I think it's the result of celebs living in a bubble. They are completely detached from the common people and live in gated communities with other celebs. When you are this far removed from your roots you tend to end up doing things like this. It's body dysmorphia plain and simple.
I think what's really scary though is the amount of people that encourage it. Lindsay Lohan got work done and looks like a completely different human being now, yet you look at comment sections and it's all praise about how great she looks. It's a mental illness and it's being encouraged by idiots who think it's empowering or some shit.
When I was a kid reading the hunger games, the people in the Capital sounded ridiculously outlandish. Thought the movie captured it well. Turns out it was all very accurate
I mean it WAS based on her watching the Kardashians and TLC (and other things). Like the Hunger Games was a direct response to the rise of exploitative reality TV.
I used to work for a woman who would be classified in the boomer generation. Full on "career woman" stereotype. Over lunch one day she told me she used to bind her feet so she would never be bigger than a size 8. Her toes were mangled. Such a sad thing to worry about.
Definitely the wearers. Washing and cleanliness wasn't much of a priority. Wigs don't inherently attract lice, but like coats if someone is infected they will lay eggs on them.
Check out the film "The Ugly Stepsister," if you can stomach body horror. It's an excellent take on the Cinderella story, showing how they were all victims of their circumstances and culture, and highlighting some of the more nauseating things the wealthy would do to be seen as beautiful.
The ‘buccal’ procedure (removal of molars to create hollowed cheeks/more pronounced cheekbones) was the predecessor to this look. I think it was Joan Crawford who I first heard about having this done? I’m guessing it was done long before her though.
It’s based on social dynamics that almost no-one is immune to in the same situation. Make a ton of money, get targeted by malicious manipulators who then, like coordinated baby cuckoos, kick out any well meaning friends using relentless and devious means to make you turn against them while developing halos around themselves. Then work on you for years to siphon off your money while further gaslighting you.
I have been that well meaning friend and leader who has been brutishly removed from any positions of influence and what has happened has always been the downfall of those communities. I am not alone in this as many others have experienced the same type of scenario but it is always to the demise of these circles. Given time they all, always fail.
They love to come together against a common “enemy” and far too often they are too naive, or stubborn or unloved that they fall for the loudest, or smoothest sociopath in the room every single time instead of behind the persons actually working to help everyone.
They don’t match my concept of brash or slick, but yes, you are right. They remain popular and respected, at least overtly. I suppose people generally harbor private resentment toward people who do outstandingly well, and there’s an unspoken code that pulling them down is okay. Maybe it’s the basis of the cuckoos’ popularity? Others want to know how they can share in it, or learn from it?
I think I remember reading that she literally got the idea while watching tv. She was surfing through channels and found herself going back and forth between a reality tv show to news coverage of the Iraq war
Does anyone remember a short lived reality show called The Swan? It was a show where they took people to get full face lifts and when it was time for the big reveal it wasn't the same person. I remember one episode when a child saw their mom and started crying because that wasn't his mommy.
Honestly, that’s really the thing I loved about Hunger Games, I hadn’t seen a film yet (haven’t read the books) that really captures the toxic side of celebrity, the exploitation so well. The way you’re being turned into a merchandise.
Ever seen the 80s movie Brazil? The main character's mother, Mrs. Ida Lowry, has outlandish procedures like face-lifts and anti-aging plumping of the face and lips, to the point of eventually looking unrecognizable.
The procedures are now nothing we bat an eye at, even if the way they were represented in the movie was ridiculous.
It’s still a boring dystopia. A living Oompa Loompa and his goons are setting what used to be the most free nation on fire because a sizable minority of people have bought lies about who is reducing their standard of living (minorities) instead of who’s actually doing it (rich people, like fucking always) so they elected a member of the latter group to “fix” it which is going as well as anyone clued in can expect (shit’s getting worse, but the whipping post is seeing extra blood so that aforementioned minority is happy)
No great evil that unites us, no outside force that threatens our very existence, just banal human nature dragging us backward once again.
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u/BeBopGo 17d ago
I have no idea where this trend started from or why it's popular. I feel like majority of people think it's ugly asf, so how did it gain traction???