to wonder why the "fake look" is so popular?

[Namila]

Obviously light-hearted and I fully appreciate that people have different tastes and like different things. Apologies if you feel offended by this post.

However.

Every time I turn the TV on, it seems like the prevailing beauty standard is what I heard to be called "the fake look": fake tan, fake lashes, fake eyebrows, fake hair, fake nails and often times some fake features due to plastic surgery. It seems like these beauty interventions are meant to look obviously fake and very easy to spot.

Many of these women truly look fake as they resemble plastic dolls, but usually not in a flattering way!

I wonder why the current ruling beauty ideal implies so much "fakeness". Of course women have always spent time and money trying to improve their appearance to a certain degree, but I feel like this is a whole new level

What do you think the popularity of this "fake look" tells about our society? Do you reckon the trend will go away?

There just doesn't seem to be the naturalness of photos as when I was a teen in the 1980s - we didn't pose before a group photo. We'd maybe smooth our hair or say is my hair a mess but we just didn't fuss. Anyone doing a pout would get laughed at, in fact no one I knew did. There was no attention seeking or fishing for compliments. To pose as they do now we'd be considered so up ourselves. Yes, we liked buying clothes, we'd experiment with hair and make-up but it wasn't a focus so much.

YANBU. Many women (just like men) are below average intelligence. This means they are more succeptible to brainwashing by media about what constitutes “beauty” and “fashion” and subsequent sale techniques by the cosmetic and beauty industries. The “blow up doll” image currently fashionable is horrific and comes directly from media, advertising, celebrities and the porn industry - and often a really unsavoury combination of these, working together). It’s revolting.

You've hit it on the head - julie - it's an unsavoury combination of those things you list. I agree it's revolting.

I hate it and it worries me too. I’m mid thirties but a lot of the younger-than-me-mums at school are honestly homogeneous. I met one when she dropped off her dd for my dd’s party and I genuinely didn’t know which one of a group of blonde ladies she was next time I saw her as they were all mahogany/orange with fake hair, eyes, lips, nails...

It’s such an unhealthy image to present to our 5yo dds 😔

Spurred on by the Kardashians etc. They're morphing into each other, that heavy-lidded, full-lipped don't you want to fuck me look.

A woman I used to work with was tall and blonde and very slim, quite striking as she was, but didn't see her for a good few years, saw her recently and she is the picture of everything you've talked about op. She actually looked bizarre. Huge lips, big fake boobs, huge eyelashes and over done brows, something weird about her cheeks I couldn't place, and mahogany skin. She was far prettier before, I was actually a bit scared of her now! Intimidated anyway!

..... my mum and my aunties with huge bouffant beehives supplemented by wigs and 'switches', heavy panstick foundation, elaborate winged eyeliner, several pairs of false eyelashes at once on both top and bottom lashes and white lipstick. They looked completely fake.
So today, for wigs and switches substitute hair extensions, for panstick substitute contouring, for fake eyelashes and winged eyeliner, substitute ... oh wait. Those are still pretty much the same.
Plus ca change and all that.

There just doesn't seem to be the naturalness of photos as when I was a teen in the 1980s - we didn't pose before a group photo. We'd maybe smooth our hair or say is my hair a mess but we just didn't fuss. Anyone doing a pout would get laughed at, in fact no one I knew did.

This.
In fact I remember being so embarrassed about posing. If anyone tried t make themselves look good, someone would shout "You poser!" and it would be one of the worst things to be called. How times have changed!

But I completely agree about the fillers, botox etc, especially at such a young age. Unecessary and sad.

Bluntness "Does it not depend what you're watching? "

I just notice it from the world, not from TV!

Nauticant

I don't wear make up, I'm starting to feel like a weirdo in the office and don't get me started on school run mums....

I can just about accept teens doing this as they are so susceptible to trends and fashions but I know a good few women in their 40s who pose with filters and post on FB as their profile pic. It makes me cringe as they should know better.

What's a "switch" please?

I dunno, I was a teen in the 80’s and had wild pink backcombed hair and Siouxsie Sioux make-up. Nothing natural about that.

And plastic surgery can look good. Kendall Jenner is a prime example. She was quite plain before but gorgeous now. There are plenty of things you can judge a person for and trying to make themselves look better - even if YOU think they don’t - is really their business.

annie I was thinking about this too-it's because photos were expensive. You had to have a camera, have bought film and be able to afford to develop the film. And it took a fairly long time to get those photos back.
(Remember picking them up from
Boots and the first one out had the dreaded sticker to say your photos were of crap quality? Out of the 36 photos only 3 were any good and it had cost a fiver to develop them and a week of waiting?)

Nowadays it's instant and everywhere-everyone carries a camera now! And filters don't help-it makes people wants to look like the filtered photo version of themselves.

@namila

I watched a video on youtube on these two women who apparently spent tens of thousands of pounds to look like barbie. Absolute madness!

Now this always baffles me. Why do they always aspire to look like BARBIE? Why Barbie WHY???

And they never do really, they just end up looking like a blow up doll, like this

I have noticed a lot of young girls use drag queen make up techniques With the heavy contouring and hd brows
The one thing that peeves me is when they use so much highlighter that they resemble a cyborg!!!

Like this!! Tin man realness is not a good look

I honestly thought that sort of look was going out.

Do people still get boob jobs? You never hear about them anymore?

Yes we were all heavily made up and hairsprayed to crispiness in the eighties. And I certainly spent far too much time thinking about my look and what I was wearing.

And the nineties was a bit if a backlash: doc martens and grunge dresses and natural hair.

Hopefully we will have a backlash to the current look soon.

What do these Barbies look like first thing in the morning? Must be a shock to the men they pull.

MsHarry - yes, being called a poser was instant and not something you wanted. Same with boasting.

NoStraightEdges - hadn't thought that about the cost of photos. I think they were more to mark the occasion and have a memory though rather than an attempt to look good. Of course with technology now you can keep going to get the perfect photo.

Leilaniiii - not sure I agree with you that it's their business and we can't comment. I think we can and should because I think it's an issue that affects girls with the pressure for perfection. I also think it's damaging to women overall and that we're almost going backwards in some ways as it's so one dimensional and other strengths and assets of these girls/women can be overlooked as the look is so distracting almost. I think it's a social issue that does need looking at.

A switch was like a part wig, a long thick mass of hair or hair like substance that could be clipped under the owners real hair to give the illusion of length and volume. When I was about 7 I longed for one.

My teacher at the time wore the latest fashion which was mini skirts so short that to keep them decent they came with matching frilly pants that went over the actual undergarment. I can remember looking at her in her tiny skirt/frilly pant ensemble and her switch and her white lipstick wistfully thinking that was what I would wear when I was grown up.

Many women (just like men) are below average intelligence.

Roughly half I'd say :D

I agree that there was a similarly anti-natural beauty look in the 1960s (cosmetic procedures aside). The Queen, Dusty Springfield was a good illustration of this. Thick foundation, two pairs of eyelashes, and helmet hair.

Yes, ‘tis sooo fake, not like the natural look of the olden days….