Lip filler. Face lift. Rhinoplasty. Botox. Buccal fat removal. Veneers. These are all terms I’ve seen buzzing around on social media in relation to many influencers and celebrities. Every year, a new trend breaks the internet, and with each passing trend of cosmetic surgery, we forget what real faces are supposed to look like. “iPhone Face” as it’s been dubbed by TikTok, sets a dangerous example for who girls are supposed to be, and what they should do with their face. The overwhelming amount of plastic surgery that exists today almost makes it seem like a necessary process to become more attractive.
Recently, I was watching “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and was taken aback at the texture on Kate Hudson’s face– not because her skin was ugly, but because it was something I hadn’t seen in a long time. Now, actors and actresses can barely move their faces to deliver their lines– but at least their foreheads don’t have wrinkles. The silver screen has been deprived of what real faces look like, and the same goes for social media. It has become the new normal to get Botox before you turn 30, or to replace your teeth with pearly white veneers.
I saw an interesting comment not too long ago, making a note about the new Bob Dylan movie starring Timothee Chalamet. It noted that had Bob Dylan risen to stardom in today’s day and age, he would have to look like Timothée Chalamet to gain success. This, again, isn’t to say that Bob Dylan is an inherently ugly man, or that Timothée Chalamet is the most attractive man ever, but it instead speaks to what we prioritize in our celebrities.
What could be the cause of this, though? It has appeared to be the motto of the past decade to embrace yourself for who you are, so why are celebrities– especially female celebrities doing so much work on their face? What does that say about their audience who are buying into this new Hollywood dream of injections and fillers? Have we all put a certain type of beauty on a pedestal? A part of me believes that this issue isn’t caused by one sole factor, but by a combination of circumstances that have altered the way every day people perceive beauty.
The first factor to all of this is the overwhelming amount of access we have to people’s faces. Typically, you see the faces of your peers, coworkers, and occasionally people on TV. Before social media and streaming services were at our fingertips, there was much less interaction between our eyes and other people’s faces. But now, we scroll, and scroll, and scroll, analyzing, picking apart and dissecting other people’s faces. It’s become so easy to view flaws on other people, and to inherently see them in ourselves.
Secondly, I think there is still a preconceived idea that when a woman ages, she gets uglier. This mindset has had a drastic impact on the self-image of countless women. When Lisa LaFlamme loses her jobs over grey hair, or when tabloids make snarky remarks at Millie Bobby Brown looking “aged” at 21 it only perpetuates this way of thinking. There is therefore a fear that is so deeply rooted into beauty standards that makes getting older seem like a ticking time bomb; and with every passing year, this “cut-off” age between young and old only gets younger.
It makes sense, then, why so many young women feel compelled to get plastic surgery. If you live in a society where you are constantly being compared to other women, constantly seeing women being criticized for aging, plastic surgery feels necessary.
Unless something changes, there will be no way to rid movies and media with “iPhone Face.” Yet, it seems that there is the biggest issue at hand, the more we allow anti-aging ideologies to continue, we lose the sense of what real faces look like!