Recently, coinciding with the summer vacation, the patronage group who came to the plastic surgery clinic of Shanghai Public Hospital appeared a lot of young faces with high ponytails, and even teenage junior high school students appeared.
"Doctor, I want Barbie big eyes?" "Can you help me make a star's smiling lips..." Such inquiries made the chief physician distressed, she had to talk to these children, you think about it, wait for the older one to decide; Or encourage, in fact, you are already very good-looking, goose egg face, grape eyes, very personal characteristics, there is no need to move again.
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
When medical beauty is popular in the subway media and bus bodies in the name of "facial aesthetics", facial anxiety is constantly magnified into the mark of the times. More and more girls with their own characteristics have turned to medical beauty, hoping to change their appearance and gain aesthetic recognition from the outside world through the efforts of the day after tomorrow.
Ant waist, wine glass legs, high nose Bridge Barbie doll eyes, these cookie-cutter Internet red faces have become the only aesthetic criteria for evaluating women's appearance, and the form and appearance outside the standard are judged as "defective products".
Nowadays, this internet celebrity aesthetic trend has swept into the "fashion center rich in beauty" ——— Hollywood...
Some time ago, a photo of a well-known Hollywood actress Natalia Dyer was taken by plastic surgeon Miranda to do a sample of "how to straighten", and also intimately attached a "before and after surgery comparison chart".
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
I thought that this move could harvest a wave of traffic with the momentum of the stars, but the comments unexpectedly overturned.
Extranet netizens generally believe that Natalia Dyery's beauty is already at the top level, and her face combines innate genes and acquired temperament, and does not need to become more beautiful through a unified template. Cosmetic surgeons are brainwashed by commercial capital, and such a "self-made" evaluation naturally provokes public anger.
However, it is not only these plastic surgery doctors who are closely related to commercial interests that are bound by popular aesthetics, but also girls who are pulled into the abyss by appearance anxiety...
The standard of beauty should not be solidified
Natalia Dyer was nominated for best young actress in the digital TV series or film category at the 38th Young Artist Awards for her natural performance in the hit American drama Stranger Things. In the play, she has love, the performance is natural and flexible, the audience has a strong sense of substitution, and soon became widely sought after by young fans.
Stills from the American drama Stranger Things
Natalia Dyer's hair is chestnut, her eyes are clear as water, her jaw angle is recognizable, and she has a clean body.
Plastic surgeon Miranda does the opposite, judging it to be an imperfect cheek, suggesting that only through acquired adjustments can we grasp the popular aesthetic and become more perfect.
In the eyes of the plastic surgeon, Natalia's highly recognizable jaw angle became the biggest defect in the face, starting with the need to cut the bone, then filling her chin, enlarging her lips, and then raising her eyebrows. The plastic surgery doctor talked in the video, and the netizens at the bottom had already scolded the sky, not for anything else, just because "the world's bitter internet red face has been for a long time"...
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
"Now everyone looks the same, only because plastic surgery doctors beautify medical aesthetic technology and let the public aesthetics be single solidified." Not only that, sober netizens also stand on a different perspective, believing that people are obsessed with her beauty and demonize her uniqueness. The unique chin shape is only one of the factors of her beauty, but more importantly, the angle she shapes on the screen and the personal charm she presents.
Some netizens even said that plastic surgery doctors tried to justify the standard aesthetics identified by medical aesthetics by denying congenital genes, which was insulting.
Noticing the one-sidedness of the online evaluation, the plastic surgery doctor had to apologize and leave the scene, no longer noisy.
But hollywood's Internet celebrity trend gradually popularized is not a day's thing, once ins on an IG account called "goddess.women", often put their own imperfect Hollywood actress photos into the popular Internet celebrity style, attracted people's attention.
Image source goddess.women, copyright owned by the author
These Hollywood stars, who have swept the way with their acting skills and unique charm, are P into the "net red" style, full of plastic feeling.
Some radiant female stars in their heyday also took the sword after the decline in appearance, and the painting style became more and more strange, such as the famous hip-hop female singer Lil' Kim, who had a full face before plastic surgery, sexy and moving, and a sharp chin and sunken cheeks after plastic surgery, which shocked the audience:
Lil' Kim before a facelift
Lil' Kim after a facelift
Christina Aguilera, a generation of music divas, once blonde, she is the perfect embodiment of the "retro singer" in the hearts of countless people, but since she became obsessed with the aesthetics of Internet celebrities, the fullness of her lips has also begun to go to an outrageous degree.
Christina Aguilera before and after a facelift
When the most intuitive aesthetic thinking of standardization, patterning, and catering to human nature becomes the norm, the various people who are fat and thin become replicas of large eyes, awl faces, and white skin produced by commercial factories.
The wide-angle effect of the social field exacerbates appearance anxiety
Once a video of an African girl thinking she was ugly swept the Internet.
She had dark skin and dirty braids, but suddenly blurted out to the camera: I am ugly.
The man holding her haircut was surprised: Why do you think you're ugly?
Image source Douyin, copyright belongs to the creators
The little girl suddenly cried, and the older woman said to the little girl one after another: You are beautiful! You have two of the cutest dimples, chocolate-like skin, clean little white teeth, and are beautiful girls. Moreover, you can grow up to be a good lawyer, a manicurist, even a doctor, the best teacher.
A four-year-old girl suddenly thinks she is ugly. Whoever affected her made her feel anxious and inferior in appearance.
Many people watched this video and resonated. Some women, from children to adults, have always carried a psychological barrier of physical anxiety.
Lin Qingxia, a recognized big beauty, once said that when she was a child, she was very inferior and felt that she was not good-looking. Girls are defined by society from birth to norms and standards, and the beautiful framework of "white and thin" is one of them.
Women mature enough to gain a foothold in society, and a new set of standards begins to envelop this group. Slap face, chopstick legs, A4 waist, social gaze like shackles clasped on them. There was an article titled "The Economics of Beauty in China's Labor Market: Does Body Matter?" The paper said: for every 1 kg increase in women's weight, their wage income will drop by 0.4%; For every 1 centimeter increase in height, women's wages increase by 2.2 percent.
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
Appearance seems to have become the "trump card" of workplace survival, in order to meet the social gaze, some girls have rushed to the army of beauty.
Today, social media amplifies the wide angle of the social gaze.
It's not just women who are deeply anxious about their looks, but in front of the huge social scene, men are no exception. The social networking frenzy makes photos, glamorous, and filters the face of the social scene. Selfies can also directly affect people's lives, and even the appearance of body deformation disorders.
Danny Bowman of the United Kingdom was diagnosed with the disease.
Danny Bowman, 15, was addicted to selfies, sending out two hundred selfies a day, but none of them satisfied him. These massive photos, in the state of extremely frequent updates, have caused verbal violence among netizens: the nose is too large, the eyes are small, and the face shape is embarrassing and not plump.
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
After browsing through the comments that pointed out, he spent more than 10 hours a day on social retouching. Undoubtedly, due to social gaze and lack of self-confidence, he fell into a state of extreme depression and compulsion, and eventually dropped out of school and quit the circle. Danny was diagnosed as a selfie addict.
In the context of this intensifying carnival of appearance anxiety, it is the inherent stereotype of social gaze, the prevalence of commerce, the development of medical beauty and the proliferation of marketing phrases of "there are only lazy women in the world, no ugly women". Under these potential pushers, facial anxiety becomes a norm in society.
Reject appearance anxiety and show people with natural appearance
There was a fable in ancient Greece that inspired me.
Hunters inherited a good bow from their fathers, but their appearance was not impressive. So someone said to him that this bow was ugly. It should be matched with patterns, characters, etc., and then painted with gold powder, so as to match the hunter's ability and status.
The young hunter listened to the words of the bystanders and went into the city to ask the craftsmen to make an external modification of the good bow. He was quite satisfied with the shiny appearance of the new bow.
As a result, the next day when hunting, the hunter heard the sound of the good bow breaking when he opened the bow. The ancestral good bow ended up as a pile of scrap iron because of the vanity of the hunter.
Famous Korean beauty blogger Lina Bae is a man of plain face
Soberly knowing yourself, showing yourself as you are, and accepting yourself is the moment to show charm. Once the star Alicia Keys factored up to the sky, did not apply powder, and attended an awards ceremony. This move has aroused public doubts. Someone praised her for her courage, being able to refuse the filter, and showing her naturally. But there are also people who are not accustomed to her plain face: or a little eyebrow powder, foundation, at least some spirit.
She talked about her psychological journey: she was reminded many times that she was a star and that she had to be beautiful enough to be loved by her fans. If you are too boyish and don't look like a popular aesthetic, you may have no commercial value. This unstable mood deeply influenced the creation of music, and for a long time, I paid more attention to the external image than to the work itself.
Image source Bing, copyright belongs to the author
But beauty never ends, especially in the glamorous entertainment industry vanity fair, and she falls into deep anxiety. After a moment of reflection, she decided to abandon her anxiety, she was a music maker rather than a star, she learned to reconcile with anxiety, to show people without powder, and to immerse herself in the creation of music, paying more attention to art itself.
The photographer captured her confident, beautiful appearance. She was happy like a child: it was the most powerful, the most authentic beauty.
In fact, beauty has no standards and frameworks.
The author was obsessed with the book "ParisIan Beauty", which tells the story of women from different walks of life and different ages who use their own attitudes and paces of life to integrate with the ancient city of Paris, and the beauty they pursue is: do not blindly pursue perfection, they are pampered because of self-confidence, and they will be more attractive.
Maybe that's why the French trend is all the rage around the world. Even if they are dressed in ordinary clothes and plain faces, they stick to their hearts, in front of luxury goods, they carry rattan bags, and under the makeup of exquisite hairspray, they choose lazy French style. Even if the small freckles and slightly fat figure make them a little distressed, this does not prevent them from smiling confidently: I am myself.
There are thousands of kinds of beauty, and there will always be a cyclical trend. Distance ourselves from the beauty defined by trends, and the confidence, self-esteem, and self-love that emanate from the inside out may be the charm we deserve to be admired.
Author: Anna. A passionate and curious explorer in four-dimensional space.
Elites are said to be a gathering place for the world's elite, returnees and international students. We deliver global messages, explore cultural landscapes, innovate social models, and discover independent ideas. There is a temperature and attitude here, and you are welcome to pay attention to the elite (ID: elitestalk) if you smell alike.
Reference:
Eleventh Consultation Room: How much physical anxiety does a girl have to experience to grow up smoothly?
Triptych Life Weekly: Get out, appearance anxiety
Elites said: 1.28 billion times onlookers, Internet celebrities "reconciled with plain face" were scolded on the hot search: on the one hand, reconciliation, on the other hand, to create facial anxiety?
China Fashion Network: The female version of "sweet tea" is hated to the bone in "Stranger Things", but the reality is a small cute?
Dr. Lilac: The overwhelming "appearance anxiety" is creating a new disease