look like me. I told him of course it didn't. Who would want a picture of themselves that looked like them?