In 2011, almost like an anticipatory fortune-teller, the comedian tina fey described in her memoir, “Bossypants,” the look of an ideal 21st-century woman: Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, all the way to “Michelle Obama arms and doll boobs.” “The only person who has come close to achieving this look is kim kardashian who, as we know, was created by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes,” says Fey. Far from being a ruthless and futuristic satire, this ideal of planetary qualities that the actress described, is the image of a current Gioconda. Her face that returns the mobile screen to those who seek perfection. Perhaps Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner They are not replicas of this model?
The cyborg beauty It highlights the absence of limits between the natural and the created. At the end of our century, artificial men and women have ceased to be science fiction characters to invade the most everyday reality.
Our life is inconceivable without technology and its use is no longer limited to the objects that surround us, it has also begun to form part of our own bodies. The advertising that surrounds us creates “posthuman” models of beauty, based on special effects and digital systems that are an amazing combination of surgery and computer programs. Technology is rewriting our bodies to correspond to its own interests. Uniformly idealized beauty crying out to come true.
science and society
Doctor Fabian Bottegal (56) is the preferred dermatologist of the most famous faces in the country. Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the UBA, he is a specialist in skin rejuvenation techniques, a knowledge that he perfected under the tutelage of the American Fredric Brandt, one of the main references in world aesthetics. The doctor today expresses concern about the rise of this new prototype of beauty, which is increasingly looking for younger bodies and faces.
“I like all the wrinkles. I am a pro aging. It is very difficult today to have this type of dialogue with the patient, because people want to see themselves not only younger but also different – explains the specialist-. It is the serious problem of aging treatments. First, one has to be consistent with oneself. Beauty has to do, as Plato said, with ‘the proportion and harmony of the parts’. Those of us who work with aesthetics have a big problem with this new trend, with the ‘cybor beauties’. An algorithm was created that has nothing to do with real aesthetics. Instagram faces, beauties that don’t exist. Filters are used that alter reality and generate expectations that are not possible to achieve. Model Bella Hadid is beautiful, but her beauty is not real. That girl was created, her face was designed.”
Medical journals have dubbed this phenomenon “Snapchat dysmorphia,” referring to the first social network to launch the popular digital masks that distorted the face. The first filters were a diversion that offered huge eyes or dog ears. But now the rhetoric has changed and filters have become an instant beautification tool.
The Kardashians They swear that “Facetune” is the best app on the market. Justin Bieber also uses an app to make his skin appear fresh. Various Instagram accounts are dedicated to identifying the adjustments that celebrities make when editing their photos. “Celeb Face”, which has more than a million followers, posts photos from celebrity accounts and adds arrows to highlight “FaceTuning” signs. BeautyCamera, Airbrush, Photo Wonder, VisageLab, Pixl or Perfect 365, the magic wands of technology with which you can sharpen chins, whiten teeth, have porcelain skins, eyes of a gazelle or figures of nymphs.
“I think ninety-five percent of the most followed people on Instagram use FaceTune and have also had some type of cosmetic procedure,” said celebrity makeup artist Colby Smith, in an interview for “The New Yorker” magazine. .
“The pressure of the networks is very strong and that makes retouching become something necessary. What you see there is a modified image, as magazines used to do. The boys used to identify with a celebrity, but today they identify with themselves dressed up. This Instagram beauty is a social phenomenon that goes beyond aesthetics. Something new that we will have to relearn, in an uncertain future”, recognizes Bottegal.
surgeries
According to American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 1.4 million surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed last year and an average of 600 more procedures than in 2020, for a total profit of $14.5 trillion. The now culturally ingrained desire to look better in selfies (also known as “selfie awareness”) continues to rise. 77% of physicians report this desire as a driving factor for patients – an overall increase of 35% since this trend was first identified in 2016. Within this logic, the most in-demand operations have to do with correcting facial asymmetry, drooping of the eyelids, the appearance of wrinkles and the appearance of the nose. There has also been a significant increase in the demand for lip augmentation to get closer to that image, through a filter. can be accomplished in a matter of seconds.
“There comes a time when, no matter how many applications you make, your face is going to fall off. That image will not be able to continue to hold with Botox or fillers. You’re going to have to go through surgery and surgery is not the same. But the worst and new scenario is the image of this non-existent face. There are no new products, perhaps there are improvements in techniques or equipment. The issue is the age of initiation of treatment. She used to be the lady of forty and today she is the girl of twenty, and how do you explain to that girl that she wants everything and already, that she is beautiful as she is? ”, Bottegal laments. “I’d rather see a Naomi Watts (in the new series ‘The Watcher’) who remains unchanged, than her compatriot Nicole Kidman, who is almost impossible to watch. She shows the lifting! ”, Concludes the doctor.
More and more experts are warning that the fashion of virtual reality filters is affecting the way users see themselves, exacerbating their latent insecurities. And more and more young people go to clinics to try to recover that self-esteem. “This is a huge business. More and more doctors are dedicated to doing aesthetic treatments because it is very profitable. And laboratories manufacture more aesthetic products. I love to work, make money and be successful, but I also want to be involved with the patient, to know their story. Not being accommodating to all requests. The media are going to have to study this trend from a sociological point of view, because what is seen is tremendous”, admits the doctor and speaks of a new technique promoted by laboratories. “It’s called ‘Baby Botox.’ It is a preventive ‘pre-ironing’. If a 10-year-old boy frowns and wrinkles, at what age should he start getting botox? Will beauty become a lifelong addiction?
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