‘The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering are wiping out generations of beauty.’
This is a quote from Jamie Lee Curtis, the 62-year-old Hollywood actress who’s speaking from experience. She’s had a bit of work done herself. She knows it doesn’t work. That it’s just making many women look the same, and beauty has become as industrialised as any other capitalist monoculture.
What if we have done the unthinkable? Eradicated true beauty because of our perception deficit? It’s like having the exact same perfect sunset every day. Without variance – it’s meaningless.
Why are beauty standards for women so unrealistic? Is it the patriarchy at work? Or are women guilty of driving it too? Do old women really just ‘disappear’? Or do they disappear themselves into a surgeon’s office… reappearing as a perennial 35 year old? And if you are 55 – but you look 35 – is being seen as 35 actually being seen at 55?
It seems ironic that as technology starts to focus on AI and Virtual Reality that so many are sculpting their faces in a way that looks computer generated. Women are starting to look a bit like bots. And this has meant boomtown for plastic surgeons. Some say it’s a Covid-based consequence: a Zoom boom.
The rise in video conferencing during the pandemic has led to a ‘Zoom Dysmorphia’ and an increase in the demand for plastic surgery. You see, for the first time ever in conversations with our peers and colleagues we have had to look at ourselves. There are many in the Zoom room who can’t take their eyes off themselves. For the last two years we’ve basically been having meetings staring at our own reflection; we have become narcissists fixated with the screen version of ourselves. Although, unlike Narcissus, most of us haven’t fallen in love with ourselves. We are appalled.
It’s like, the more we see ourselves, the less idea we have of what we look like, or how we ‘should’ look. I once spoke to someone who talked about working in a traditional community that didn’t have mirrors. People in that community didn’t need to know what they looked like. Their presence was reflected back in their relationship with others. I think that’s beautiful. To me it describes connection and an understanding of what you actually look like. Can you read who you are in the face of another? I can’t when I am on Zoom. I am too busy going ‘Wow, I didn’t realise my nose was that big!’
I started to wonder how much I look at myself in the mirror or on a Zoom call. I counted and came up with around 50 looks over the day: the bathroom mirror, the Zoom call, facetime, the rearvision in the car, the reflective glass, the decorative mirror at the cafe, I can’t get away.. Even when I’m trying not to, I keep seeing myself. And the more I see myself, the louder the voice gets that tells me what’s wrong.
Is that the voice that also rings the plastic surgeon and books a procedure?
Australia is a ‘plastic positive’ nation. We spend $1b on cosmetic procedures. That’s 40 per cent per capita more than people in the US! Our exposure to these augmented faces has normalised surgery. It means we perceive altered faces as ideal. It means we are losing, as Jamie Lee points out, our beauty diversity.
We all need to go on a ‘face fast’. No looking at yourself for a week!
A few years ago I made a pledge to not say anything negative about my body. It really made a difference. Snapchat and Instagram filters, Photoshop… they’re all poison for self-esteem. Some people say that they’ve had procedures done because ageing makes them invisible. But I wonder if the way to become visible, to really be seen, is for us to stop looking?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
