When fashion demands that females mutilate themselves, it begins to look a lot like abuse
It’s a rather mixed message. No sooner have we given birth to a new female beauty trend than we line up to make fun of those stupid enough to follow it. You may have heard of the new craze for buccal fat removal, where a surgeon cuts out a glob of your cheek to give you sharper cheekbones. Chrissy Teigen is the only celebrity known to have “admitted” to the procedure, but already there is widespread mockery of famous women hollow-cheeked enough to raise our suspicions. Yes, you heard me. Buccal fat removal is in. But also very much out.
This push and pull is familiar. Large breasts were once in fashion, but there was a simultaneous trend for disdaining women who went and got some, as well as for the naturally (snigger) “endowed”. (Who could take them seriously? Certainly not Michael Parkinson, who, in a famous interview with Helen Mirren, asked her if her “equipment” made her an “unserious actress”.) In Hollywood, facelifts are still practically demanded of older actresses, but beware the “insecure victims” who get them done. “She’s looking remarkably fresh-faced,” tabloids tut meaningfully, or perhaps put the message more directly: “What on earth has she done to her face?” They tend not to dwell on the howling absence in the Hollywood lineup: older women who have not done things to their faces.
