Not sure if this is more appropriate for another forum, but I was wondering why so many actors (I mostly notice the females) get so much plastic surgery.
Maybe more get subtle work than I notice, but when I see an actress with huge lips and a forehead that does not move, I just wonder who thinks that looks better than a fit, reasonably attractive woman in her 40s/50s/60s?
I realize there are few roles for older women, but do producers prefer ghoulish looking older women who are trying to look decades younger than they are? Does anyone think those kinds of features photograph well?
And what do these actors see when they look in the mirror? Are they pleased with their appearance?
A lot of them are covering up the signs of aging with minor work, but makeup does that pretty well so it’s not just for that reason. Ironically, the results don’t seem to matter much for established stars.
I would imagine the people who get surgery to look younger don’t anticipate it backfiring. We just notice the ones that are poorly done.
My question (if I may) is why 20 somethings get ridiculous procedures. The Kardashians are the first name that comes to mind but there are plenty of young women out there with the inflated lips, frozen face, false eyelash, mannequin look.
I imagine the motivations of the different age groups is different, but I’d be interested in knowing what any of them think / see when they look in the mirror.
This. I know people who have had plastic surgery done and they largely look like people of their approximate age, but better looking than average. Unless you saw them while the bandages were on, you wouldn’t know that they had work done.
It would be interesting to see mature persons who had well done touch-ups, just to see how it looks. What is it that contributes to poor plastic surgery? Is it someone trying to have “too much” done? Or are some surgeons just hacks?
I’m not sure I ever heard a guy comment that a woman would look better w/ fatter lips, or fewer facial lines.
Have a look at Marilyn Monroe before and after plastic surgery. She had an implant in her chin to give her a better jawline after she allegedly heard herself referred to as a “chinless wonder”. I think she also had her nose narrowed.
So there are examples of actresses that had work done and they kept it subtle. Michelle Pfeiffer is the first one that comes to mind for me. She is 62, she doesn’t look it but she does look like she has aged almost naturally.
There are also cases where the work has to settle for a bit. When someone like Kenny Rogers (RIP) gets their forehead done there will be hundreds or thousands of pictures of them with it looking too tight. A few months/years later a lot of that went away and he looked like a really healthy 80 year old. https://www.legacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Kenny-Rogers-1000x667-getty.jpg
I do think there’s some “creep” of the baseline of normal/natural/attractive that helps to explain why some people go all-out. Sort of an Overton Window phenomenon. Think about how few women (and even men) under 50 have any visible gray hair, even though a not-insignificant number of people start going gray before they hit 30 and almost everyone has some gray by 40. But we’ve gotten so used to people covering their grays that it doesn’t look quite as weird anymore to see a middle-aged person with uniformly dark hair. Plastic surgery is a little behind that curve, and it’s not the same everywhere; you see a lot more of it in the LA area than in many other places. But the more you see it, the less jarring it gets. Eventually what used to be extreme becomes normal, and is replaced by something even more extreme.
No disputing that often normalization occurs over time. I think the OP is decrying the narrow trend of the “plastic porn blow-up doll” look for females. Who actually likes that? One could accept the argument that a person’s appearance is not intended for anyone but themself. In that case, the answer to the question of “who actually likes that?” is the person who had that work done. But that is a circular argument, yah? And I don’t entirely accept the notion that people are designing their appearance (including clothing / make-up / hair) only for themself. (That is an entirely separate debate.)
I think in large part, it has to do with how extensive or prominent it looks. I’m sure there are lots of people who got relatively unobtrusive plastic surgery and it looks good, or isn’t readily noticeable. I’m having a hard time coming up with examples, but that’s probably because it’s not something that is obvious.
Then there’s the Khloe Kardashian level- she looks essentially like a different person who’s had a lot of plastic surgery. Not good.
Quite often, we’ll watch something, and my wife or I will observe that, “It looks like she had some work done.” Often not hugely horrible, but just the phenomena of someone trying to look WAY younger than they are. Something about the lips, the stretched face, combined with long long hair and tight short skirts.
The example we saw yesterday was Emily Proctor in White Collar. (Didn’t make any effort to find illustrative photos.)
I remembered her from West Wing, as a quite attractive younger woman. 10 years later she looked - um - just trying too hard. Of course, she was supposed to be an FBI office chief - so I’m not sure why they had to have flowing blonde hair and tight skirts.
I’m sure IRL she’d be a knockout. But I just don’t think the plasticky look looks good on TV.
I’ve often thought that one of the most UNattractive things on men or women was trying to look decades younger than one is. Just look the best you can for someone w/in 10 yrs or so of your age. (Yes, there are the extreme outliers who seem to never age.)
I remember reading a story about a man who wanted artificial wings. Many plastic surgeons refused to consider this, but eventually he found one willing to do it.
Many societies have long over-valued looks and under-valued elders. (What is the very first unfiltered word you think of if you hear the word old? What is the first word you think of with the word elder?). People in plenty of industries, including unlikely ones like computing, feel looking older limits career options. Clearly this is the case in Hollywood for women, possibly for men.
If by “Hollywood” one means a frozen Botox smile, full lips, big breasts, facelifts, etc. this often looks forced. Plastic surgeons argue increasing esteem is important. Dressing well and having good makeup skills probably deliver some of the “benefits”. I’m not against surgery if one really is obsessed with something, but for the most part think it should be minimized. I must admit sometimes it looks pretty good, however. Sometimes people who get it have other issues.
People can do what they want. Some of them make what I’d call bad choices (and some of them very much know they made bad choices!) However, it’s interesting how much bang for the buck can be had, especially in old age. If you set aside the notion of what an 80-year-old should look like, some people who’ve obviously had a ton of surgery look pretty darn good. They’re not fooling anybody, but for certain aesthetic values they look far better than the average 80-year-old.
“The woman behind me in exercise class was pretty, maybe even beautiful. One of those woman whose face looks better at eighty than mine did at twenty. Yes, I could tell she was well into old age - dyed hair, plastic surgery, and makeup notwithstanding. She looked good, and I became even more impressed as she lifted weights and did planks and pushups and crunches. I noticed she couldn’t fully straighten her arms and thought she’s so fit but she still has contractures. She had to be at least in her early seventies. Maybe she started exercising late.
But I also had a moment of shock forty minutes into the workout when we lay down on the mats. As her hair flowed away from her forehead, pulled by gravity, the contrast between the lustrous blonde and her translucent skin seemed wrong. Worse than wrong; disturbing. Suddenly she didn’t look pretty. She looked like a mannequin in a horror film. At some point, when you take one thing and try to turn it into another, you run the risk of the grotesque.”
I find it very off putting, my brain just doesn’t seem to like it. I don’t really care if people do it, do what makes you happy. But my brain spends every minute that I should be enjoying your acting, staring and trying to put a finger on what’s ‘unnatural’? Is it the eyes? Is it her nose? His lips? Not that it matters, to anyone I’m sure, but I end up not watching because I can’t get my brain to focus on the plot anymore. Whenever the person is on screen my brain is playing ‘Spot the difference’. Even when it’s well done, not obvious, it’s the same, I’ve completely lost the story line and am outside of the whole thing. It’s very irritating and I’ve stopped watching a couple of shows because of it.
I honestly don’t see the point, because no matter how wonderfully it’s done, as time passes it’s going to show, more and more, I think. I much prefer the look of humans who have aged naturally. But clearly I am an outlier, and not the norm. Shrug.
Dr. Phil’s wife’s face looks like something went awry. Her eyes look crooked or something. It also looks like when they show her face on his show they are using a camera filter - she looks a little hazy.
