"Make Me Beautiful"

September 8, 2014 6:54 PM

After seeing the results of Esther Honig's Before and After project [previously], journalist Priscilla Yuki Willson wanted to expose the standards of beauty for women of diverse backgrounds.

Willson's inspiration:

A recent project by National Geographic, The Changing Face of America, explores the overlapping diversity that is quickly becoming the norm in our society and shows that the “Multi-race” option on the U.S census is the fastest growing category, was a timely piece that helped to frame my project. It appears that the genetic makeup of our society is likely to continue to diversify further and further, and as one of those changing faces of America, I wanted to see how photo-shoppers would change (or not change) a “changing face.”

She found that while the more diverse countries kept her image virtually the same, minus some brightening touch-ups, others altered her photo to an almost-unrecognizable point.

posted by quin (31 comments total)

United States.

* pours pint glass of rye *
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 7:06 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I think this was mentioned in the previous thread, but it's putting a lot of weight on that one semi-professional in each country willing to photoshop a photo for $5 to attempt to extrapolate what that entire country considers to be beautiful.
posted by the jam at 7:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [32 favorites]

This seems considerably less interesting than the previous one. Because it has the same problems as that one without the interesting originality.
posted by Justinian at 7:11 PM on September 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

I hear in Algeria see through people are super sexy.
posted by jeather at 7:12 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

The Vietnam one is SUPER unsettling. I can't figure out exactly what it is about it. The pointy chin?
posted by joan_holloway at 7:14 PM on September 8, 2014

I really think the terribleness of some of the shops really detracts from this. I realize I'm just part of the "you're doing it wrong" mob, but id love to see someone redo this by say, sending the photo to someone who professionally retouches for a major magazine in each country and paying them for their time.

Obviously you'd need some actual cash to do that, but I think the results would also be a lot more interesting.

As it is, it feels like some college project. The arbitrary mediocrity of the shops really takes away from how "deep" it's trying to be in its statement.
posted by emptythought at 7:21 PM on September 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

Just like the last one, this is more revealing of the individual photoshoppers than any broad cultural anything.
posted by basicchannel at 7:27 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

What is the "European Union"?
posted by triggerfinger at 7:33 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, it looks like Slovenia just basically put a different (and white) face on her.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:36 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I only know how to use auto-level and magic wand, but I keep my skills low to ensure I always respect natural beauty.
posted by michaelh at 7:45 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

What is the "European Union"?

The European Union (EU) is a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are primarily located in Europe.
posted by threeants at 7:48 PM on September 8, 2014 [6 favorites]

FYI it operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. Institutions of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the Court of Auditors, and the European Parliament.
posted by threeants at 7:49 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Er, threeants, I don't think the question was literal. It means, given that there are photoshops listed as being from the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, why would one be from "the European Union"?

Like "I sent my photo to people living in 10 US cities, including Chicago, Houston, Denver, Seattle, and California".
posted by Bugbread at 7:54 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I'm just glad that first one from the US clearly knew how to take the piss for $5. It's pretty close to what I'd do for $5. (And what, at the reasonable amateur rate of $20 an hour, that's 15 minutes?)
posted by klangklangston at 7:58 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I wonder how she would look as Daenaerys... hmmm...
posted by Justinian at 8:04 PM on September 8, 2014

Yep, I know what the EU is. I just thought it was odd that she grouped all the member countries together as one entity, given the huge cultural differences between them. If this exercise is meant to be even vaguely representative of the beauty standards of each respective country, the EU countries being grouped together like that is kind of meaningless.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:05 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

That EU shop must have been sent to Brussels, where they took it very seriously.
posted by Chutzler at 8:17 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

Oh mortal flesh with your humanoid structural morphologies and biological concreteness.

Here, from beyond the eschaton, we present the true ethereal logomorphic Truth and Beauty with capital T and B.

Behold: Post-Eschtherton
posted by symbioid at 8:23 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I want to see Slavoj Žižek analyze the Slovenian one.
posted by symbioid at 8:26 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Spanish effort is actually pretty good.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 9:09 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

Surely this is a prank. No one is going to take a me too project like this seriously.
posted by rr at 9:15 PM on September 8, 2014

It's not a prank, it's "journalism".
posted by Bugbread at 9:44 PM on September 8, 2014

I thought the clear attempts to give her makeup on some of them were interesting.
posted by NoraReed at 10:11 PM on September 8, 2014

(Ok, to be fair, she never called this journalism. All she said is "I wanted to see how photo-shoppers would change (or not change) a changing face." The pointing out that she's a journalist, and characterizing the project as "expos[ing] the standards of beauty for women of diverse backgrounds" all came from A+)
posted by Bugbread at 10:13 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

That must be the Algeria located on the astral plain.

Five bucks? For that much I would probably spend a minute clicking a couple of filters and then send it back like almost everyone else.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:40 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

This might work better if you saw the images side by side.

And honestly? This isn't that far different from the sort of Photoshop chicanery that takes places with photos of women of colour, even in the "professional" spots. Sure, the work is more "polished", but the effects are the same - lighter skin, slimmer features, no spots. I found it really striking.
posted by divabat at 10:40 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

I'd love to be able to stack these and fade them in and out. Because a lot of them look like what you'd get with a good makeup person and a photographer who really got lighting...and then it gets weird.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:27 AM on September 9, 2014

Is the Algeria photo using a stock background from Snow Leopard to enhance the beauty?
posted by oceanjesse at 5:02 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would love to see these projects with a 100-1000x sized budget instead.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:04 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I briefly, very briefly, worked at Elle magazine, and my desk was in the library / storage closet. It was interesting flipping through the issues from around the world to see what was considered beautiful by the various editorial departments and how little variety there was.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:03 AM on September 10, 2014

I briefly, very briefly, worked at Elle magazine, and my desk was in the library / storage closet. It was interesting flipping through the issues from around the world to see what was considered beautiful by the various editorial departments and how little variety there was.

See, this feels like it could also be interesting to me. Use some sort of image analysis software to find women with similar facial structure/etc from around the world, then show laid out side by side how each country handled the retouching.
posted by emptythought at 8:50 PM on September 12, 2014