When the I think of the words ‘beauty standard’ images are conjured up in my mind of Eurocentric women with perfect bodies. The eurocentric beauty standard truly exploded when Hollywood did. From Jean Harlow, and Clara Bow, to Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, blonde hair and the perfect hourglass figure became the unattainable goal for women and has stayed that way.
There have been various iterations of this standard as the years have gone by: we want our women edgy and cool like Angelina Jolie one minute, then quirky and feminine the next: see Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown (the ‘manic-pixie dream girl’ was named after her).
The beauty standard has always been unattainable due to its constant evolving nature: the women we in-visage as the standard don’t truly exist. Cassie from Euphoria, but not Sydney Sweeney, or Sarah from Outer Banks, but not Madelyn Cline. The beauty standard being fictional was always something women have had to contend with, but no one can live up to a fictional person.
However, the beauty standard now feels like it’s entering a new extreme: women must also now have no defining features whatsoever. She must be completely hairless, her skin must be flawless, and she cannot- under any circumstances- have a wrinkle or a crease, it seems nor even a discernible armpit.
For decades, women on the covers of fashion magazines have been chopped and changed to the point of un-recognisability, and this has never really improved. Photoshopping tools now exist in your pocket in the form of apps like Facetune, which helps explain why women are never satisfied with the way they look; it’s almost too easy to change it.
The Uncanny Valley Phenomenon
So, enter the ‘Uncanny Valley’ phenomenon. The uncanny valley is a phenomenon in which a person experiences an unsettling feeling in regards to an entity that possesses an almost human likeness but is ultimately not one, such as too-human like robots. Normally reserved for advanced technology, many are now going as far as to see certain cosmetically enhanced faces and feel this unsettling feeling.
On social media, ‘Instagram Face’ now has an entirely new meaning where many female celebrities are all starting to look eerily alike. Stars like Kate Beckinsale and Christina Aguilera, according to fans on tiktok, no longer look like themselves, instead appearing on red carpets as their Stepford equivalents.
With the enhancements in cosmetic procedures and accessibility to them becoming easier and easier, more women are starting to look like the Barbie dolls they played with as girls, who preached ‘you can be anything’, which now includes them.
Female celebrities and the beauty standard
Female celebrities and their faces have been an incredibly hot topic as of late. When Anne Hathaway starred in her latest flick The Idea of You (2024), her apparently non-surgically enhanced face was praised by fans. However, some social media users accused Hathaway of still having some tweaks despite them being less noticeable. At the other end of the spectrum, Emily Blunt’s different appearance in Oppenheimer (2023) sparked an online debate on whether Blunt had fillers, and if she had taken them too far.
@drjb.aesthetics Emily Blunt face transformation #emilyblunt #emilybluntedit #emilybluntfan #oppenheimerpremiere #celebrityface #celebritytransformation
♬ original sound – Dr Jonny
Blunt and Hathaway are examples of the two extremes of expectations put upon women: one where you are praised for appearing to be ageless, and the other where you are attacked for not allowing yourself to age.Women getting cosmetic procedures to retain youth isn’t anything new, but if a flaw in them is even the slightest bit noticeable, pitchforks are raised.
Ageing has always been at the forefront of the battle women have to face every day: ageing naturally is empowering, it shows you don’t care about the beauty standard. But, if you age ungracefully, you don’t care enough about yourself and aren’t pretty enough to be looked at as a role model for ageing naturally, people will bring up old photos when they talk about you instead.
Women in Hollywood have often spoken out against the pressure they feel to have a certain look. In 2023, actress Florence Pugh told Vogue that the expectations put upon women can be harmful:”women in Hollywood, especially young women in Hollywood, are obviously putting themselves in all these ways in order to get whatever opportunity that they need to get because that’s just the way that it’s been.”
In the list of divisive body parts, you wouldn’t expect the armpit to be there. When Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso single cover was revealed, her armpit was non-existent. Many fans in her comments had something to say about this, saying “god forbid people have armpits” and “why did they photoshop her armpit away”. Carpenter recently appeared on the cover of Time magazine, again sans-armpit. In 2017 the now controversial Chrissy Teigen, who was once famed for her outspokenness, admitted to getting liposuction under her arms.
It is still seen as a flaw if your armpits have unflattering creases or fat, the ‘armpit vagina’ was coined by Jennifer Lawrence back in 2017 in reference to underarm creases. Having hair under your arms is a whole other insecurity women have to contend with, but now, even if you’re seemingly hairless, it isn’t enough.
The ‘buccal fat removal’ craze also sent women into a spiral about their jawline and face shape. Many female celebrities like Lea Michele and Emily Ratajkowski were accused of having much thinner cheeks and a stronger pout, in a way that couldn’t be achieved by Gua Sha or a low salt intake. What’s another thing your Barbie has? A killer jawline.
Younger and younger women are turning to cosmetic surgery
One of the main problems flagged these days with cosmetic surgery is how it is turning many women to invasive surgery long before it is needed to achieve the Barbie-esque look. More and more women are going under the knife before they even reach 25 and have yet to grow into their natural features. When Molly-Mae Hague made her Love Island debut back in 2019, she was not yet 20 but admitted to having lip filler aged just 17.
Dr Steven Harris of the Harris Clinic in London, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter back in 2021 about how cosmetic procedures may have gone too far. Harris believed that the “industry is fast becoming a breeding ground for mental health illness. … What sort of twisted standard of beauty are we creating for the younger generations and how does it affect those with mental health disorders such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder?” Harris stated that ‘Instagram Face’ has now morphed into a new trend where people have an “alienised look”.
Certain cosmetic surgeons are arguably trying to create a face that doesn’t and shouldn’t exist. Having incredibly angular cheekbones and jaw lines, no pores, no wrinkles, and no armpit shouldn’t and doesn’t anatomically make sense. The female face is being manipulated far past the natural extent it should be altered.
If we can now compare literal human faces to those of AI and robotics, isn’t it fair to say that plastic surgery has gone too far? This is no longer about the dangers of altering an insecurity to feel better about yourself, people are now becoming unrecognisable to the point of no return. When we already have young girls reaching for the retinol, we shouldn’t be allowing this sort of plastic surgery to become normalised.
