Losing Face, Cosmetically

Barely a day goes by without someone whining about how we are not expressing our feelings. We even have government-produced ads on television advising us all to get in touch with our emotions.

It is a pathetic enterprise, reeking with pathos, and we must count it within the constant effort to feminize the culture. Women are far more in touch with their feelings than are men. They feel more empathy. When you ask a woman how she feels, she will easily tell you far more than you wished to know. When you ask a man how he feels, he will look at you blankly, as though you are speaking a foreign language.

When it comes to expressing emotion, we have numerous tools at our disposal. Among the most important-- facial expressions. In fact, when we meet someone face to face-- increasingly a rarity-- we read their emotions by unconsciously mimicking their facial expressions. Then we figure out whether they are mad, sad, glad or bad.

This assumes that they have facial expressions. Increasingly, women, especially, have chosen to numb their faces, to reduce or eliminate their ability to communicate via facial expressions. Thus, they adopt a wrinkle-free, line-free ageless countenance. And they wonder why they are having trouble communicating. They even complain about the lack of emotion in their interlocutors.

Of course, these women want to look younger than they are. They are often competing for men against younger women, so why not a little subterfuge.

Of course, facial lines and wrinkles often bespeak good character, maturity and experience. Strangely, many older women do not want to show off their good character, maturity and experience. Exception given for today’s Queen of England.

A more important point concerns deception. Does a Botoxed face bespeak deception, or is merely a cosmetic enhancement?

A Botoxed face makes manifest the pretense that the person is much younger than she is in reality. I use the female pronoun here because precious few males undergo such treatment. 

And yes, I am fully aware that our current president has had a great deal of work done on his face. If that was the worst thing we could say about him, the world would be a better place.

But then again, a Botoxed face might attain a different extreme, and become unrecognizable. One aspect of human communication involves knowing with whom you are talking. In principle, this occurs when you are talking to someone face to face. If you are not recognizable, or if there is doubt about who you are, communication will become more difficult.

Looking your best is not the same as looking like someone else. Social beings are recognizable by their face, more than by the expression of emotion. Expressing emotion does not identify you. Being mad, sad, glad or bad does not say who you are. Your face does.

The risk with cosmetic treatment is that you become unrecognizable and therefore, as the expression goes, you will have lost face. That means that you become a pariah, someone who does not belong in polite society.

Anyway, it gets worse. It’s one thing for women of a certain age, good feminists that they are, to want to shave a few years off their appearance, especially if they are unattached. They might not recognize that they can no longer connect with other people. They will find solace in the fact that Botox does wear off in a matter of months.

But now, a new phenomenon has reared its head. Cosmetic surgery for younger women, presumably to give them features that are notably considered to be sexually desirable. 

Olivia Petter has the story in the British newspaper, the Independent:

Take a look at the faces around you. Notice anything? The shapes of people’s eyes all tilting up in the same way towards their hairline? Pouts that pucker up with perfect uniformity? Cheekbones that protrude almost violently through the skin? Perhaps you don’t notice any of these things, in which case you’re already too far gone. But if you do? Well, it’s only a matter of time until you become indoctrinated. Because in 2024 beauty is a homogenous ideal, one that none of us can escape from.

I do not accept the clunky phrase, “homogenous ideal” but the trend suggests that young women are very insecure, to the point where they do not believe that they can attract men without looking like some vulgar simulacrum of a celebrity. One feels some considerable sympathy for women who have learned to think this way.

Of course, the larger issue is whether this absurd habit is more erotic or more aesthetic. Is it about sex or is it about beauty? Assuming that you can distinguish the two? 

Surely, it is about deception, though I hasten to remark that if a young woman is erotically unappealing with one face she is just as likely to be erotically unappealing when she puts on a mask. Unless of course, she is up for sale.

More importantly, as Petter points out, young women end up looking the same. They lose the characteristics that allow them to be identified, to have face in the world. Her article bears the title: “Are we all going to have the same face.”

One suspects that the gremlins who edit the newspaper decided that they needed to make the phrase gender neutral. In truth, the problem most involves women, not men.

If we do, none of us will have face. We will all have lost face. We might be exquisitely and irresistibly attractive but we will have more than a few problems making our way in the world. A false face will not do you very much good in the marketplace.

Looking like you are wearing a mask will not serve the same purpose. Masking your features makes you look like you are hiding something.

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