It took him hours to go viral. That was the furor that generated the new TikTok filter, “Bold Glamour”. Able to show the most emaciated face instantly beautiful. This filter not only change skin color, makeup and featuresIt is also the most realistic that has been seen so far. Whereas before passing the hand over the face made it clear that it was an effect, with this version that does not happen. Along with this technological sophistication, an already booming disorder reaches its extreme: “selfie dysmorphia”, or the obsession with filters that help to obtain a “perfect” image and the consequent low self-esteem when comparing the artificial image with the real one.
a kind vision
Initially, the effect was applied to the photos being shared, rather than the image itself. “We started using filters with Instagram, which initially proposed us to share ‘beautiful photos’. Suddenly we had a repertoire of templates to digitally retouch a photograph before uploading it, and give that album a vintage or haloed air. There was a kind of sacralization of the everyday, whether it was a sunset, my cat or a snack”, illustrates Ariel Gurevich, author of the book “digital life” (Editorial La Crujía), playwright, stage director and teacher. Paradoxically, this was added to sharing photos with the hashtag #nofilter to take pride in an unretouched image. “The photographic image has a very strong impression of reality, the less intervened it is, the greater the effect that it is a window to experience. But there is no spontaneous photographic image or one that is not constructed”, distinguishes the specialist.
Later came exaggerated filters, like dog or rabbit ears. For Gurevich, associating them with a world of illusion and deceit is a naive look. “If the unfiltered image functions as a ‘window to experience’, the filtered face folds in on itself and says ‘take me as a construction and not as a piece of a world’”. And so turning your face into that of a dog can be analogous to going to a costume party as a pharaoh; no one would think that we are the kings of Egypt. “We tend to read selfies as a narcissistic self-presentation and not in its interactive dimension. The filters have to do with playful uses that go out to look for more contact, reactions, dialogues, ”he reasons.
but according the technology progressed, so did the filters. And what at one point just offered longer lashes and a bit of makeup turned into a complete makeover and true-to-life application. In the case of “Bold Glamour”, Gurevich feels that the controversy surrounding it is related to the fact that it updates a hegemonic canon of beauty, in the manner of a photoshopped celebrity, hyper makeup, cosmetic surgery or all of that together. “But what seems like a novelty is part of a long-standing series, in the cinema, advertising and operating rooms. This matrix is prior and TikTok builds it, it does not invent it, ”he warns.
In this sense, the celebrities were among the first to get on this game. Although that’s how they took it: Soledad Fandiño tried to put makeup on top of the filter to imitate its effect, Zaira Nara put it on to surprise her makeup artist just before her homework, Catherine Fulop contrasted it with her recently awakened face, and Lali and the China Suárez maintained that it was “too much” and used it with disbelief.
“Fortunately, we live in a time when this model is increasingly questioned. There are celebrities who do not mind showing the signs of the passage of time in public. Not long ago, the video of Moria in a ‘natural’ bikini called for the revolution of the old women”, says Gurevich.
some limits
Unfortunately, not everyone is so clear about this. The most current data indicates that dysmorphic disorder it affects 3% of the population and is estimated to be a growing number. “It is a concern for defects that are not visible to the naked eye, but which results in compulsive behaviors”, illustrates Silvana Weckesser, psychologist and author of “Recalculating: to be an adult you can also learn” (Southern Leaves).
In general, it is related to the question of belonging and the fear of not being accepted. For this reason, there are many who start using the filter as a game, but then it is difficult for them to show themselves as they are, because the first to compare themselves are themselves. “That is where the excesses in plastic surgeries, fillers and other alterations begin. It’s not bad to want to look good, but when the distortion is turning you into someone else, the picture is more complex, ”says Weckesser.
In adults, it often has to do with the difficulty of accepting the passage of time. In younger people, with self-esteem and the need to feel included in moments of defining their own identity in the world. “It is an obsessive compulsive disorder. It occurs above all in adolescents due to the culture of the image they use, with a very high ideal of beauty”, explains the expert.
In addition to requiring professional help when necessary, it is essential to be able to work on the bond with oneself and understand that there is no single acceptance variable. “The validation of feelings must be worked on from specific guidelines, on issues of reality, making the person able to recognize and value themselves,” describes the psychologist.
Boys can also suffer from this threat, and they don’t have the same tools to solve it. “In children there is not always much idea of how far they understand that what is being seen is a filter. They ask for it knowing that it is, but at the same time they want to touch the eyes with big eyelashes or the kitten ears. We have to be careful how we expose them to this, because we have no evidence of what happens in the long term, except with adults who have had problems…”, indicates María Sol Cabezas Hurtado, pediatrician, emergency physician and in charge of the @mamipandapediatra account.
When the self-image does not match the image we see, that distance can generate symptoms similar to those of anxiety, quite difficult to manage and more complicated the later the diagnosis. “And clearly more difficult the more exposed we are to what this brings us,” says the specialist. It is a pathology that can generate a very large deterioration in the quality of life, including depressive disorders, social phobias and even suicidal ideation.
“With younger children there is still no specific information, but it is important to know that scientific societies continue to request that we keep children as far away from screens as possible,” recalls Cabezas Hurtado, who recommends drawing limits as clear as, when removing a family photo, avoid the filter, or just use it in advance. “Raising awareness among the children is difficult, but raising awareness to preserve it later is much easier”, he summarizes.
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