In the future, we'll wear real life Photoshop masks so we look "pretty"
Posted on: April 9, 2008
Picture courtesy of Ravenelle Zugzwang
Someday, we'll have gotten to a phase (it's never a point, life is continuous) where we've lied to ourselves to such a disappointing and venereal degree that we can no longer accept our natural appearances. After extended decades of post-processing glamour, even babies will no longer be cute enough to take pictures naturally. And it is so: our technology has advanced to a level that we now almost all wear masks. These masks conceal the real us. What do they look like?
Somewhat as we truely are, but not quite. Just like the demon that plays at being a man, we see each other as hyperstylized and pretty, fanciful versions. We wear nanomesh, which bends the light, and provides us with "beautiful" visages. We are, in effect, wearing Photoshopped faces on ultrafine, flexible screens, camouflaging blemishes and concealing wrinkles.
And with the word "Photoshop", we recognize where it started: from the labs of Adobe, and birthright of the Knoll brothers. I will be fair and say that the Photoshop is not evil, the Photoshop never had motive, but so many people who used it to glamorize models on magazine covers unduly caused our abrasive and stark rejection of our organic selves. Some critics and sad pundits will say that this is merely the next thing after permanent makeup, and protesters have gone in defiance of others and ripped their masks to shreds.
There is no law enforcing the wearing of masks, but just like the people of 2008 A.D. have become so used to seeing airbrushed, nubile young things wherever they look — used to sell beer, computers, and every consumer good you can think of, sex-related or not — habit becomes a vicious cycle of self-loathing. In presentwheres, it's terribly difficult to get a job, even as a secretary, if you aren't as "gorgeous" as a supermodel of early 21st century. Ugly male clerks need not apply, and Harrison Bergeron be damned.
— I knew you'd ask, and yes, for the even more desperate, there're full-body masks which conduct a type of mobile liposuction (and converting it into fuel for vehicles) while also using light-tricks to make one thinner than they really are. Bugs and the possibility of defects do exist, and competing manufacturers are aggressively warring to provide services to the masses.
Do you remember what classic Roswell gray aliens look like? It's kind of funny but sickening at the same time, because already, jokes are aimed at Photoshopped people in magazines and other media about how much they resemble extraterrestrials. The sick joke is actually on us, for through these masks and rejection of our core selves, embracing superficiality and pursuing a perfection WHICH NEVER EXISTS, our reality becomes more and more like fictional aliens. We become strangers to ourselves and what it really means to look, if not be, a human. Think about the logical extremes of how far we can take Photoshopping: big eyes, thin, pale, tall. And aside from the "tall" part (I'm considerate of "little green men"), is that not what a cliched scifi alien may look like, I ask? And yes it is, I also answer.
Part of these cultural climaxations also swept into change because of the explosion of using online worlds and the popular prevalence of having an avatar identity. By 2020 AD, it was not just as common to have an avatar (a "second life") as today's ubiquitousness of phone numbers — it was also very trendy for your offline self to look like your avatar. Even for a little while. And there was a lot of experimentation, some fetishism, and throughout it all, rejection of skin pores and pimples. Which was innately humorous, since some skilled CG modelers strove to induce more flaws in their digital masterpieces. But in the end, the unnaturalists won by popular consensus (as big breasts shall prove titillating… ha-ha!), and here we are today.
TIME TRAVELERS, I IMPLORE YOU: bring me one (or more) of these masks and we will light it ablaze and/or turn it into useful art, in recognition and in memory of The Natural Hwuman™. There is still time to change! Again, I stress that tools in themselves are not evil, but when you make a dainty pop idol on Seventeen look in such a way a pretty 15-year-old girl will never be able to attain, it creates unrealistic expectations. It is difficult to have an unlike mind when all around you, homogeneity creeps in day by day under the (dis)guise of "this is how you should look, this is how you should dress, this is how you should act, etc." RESIST!
But most importantly of all, I encourage you parents to pass freethought onto your young, that they too may disagree with you yet respect and appreciate the independence ye hath granted their souls (digital + analogue alike). Including for our kindred young womenfolk: let them know they do not need to look like a Spitney Bears, and lest they do, to not be so critical and harsh if she gains weight while pregnant… FOR IT IS THE COURSE OF NATURE. WE ARE PERFECTLY ENTITLED TO BE HUMAN! I do not omit the male, who need not look like a Fitch & Abercrombie model. Let couples form as they may/will, and kiss without masks. And while your childeren should be happy + healthy unto themselves, thou shalt set standards unto thine progeny to not overridden by external trappings…
meat on the bones is a good thing! Meat you can taste.*
* Not cannibal.
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Be my friend!
April 9th, 2008 at 10:27 PM PDT
I wrote a research paper on Beauty and its affect on not only women but men as well. It's a serious problem that is hard not to get caught up in, but we must remind ourselves that what we see is not real.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:24 AM PDT
Whatever the vaneer, the true heart will always reveal itself. Masks tainted with heart turns them invisible…for better or worse.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:58 PM PDT
It IS interesting the view from the inside of it all.. the ideal, the photoshoped faces in the media.. how we, (women as a general rule) wear make up to hide the flaws and to hyper idealise a beauty which has come to its point by concensous.. a group thought, but an unfair one starting from an infancy of Disney and Mattel (both international trademarks) who agressively market an unattainable asthetic.. a beauty which is infantized and often biologically unrealistic in any animal, especially the human one.
But it is really nice to understand that within these layers, these things do not go unnoticed but are seen with a critical and keen eye, I feel better knowing that your gaze is as perceptive as your mind.
Ah but it is within the mind it all happens.. and this is why I was lured into SL to begin with, the tricks of the light came later on.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:17 PM PDT
well much of what you say is ture, but i gladly keep my naive viewpoint. someone has to be very ugly (and that means, for me, a nasty personality, like the dookie heads that flame anything on the SL blog) before I can not see them as beautiful.
we really are beautiful creatures, just a few of us go astray and get icky
i loved how you ended this post, my words pale next to yours. but i had to come post, i just watched one of your tuts and fall so in love with your spirit.
fly always free Torley, you (and a bunch of really great peeps at LL) make sl so pretty and wonderful
April 10th, 2008 at 3:44 PM PDT
There is no law enforcing the wearing of masks
Funnily enough, in the state of Georgia there's a law that BANS the wearing of masks, except on Halloween.
(Perhaps it will have been repealed by the time this missive will be written, but, then again, Georgia still has a law on the books banning any "device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.")
Nifty and pointless trivia facts. Carry on.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:01 PM PDT
re: photoshop masks.
Isn't that SL already?
Isn't that where most of the skins are made?
April 10th, 2008 at 8:00 PM PDT
Looks in my opinion are one aspect of who a person is, of course being male I do have aspects on a woman that physically attract me to her. That will always be true no matter how we evolve. I do not want perfection in a woman, because I am not and pray to the gods I never am. I am a learning, evolving being, with a fire to always learn and experience.
-Cheers
-S
April 10th, 2008 at 9:50 PM PDT
Beauty is only skin deep, and improving on beauty with a mask won't change that fact at all.
You'd need a mask that hides your inner self and your potentially nasty personality.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:25 AM PDT
As a mom to and teacher of adolescents I am acutely aware of the messages the media sends to our youth about beauty and body image. A series of books (the author I believe is Australian) aimed at that group and addressing this issue in a unique way has made the rounds at my school recently. It's worth a read - I found some interesting parallels between the future-possible world depicted and SL as it is now. The author is Scott Westerfield and the books are "Uglies", "Pretties", "Specials", and "Extras". Check em out.
In recent months in SL I have had a few friends "re-create" their once-idealized avatars into shapes and forms more closely resembling their actual selves. Lumps and bumps included. We talk from time to time about the reactions they get - from both strangers and friends. It seems even (especially?) in a virtual world, we EXPECT everyone to conform to the same physcial "ideal". For all our blathering on about it really being about the person inside/behind the keyboard, it seems many of us out there are awfully succeptible to the "physical" appearances of others.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:00 AM PDT
Thanks for the thoughtful comments on this. I had a feeling it'd be this way.
With the mention of "Disney", I'm reminded of the controversy that certain ethnicities weren't included in Disney's Princesses line: not that they could practically include EVERY CULTURE + BODYTYPE + OTHER VARIATIONS, but young people should have good role models they can relate to… in a capitalist society, there's no end of a market for that.
But beyond the commercial aspects, I don't find it harmful to dress-up and make-believe as long as fantasy doesn't disproportionately take over your First Life: just like someone slaving 14 hrs./day to get enough gold to buy the Emperor's Sword in some MMO, it's sad when a person neglects their physical health because they're caught up in being a beautiful avatar… they're missing the beauty they have behind-the-screen!
@CyFishy: Haha, oh my gosh, that's hilarious.
@Amphithetre: Yes, and I think as more virtual products "cross over" to First Life, just like we have some SL fashions "going real", we'll eventually see the same with body parts and the like.
@Sabastian: I'm glad we live in a world where there are groups of special interests like BBW/chubby chasers. As long as interests can be connected, people realize they're not so alone, and growing in those interests, relating to what you said, is surely important!
@Thattagen: Sounds like an idea for a machinima.
I've yet to see Second Life skins that realistically portray some degree of acne…
@Susannah: Thanks for sharing! I've heard of those books; those are popular scifi themes, often reflected in divisiveness between "normies" and "mutants". Have you heard about Malcolm Gladwell? In Blink, he wrote some interesting stuff about subconscious prejudices.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:07 PM PDT
hi all, this has sparked some very thoughtful responses. Yes we are infatuated with physical perfection it seems. I must admit that my various avatars are built to what I think is nice (thus actually being what I am somewhat programmed to think is nice). and the trappings of these body images we have does a tremendous amount of harm to so many people. i just remember how devasted I was in high school with a pimple, and that was a while back.
today, the body image is pushed more aggressively and to younger audiences. i can't imagine the turmoil that it causes for teenagers (and indeed most of us, both male and female, the male ego is actually very fragile, thus the outward responses to it being challenged, imo).
on the other hand, the power of visualization is tremendously powerful, so if i create an av that makes me feel stronger and confident, then it does affect my rl a bit. but, for me, that is more of an emotional rather than physical thing.
oh . . . and I can fly isl. i am certain we can irl, if only we could put down our rose-cloured paradigm glasses.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:07 PM PDT
I remember once reading a short story, I wish I could remember who by, about someone inventing a suit that shifted all the wearer's unwanted fat in to another dimension. Unfortunately the inhabitants of that dimension didn't take too kindly to it our leaking into their space and came calling. World be warned, all those bits removed in Photoshop must go somewhere …
April 20th, 2008 at 10:25 AM PDT
@Ener: I have avatars that look conventionally and unconventionally beautiful — beauty in itself is not "wrong" but it's in the absence of other consideration that it becomes fallow and shallow and oh-so-superficial. We each have the right to create our avatars as we see fit, an expression of our inner selves, as long as that shape isn't unduly pressured or limited by mere external opinion. I'm glad to hear how your avatars affect you.
Flying in real life would feel amazing, but as in Second Life, would eventually come to be a casual way of getting around (after the initial novelty has worn off).
@Aimee: That sounds like a story I'd like! I'd really vibe on that. When I was a kid, I used to wonder how did big Transformers like Megatron turn into such little objects that could be held. There was some technobabble subspace-mass-shifting explanation that never satisfied me, but eh, suspension of disbelief!