Since publishing the first article (here), I have had the privilege of appearing as a guest on the Apostolic Voice podcast hosted by Pastor Ryan French. In the podcast, we navigated–among many other things–the premises outlined from the first article. Since the podcast, I have been pleased to hear firsthand that many, many people have listened to the episode and several have reached out to Pastor French expressing their thankfulness for voices willing to discuss the matter of the Artificial Face. That, along with the readership at Search of Kings, gives me hope that this generation is open to challenging discourses that swim upstream of mainstream narratives and religious “pop culture.”
Reconstructive Considerations
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2019 data) reveals that a total of approximately 23.7 billion dollars was spent on cosmetic surgical procedures (1). To clarify, this dollar figure does not include reconstructive procedures for burn care, scar revision, tumor removal, etc. that is estimated to be approximately 6.6 million dollars. The 23.7 billion dollars is primarily comprised of procedures focused on facial and/or body modifications that are meant to alter or fix the appearance of those seeking the procedures. Among the more popular of the procedures are:
- breast augmentations
- dermabrasion
- eyelid surgeries
- facelifts
- liposuction
- nose reshaping
- Botox
- chemical Peels
- laser Hair Removal
- laser skin resurfacing
- soft tissue fillers
While we often focus our attention on the aesthetics of these procedures, the medical community has grown increasingly sensitive to the mental-health backdrop, as discussed in the volume, Psychological Aspects of Reconstructive and Cosmetic Plastic Surgery: Clinical, Empirical, and Ethical Perspectives (2).
Patients entering the offices and operating rooms of plastic surgeons desire to change their physical appearance and/or physical functioning. Although patients may not explicitly articulate the thought, they understand that the ultimate goal of surgery is to bring about psychological change. From the patients’ perspective, they undergo plastic surgery to reduce distress and maximize quality of life. From the plastic surgeon’s perspective, the primary goal of surgery is to provide the patient with the best possible aesthetic and functional outcome. Surgeons often recognize the psychological motivations for, and effects of, surgery, but usually contemplate these only when significant emotional problems become evident.
page 4, bold emphasis mine
It is no surprise that we find in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition) a disorder known as BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder) under the section “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.” Originally named Dysmorphophobia in 1891 by Enrique Morselli, it was first published in the DSM in 1987 and then updated in 1997 under the name we know have as BDD.
Criteria for the disorder are as follows:
- Appearance preoccupations: preoccupied with one or more nonexistent or slight defects of flaws in their physical appearance. Preoccupation is usually operationalized as thinking about the perceived defects for at least an hour a day (adding up all time spent thinking of it during the day).
- Repetitive behaviors: performs repetitive, compulsive behaviors in response to appearance concerns. Mirror checking, excessive grooming, skin picking, reassurance seeking, or clothing changes. Other BDD compulsions include comparing one’s appearance with that of other people. (if this criterion is not met, they are diagnosed with ‘other specified obsessive-compulsive and related disorder”.
- Clinical significance: preoccupation causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
Research indicates that at least 1 in 50 (1.7-2.4 percent of the U.S. population) have been diagnosed with BDD. More troubling is that it is a disorder that is found among the average ages of 16-18, though symptoms are reported to begin around the age of 12 and predictably, according to the International OCD Foundation (4), 60 % of women in contrast to 40% of men are reported to have BDD.
When analyzing the implications of this disorder, the research of Heather Gallivan, a psychologist that specializes in eating disorders, helps put some troubling things into perspective. According to her research, the age of 6 is when “sociocultural factors seem to start influencing body dissatisfaction.”(3) Dr. Gallivan’s study, using both men and women as subjects, once again revealed a disparity between men and women in that only 34% of men were dissatisfied with their bodies in contrast to 80% of women. 50% of teen girls utilize unhealthy weight control measures and 90% of girls 13-17 expressed feeling tremendous pressure to be skinny by the fashion and media industries.
Perhaps the most troubling statistic that reveals the abusive and damnable pressures being placed on women today is from the 2015 peer-reviewed article (5) from AOGS, an international journey of obstetrics and gynecology, on the phenomenon of female genital cosmetic surgery. The results of this study found that the phenomenon could be laid at the doorstep of Internet pornography and an increased exposure to female genitalia. In the U.K., procedures increased five-fold between 2001 to 2010, and in the USA, Cosmetic Surgeons reported a 30% increase in operations in one year alone (2005-2006). To bring this crashing home, “according to the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology, 266 labial reductions were performed in the UK between 2008 and 2012 on girls under the age of 14” (Barbar, Facchin, Meschia & Vercellini, 2015, p. 2, bold emphasis mine). ***Note, private clinics do not report their numbers.
To bring this phenomenon into proper focus, it is important to understand the correlation between the porn industry and the unrealistic expectations of the female body. First, porn producers screen and select performers who, by average standards of society, are far more attractive than the average person. Second, lighting, camera angles, intense tanning to cover up normal skin blemishes, video editing, stylists, makeup specialists, and a myriad of other industry practices work to cover what is considered to be “unsightly.” Third, because there has been an increasing rise in demand for youthfulness (as revealed in search inquiries on major porn video sites),many porn performers are engaging in practices (laser hair removal, vaginoplasty, etc.) to facilitate what is becoming known as the “designer vagina.” (Future articles will deal with porn’s subtle promotion of Pedophilia).
Image Terrorism
In our first article, I introduced the term “image wars” and subsequently labeled those in the fashion and media industry as “image terrorists.” Terrorism defined is the “systematic use of terror especially as means of coercion” (Merriam-Webster Online). Now, I get it, the rigid premise of “terror” does not apply in the context of this article, but I am speaking directly to one of the primary tactics utilized by terrorists–psychological warfare.
I have not read the book (most reviews indicate the book is a flop), but the title of Michael Steven’s book “The Art Of Psychological Warfare: How To Skillfully Influence People Undetected And How To Mentally Subdue Your Enemies In Stealth Mode” is apropos to the idea I am speaking of regarding the fashion and media industry’s nefarious agenda aimed toward women. As I stated in the first article, insecurity sells and the industries I am discussing are deeply entrenched in the efforts to promote and sell conformity to a worldly standard of beauty that, frankly, is artificial! Look at what researchers in, “Why Women Wear Makeup: Implication of Psychological Traits in Makeup Function” (6), writes:
One of the most important ways today’s women increase their perceived facial attractiveness through the use of commercial cosmetics. Such products allow women to conform to actual feminine beauty standards by artificially modifying the appearance of a set of facial features, e.g., enhancing the visual impact of eyes and lips, narrowing eyebrows, reddening cheeks, dyeing grey hairs, or masking wrinkles and “age spots.” Moreover, several studies suggest that displaying youthful or slightly immature facial features (e.g., large eyes, small nose, full lips, small chin, delicate jaw) enhances female attractiveness.
page 128, bold emphasis mine
My friends, that is not written from researchers working against the cosmetic industry but researchers subcontracted with the Journal of Cosmetic Science whose primary aim and goal is to “advance the science of cosmetics.” It staggers me that industry experts seeking better ways to advance cosmetic science are more honest about the use of cosmetics than we are in the church!
Understanding the unbelievable pressures women face psychologically regarding body image (this includes facial image), as outlined in the first part of this article, it staggers me that we are at a place in the church community where discussions surrounding cosmetics and women are glossed over, ignored, or–for some, even promoted, as the image war continues to bombard women with beauty standards that are divorced from a biblical or natural foundation!
More Consequences of the Image War on Women
In a CNN article updated in 2019 titled, “Suicide rates in girls are rising, study finds, especially in those age 10 to 14”, (7) research from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH is analyzed. According to the research, 85,000 deaths of kids and teens 10-19 between 1975 and 2016 were documented as suicide. 80% of this number were boys and 20% were girls. These rates peaked in 1993 but began to decline until 2007 when, according to the JAMA network, they started to climb again.
While boys were still more likely to kill themselves (often due to increased aggressiveness and/or choosing more lethal means), they began to realize that the gap was narrowing alarmingly. From 2007, rates of suicide among girls 10-14 increased 12.7% every year in contrast to 7.1% among boys of the same age. While researchers suspect social media as a factor of this phenomenon, I believe social media plays a predominant factor in this tragic statistic.
Consider the growth of FaceBook users and contrast it with the alarming rise of suicides among 10-19 year olds. Here is a breakdown from yahoofinance:
- End of 2004- 1 million
- End of 2005- 5.5 million
- End of 2006- 12 million
- April 2007- 20 million
- October 2007- 50 million
- August 2008- 100 million
- January 2009- 150 million
- February 2009- 175 million
- April 2009- 175 million
- Fast forward to 2012—1.01 billion
- Today-2.91 billion active monthly users
This, of course, fails to consider Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and all the other varied social media platforms that I believe play into the maelstrom of tragic fatalities overtaking young women. Research focusing on the correlation between depression and social media indicated a 13-66% higher rate of depression among teenagers and young adults who spend considerable time on social media (8).
Not taking into account the endless barrage of TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media platform viral sensations that promote inappropriate challenges that sexualize, objectify, and idealize the female body, it is telling that 48.5% of 815 female respondents questioned through a research project in Saudia Arabia admitted to being influenced to consider cosmetic procedures by social media (9). This statistic lends considerable weight to the prevalence the cosmetic industry’s influence online, either through influencers or through advertising.
According to research from “The Language of Cosmetics Advertising,” (10)
In a mediascape in which women are bombarded with a range of sometimes conflicting messages about their appearance and body image….that the female body is in some way inadequate and a solution can be found for that particular inadequacy through an appropriate cosmetic product
pg. 67 (my note: a mediascape is the ‘image, sounds, and videos presented by forms of mass media’)
This book, outlining the myriad advertising strategies of the cosmetic industries, makes it clear that one of the main pressures being thrust upon women through mediascape is the unacceptable results of again among women. It goes on to write:
In beauty advertising in particular, the physical manifestations of ageing on the female face and body are generally presented as negative and in need of remedy, reinforcing ‘the unwatchability of old age
pg. 66
It goes on to say, in regard to advertising tactics focused on the female consumer:
Aging is bad and must be striven against or disguised: skin must be smooth, hair must be non-grey and bodies must be slim, supple, toned and erect’. Therefore, the solutions presented in advertising discourse provide antidotes to the varied and extensive problems of aging….These antidotes have so far been located mainly within the female domain.
pg. 66
Allow me to post several other key quotes from this book.
Within the context of the media pressure on females to fit into strict beauty ideals, this chapter will consider how cosmetics are discursively constructed as helpful tools to achieve the youthful, perfected bodily ideal in French and English cosmetics advertisements.
Femininity tends to be idealised in the Problem-Solution pattern in advertising, which may feature an attainable product with an often unattainable image (Benwell and Stokoe 2006: 172).
In this way, transformation more generally can be regarded as ‘[…] the lifeblood of consumerism since it relies on other consumer products or objects for its facilitation’, and discursively this is often produced through use of the product name combined with verbs such as improve, reduce, or reveal (Benwell and Stokoe 2006: 176). This transformation of self through use of a particular cosmetic may be presented as going beyond the outer body and even producing a change in ‘inner’ self or identity, in that improvements to one’s appearance can help women to feel more positive, confident, and so on, with the suggestion that this could translate to other aspects of their lives (Benwell and Stokoe 2006: 176).
It is my opinion, that the rise of transgenderism among teenage girls (a book on this by Abigail Shrier, here, is recommend on this phenomenon) is correlated to the pressures of conformity to beauty standards that many young girls find themselves unable to achieve. While I believe there are other factors that play into this, I believe it remains one of the prevailing reasons for the phenomenon.
In Defense of Women
I could continue the above narrative, but I think my point is clear and–as requested by many–it may all end up in published print at some point in the future. However, I believe that I have established the damnable attack against women via the image wars and, as mentioned, the bombardment of advertising that continues to rail against them at every level of secular society.
That is why I believe, should the use of cosmetics among women in the church continue at the rate it is, we are thrusting our future generation of young women into the maelstrom of insecurity and societal conformity that is absolutely contrary to the Word of God.
There will be a second part to this Psychology of the Artificial Face and, if you have made it this far, I commend your effort to navigate through the plodding layers of research and academic discussion. However, we have a tendency to discount anyone among us who has an opinion because it is not “expertly” presented. Well, I remedy that with this article and those that will follow.
If you would like to make a difference and think this conversation should be heard, SHARE this article and the prior article.
References
- Sarwer, D. B., Pruzinsky, T., & Ovid Technologies, I. (2006;2005;). Psychological aspects of reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery: Clinical, empirical, and ethical perspectives. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
- https://docplayer.net/37554523-Eating-disorders-what-you-need-to-know-heather-gallivan-psyd-lp-clinical-director-melrose-center.html
- https://bdd.iocdf.org/about-bdd/who-gets/
- https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aogs.12660
- Korichi, R., Pelle-De-Queral, D., Gazano, G. and Aubert, A. (2009), J. Cosmet. Sci., 59, 127–137 (March/April 2008) “Why women use makeup: Implication of psychological traits in makeup functions. International Journal of Cosmetic Science”, 31: 156-157.
- https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/17/health/suicide-rates-young-girls-study/index.html
- https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/
- https://journals.lww.com/prsgo/Fulltext/2019/08000/Influence_of_Social_Media_on_the_Decision_to.2.aspx
- Ringrow, H. (2016). The language of cosmetics advertising.