The Age Of The Instagram Face
December 13, 2019 8:41 AM Subscribe
It's a young face, of course, with poreless skin and plump, high cheekbones. It has catlike eyes and long, cartoonish lashes; it has a small, neat nose and full, lush lips. It looks at you coyly but blankly, as if its owner has taken half a Klonopin and is considering asking you for a private-jet ride to Coachella.
The face is distinctly white but ambiguously ethnic—it suggests a National Geographic composite illustrating what Americans will look like in 2050, if every American of the future were to be a direct descendant of Kim Kardashian West, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Kendall Jenner (who looks exactly like Emily Ratajkowski). “It’s like a sexy . . . baby . . . tiger,” Cara Craig, a high-end New York colorist, observed to me recently.
The face is distinctly white but ambiguously ethnic—it suggests a National Geographic composite illustrating what Americans will look like in 2050, if every American of the future were to be a direct descendant of Kim Kardashian West, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Kendall Jenner (who looks exactly like Emily Ratajkowski). “It’s like a sexy . . . baby . . . tiger,” Cara Craig, a high-end New York colorist, observed to me recently.
Mod note: A few comments removed. Let's please not kick this off with "okay but let's make this about doom and dystopian speculation" for no good reason.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:12 AM on December 13, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:12 AM on December 13, 2019 [9 favorites]
This quote is the crux of the (much larger) issue, to me:
Social media has supercharged the propensity to regard one’s personal identity as a potential source of profit—and, especially for young women, to regard one’s body this way, too.
It’s not like “selling out” is anything new, but social media has broadened the group of people who can benefit from shaping themselves as a product from people with some kind of fame to anyone with access to the platform. The type of profit you can reap from this isn’t just money, or fame, but the kind of acknowledgement social media drives—the likes and comments that makes the user feel seen and valued, except what’s being seen is all image. And mixing up your identity as a person with your packaging as a product can really fuck you up in the head. Add to that the fact that most women already grapple with mixing up “what is my value as a person” and “society values my looks, my image, more than my personality” and it’s a bad brew.
posted by sallybrown at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2019 [21 favorites]
Social media has supercharged the propensity to regard one’s personal identity as a potential source of profit—and, especially for young women, to regard one’s body this way, too.
It’s not like “selling out” is anything new, but social media has broadened the group of people who can benefit from shaping themselves as a product from people with some kind of fame to anyone with access to the platform. The type of profit you can reap from this isn’t just money, or fame, but the kind of acknowledgement social media drives—the likes and comments that makes the user feel seen and valued, except what’s being seen is all image. And mixing up your identity as a person with your packaging as a product can really fuck you up in the head. Add to that the fact that most women already grapple with mixing up “what is my value as a person” and “society values my looks, my image, more than my personality” and it’s a bad brew.
posted by sallybrown at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2019 [21 favorites]
Growing up in the 70s, I managed to acquire bad body image bordering on dysmorphia and an eating disorder. I can only imagine the harm social media images are doing to today's young people. (I almost typed 'today's girls' but remembered that these issues are becoming ever more equal opportunity.)
I follow r/botchedsurgeries (unnecessary and badly done plastic surgery, mostly done on young people) and r/Instagramreality (reveals how manipulated social media images are), and I've seen comments on both from people with eating disorders and body images problems about how triggering Instagram influencers are. Even supposedly body positive accounts heavily edit photos, smoothing cellulite and flattening bellies.
I'm starting to feel downright punk rock--I've had no plastic surgery, I don't edit my photos, and I don't wear make-up at all, let alone the heavy contouring that's fashionable at the moment. I don't even do anything to my eyebrows. This is my face and I'm not going to alter it, even temporarily. But it's easy for me to think that way as I'm 54 years old and generally invisible.
posted by LindsayIrene at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2019 [25 favorites]
I follow r/botchedsurgeries (unnecessary and badly done plastic surgery, mostly done on young people) and r/Instagramreality (reveals how manipulated social media images are), and I've seen comments on both from people with eating disorders and body images problems about how triggering Instagram influencers are. Even supposedly body positive accounts heavily edit photos, smoothing cellulite and flattening bellies.
I'm starting to feel downright punk rock--I've had no plastic surgery, I don't edit my photos, and I don't wear make-up at all, let alone the heavy contouring that's fashionable at the moment. I don't even do anything to my eyebrows. This is my face and I'm not going to alter it, even temporarily. But it's easy for me to think that way as I'm 54 years old and generally invisible.
posted by LindsayIrene at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2019 [25 favorites]
Really, fundamentally, it's about opening new frontiers - you can't just go out and steal land to build a railroad, because the land is all owned. So what do you do? You find a new way to expand, in this case the idea that we should all aspire to spend thousands of dollars every six months to reshape our faces. And you back various celebrities and media to make sure that this comes to seem normal, and you back research to "improve" the results, and in the end you have, basically, ownership over an entirely new industry.
Naturally 90% of this is done for/to women, of course. But eventually the women will be maxed out and you'll need to move on to the men.
~~
Lately I've been feeling like I want to join a religious community because I feel like modern life is too fucked up and I want to be able to have an immediate group of people and a structured set of practices around me as I try to figure out what's actually worth doing. I mean, this is shit, utter shit - spend all your time trying to buy more and shooting your face full of fillers so that you look more like a picture on the screen that you stare into for ten hours a day, and of course, the pictures on the screen that seem to embody security, comfort and peace are just the product of more and stupider work.
And of course we'll all justify it, and some of the justifications will be somewhat true - "I have to look young to stay employed" and "people use their phones for useful things" - but that won't undercut the basically shit nature of the whole situation.
posted by Frowner at 9:21 AM on December 13, 2019 [33 favorites]
Naturally 90% of this is done for/to women, of course. But eventually the women will be maxed out and you'll need to move on to the men.
~~
Lately I've been feeling like I want to join a religious community because I feel like modern life is too fucked up and I want to be able to have an immediate group of people and a structured set of practices around me as I try to figure out what's actually worth doing. I mean, this is shit, utter shit - spend all your time trying to buy more and shooting your face full of fillers so that you look more like a picture on the screen that you stare into for ten hours a day, and of course, the pictures on the screen that seem to embody security, comfort and peace are just the product of more and stupider work.
And of course we'll all justify it, and some of the justifications will be somewhat true - "I have to look young to stay employed" and "people use their phones for useful things" - but that won't undercut the basically shit nature of the whole situation.
posted by Frowner at 9:21 AM on December 13, 2019 [33 favorites]
And mixing up your identity as a person with your packaging as a product can really fuck you up in the head.
Previously on MetaFilter
posted by non canadian guy at 9:25 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
Previously on MetaFilter
posted by non canadian guy at 9:25 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
this was a good read. the veer off when she started going to consultations and found herself unexpectedly insecure from them when she thought she was shielded feels a lot like me trying to think too hard about the beauty industry, especially in trans spaces - like, go far enough in on the subject and my honestly kind of contemptuous thoughts start to glance off and slide into doubt and, well, wouldn't it be nice, though, and personal choice, and it's cool what we can do to/with the human body, at least, right? but it's still very hard to ignore the Everything of it.
posted by gaybobbie at 9:33 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by gaybobbie at 9:33 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
Even at my horrifically advanced age, I have had to learn how to take decent selfies. I am not going to bother with the indecent selfies. With what I know about life in society, it is a trick supreme to look upbeat, show some teeth, with a smile curling away, it is the trick of helping the people who care for digital contact with me, feel comfortable that I am OK. (At least in that moment.) I have learned I don't want anything I cannot buy for myself. I don't look at people as if they are my personal supply line.
The productization of the face is reality in this income and bare survival oriented species of ours. I get all sorts of recommendations for "friends" I could make on social media. I never see a bare chested "male" or a thong bottomed "female" that I would click on to say, oh yes, I want to be your social media friend or follower. I see a lot of poofy lipped fuzzy focus shots, a lot of apologetic looking people, and I just go with whom I know.
It is disturbing, the whole human packaging industry, it blares from every view screen, look like this, look like that, look comfy this year, look like you bought your clothes with your eyes closed, and put them on the dark, this year.
Anyway there is a lot of unpleasant in this world, and I try to at least look pleasant, and keep my projection about how light falls on the landscape, or on the fruit I have around, in the morning light. At least I have some fruit, and a table to put it on. No for sale signs anywhere.
posted by Oyéah at 9:46 AM on December 13, 2019 [8 favorites]
The productization of the face is reality in this income and bare survival oriented species of ours. I get all sorts of recommendations for "friends" I could make on social media. I never see a bare chested "male" or a thong bottomed "female" that I would click on to say, oh yes, I want to be your social media friend or follower. I see a lot of poofy lipped fuzzy focus shots, a lot of apologetic looking people, and I just go with whom I know.
It is disturbing, the whole human packaging industry, it blares from every view screen, look like this, look like that, look comfy this year, look like you bought your clothes with your eyes closed, and put them on the dark, this year.
Anyway there is a lot of unpleasant in this world, and I try to at least look pleasant, and keep my projection about how light falls on the landscape, or on the fruit I have around, in the morning light. At least I have some fruit, and a table to put it on. No for sale signs anywhere.
posted by Oyéah at 9:46 AM on December 13, 2019 [8 favorites]
In Borderlands 3 the bad guys are social media stars / cult leaders. (Tyreen, Troy.) They did a good job of exaggerating various aspects common in that realm.
posted by poe at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by poe at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's always really interesting to read essays like this about "Instagram culture" because, while I know it's a thing and this is certainly the dominant aesthetic of IG, it's completely removed from my own experience of instagram. My instagram is carefully curated basically to make me feel better about myself as a fat, queer, trans/non-binary person. Also to make me laugh. So it's all fat people, queer people, and trans/non-binary people (sometimes all of the above!), my friends/family (many of whom fall into one of those categories), and queer meme accounts.
And queer/trans instagram definitely has its own tropes, some of which are problematic in their own way (one of my favorite instagram trans people talks about how they feel pressured to be radically vulnerable and inspiring all the time, instead of sometimes just showing their normal life or their goofy side), but it's not this mess. And so I do want to gently push back on the dystopian hand-wringing I often see about instagram. Yes, it can be used to promote unrealistic standards, especially for women, just like every other form of mass media that's existed over the last few hundred years, BUT it can also be a powerful way for people to see others like themselves, to see their experiences reflected and validated, to see bodies like their own as beautiful and worthy.
posted by the sockening at 10:20 AM on December 13, 2019 [25 favorites]
And queer/trans instagram definitely has its own tropes, some of which are problematic in their own way (one of my favorite instagram trans people talks about how they feel pressured to be radically vulnerable and inspiring all the time, instead of sometimes just showing their normal life or their goofy side), but it's not this mess. And so I do want to gently push back on the dystopian hand-wringing I often see about instagram. Yes, it can be used to promote unrealistic standards, especially for women, just like every other form of mass media that's existed over the last few hundred years, BUT it can also be a powerful way for people to see others like themselves, to see their experiences reflected and validated, to see bodies like their own as beautiful and worthy.
posted by the sockening at 10:20 AM on December 13, 2019 [25 favorites]
Filler face. It photographs ok but looks awful in real life and on film. The top lip injections in particular are very distracting to me in movies and on TV, The Walking Dead was a perennial offender and of course Flash- the actresses on that show perpetually look like they've been punched in the mouth. And if you do it for decades as some people I know personally have you get lumpy-face over time. Looks good in a high key fashion photo shot with a ring light though and that's all people care about.
Btw if you want better selfies stop using the wide angle lens on your phone which is about 28mm equivalent and makes your nose gigantic.
posted by fshgrl at 10:54 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
Btw if you want better selfies stop using the wide angle lens on your phone which is about 28mm equivalent and makes your nose gigantic.
posted by fshgrl at 10:54 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm so entranced by the visuality of Instagram because I don't get it exactly. Having been a text-fiend all my life, Twitter made sense to me. Instagram is confusing to me because of the dominant aesthetics, in a way that "it me" and other verbal expressions that have spread throughout internet culture are not confusing, despite their ubiquity. Though I do 120% agree with the sockening that you can find and make communities that largely eschew the Instagram look.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:59 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
There was something strange, I said, about the racial aspect of Instagram Face—it was as if the algorithmic tendency to flatten everything into a composite of greatest hits had resulted in a beauty ideal that favored white women capable of manufacturing a look of rootless exoticism. “Absolutely,” Smith said. “We’re talking an overly tan skin tone, a South Asian influence with the brows and eye shape, an African-American influence with the lips, a Caucasian influence with the nose, a cheek structure that is predominantly Native American and Middle Eastern.” Did Smith think that Instagram Face was actually making people look better? He did. “People are absolutely getting prettier,” he said. “The world is so visual right now, and it’s only getting more visual, and people want to upgrade the way they relate to it.”P.S. I super dig Jia Tolentino's writing.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:59 AM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
That previously, yikes. MeFi was different in 2009.
I can't help but feel there's often a class aspect to criticisms of IG face. It's like complaining about the Kardashians - yes, they're problematic, but people feel safe hating them because they're not "classy". The look might take money to achieve, but a young woman in full IG-face would not be taken seriously at, say, a law firm.
posted by airmail at 11:01 AM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
I can't help but feel there's often a class aspect to criticisms of IG face. It's like complaining about the Kardashians - yes, they're problematic, but people feel safe hating them because they're not "classy". The look might take money to achieve, but a young woman in full IG-face would not be taken seriously at, say, a law firm.
posted by airmail at 11:01 AM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
This stuff makes corsets look relatively easy. And cheap.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:33 AM on December 13, 2019
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:33 AM on December 13, 2019
The look might take money to achieve, but a young woman in full IG-face would not be taken seriously at, say, a law firm.
Have you seen the photos of big law lawyers in your local city mag lately? They aren't lumpy bespectacled old guys in bad suits anymore, at least not all of them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:36 AM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
Have you seen the photos of big law lawyers in your local city mag lately? They aren't lumpy bespectacled old guys in bad suits anymore, at least not all of them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:36 AM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
The look might take money to achieve, but a young woman in full IG-face would not be taken seriously at, say, a law firm.
Emmm no. I'd say a good chunk of the international younger generation is going full Hunger Games city dweller with the personal adornments, hair and make up. Full glam make up is absolutely showing up all over workplaces and is becoming very acceptable. No judgement here, I think it's neat but man it looks like a lot of work. I'm glad I'm old.
Also you can be on instagram and see none of this at all. I follow old house restoration, rural living and wildlife accounts. A friend follows exclusively VW Bug and van accounts Soccer is massive on insta. Instagram is legion and there's room for everyone.
posted by fshgrl at 11:51 AM on December 13, 2019 [8 favorites]
Emmm no. I'd say a good chunk of the international younger generation is going full Hunger Games city dweller with the personal adornments, hair and make up. Full glam make up is absolutely showing up all over workplaces and is becoming very acceptable. No judgement here, I think it's neat but man it looks like a lot of work. I'm glad I'm old.
Also you can be on instagram and see none of this at all. I follow old house restoration, rural living and wildlife accounts. A friend follows exclusively VW Bug and van accounts Soccer is massive on insta. Instagram is legion and there's room for everyone.
posted by fshgrl at 11:51 AM on December 13, 2019 [8 favorites]
In Borderlands 3 the bad guys are social media stars / cult leaders.
I've never liked the Borderlands franchise, but I might reconsider if it means I get to bring down the influencer empire.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:55 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've never liked the Borderlands franchise, but I might reconsider if it means I get to bring down the influencer empire.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:55 AM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
But eventually the women will be maxed out and you'll need to move on to the men.
But everyone knows that's already happening. In fact, in the U.S., men underwent 16% of cosmetic surgeries in 2005, and that increased all the way to ... umm... 13% in 2018. Ooops. Never mind.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:40 PM on December 13, 2019
But everyone knows that's already happening. In fact, in the U.S., men underwent 16% of cosmetic surgeries in 2005, and that increased all the way to ... umm... 13% in 2018. Ooops. Never mind.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:40 PM on December 13, 2019
stop using the wide angle lens on your phone which is about 28mm equivalent and makes your nose gigantic
Can this be translated for someone who knows nothing about cameras? Is this typically the front facing camera or the rear facing camera? How can I tell if a lens is wide angle?
posted by jeoc at 1:49 PM on December 13, 2019
Can this be translated for someone who knows nothing about cameras? Is this typically the front facing camera or the rear facing camera? How can I tell if a lens is wide angle?
posted by jeoc at 1:49 PM on December 13, 2019
Wasn't there a study at one point that found that Instagram users were the unhappiest of all social media users? I kinda vaguely remember that but I might be making it up.
posted by subdee at 1:49 PM on December 13, 2019
posted by subdee at 1:49 PM on December 13, 2019
Instagram ranked worst for young people’s mental health (Royal Society for Public Health, 2017)
posted by Not A Thing at 3:47 PM on December 13, 2019
posted by Not A Thing at 3:47 PM on December 13, 2019
Can this be translated for someone who knows nothing about cameras?
All phone cameras are wide angle. They make your face look thinner and deeper front to back while a telephoto lens makes it look wider and flatter which is more flattering. Google "focal length and portraits" and look at the images and it'll show you examples. Basically your face is distorted by your camera phone at close distances, like arm length. Its still distorted but less so at a distance, mostly at a distance its fine.
Most high end instagrammers aren't using their phones, even if they pretend they are, they are using a photographer with a real camera with a portrait lens, like a 50-135mm. Or they are using snap on lenses for their phones that change the focal length.
People compare their phone selfies to professional shots and conclude they are ugly and need fillers etc. They don't. They are literally looking at fun house photos of themselves.
posted by fshgrl at 4:20 PM on December 13, 2019 [12 favorites]
All phone cameras are wide angle. They make your face look thinner and deeper front to back while a telephoto lens makes it look wider and flatter which is more flattering. Google "focal length and portraits" and look at the images and it'll show you examples. Basically your face is distorted by your camera phone at close distances, like arm length. Its still distorted but less so at a distance, mostly at a distance its fine.
Most high end instagrammers aren't using their phones, even if they pretend they are, they are using a photographer with a real camera with a portrait lens, like a 50-135mm. Or they are using snap on lenses for their phones that change the focal length.
People compare their phone selfies to professional shots and conclude they are ugly and need fillers etc. They don't. They are literally looking at fun house photos of themselves.
posted by fshgrl at 4:20 PM on December 13, 2019 [12 favorites]
I can't help but feel there's often a class aspect to criticisms of IG face.
It's too performative. Better to be young and have a dermatologist and a shelf full of Glossier products, so you spend a lot of time and money on your appearance but could claim you just rolled out of bed.
I don't think I'm too insecure about my appearance, but I could not survive watching a plastic surgeon Photoshop me into a more attractive human (and then offer a payment plan). Jia is stronger than me.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:26 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's too performative. Better to be young and have a dermatologist and a shelf full of Glossier products, so you spend a lot of time and money on your appearance but could claim you just rolled out of bed.
I don't think I'm too insecure about my appearance, but I could not survive watching a plastic surgeon Photoshop me into a more attractive human (and then offer a payment plan). Jia is stronger than me.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:26 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by sexyrobot at 8:56 AM on December 13, 2019 [8 favorites]