Free Will or Obscured Confomrity: How Software is Shifting Beauty Standards

Investigating the interplay between the hidden complexities of digital enhancements and real-world beauty standards, this post delves into how software's "illusion of transparency" shapes our perception and influences societal trends towards cosmetic surgery.

By: Anneguzi

Figure 1. A Pinterest collage of "perfected" features according to internet standards

Filters are inescapable in our modern digital age. From TikTok to Snapchat, and even FaceTime— the software on your devices is transforming our perceptions of beauty and self. The concepts presented by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun in On Software or the Persistence of Visual Knowledge and Elise Hu’s TED Talk How Digital Culture is Reshaping Our Faces and Bodies, serve as critical frameworks for understanding the subtle yet immensely impactful effects of software, especially when individuals do not understand it.

Figure 2. Looksmaxxing collage

In her article, Chun argues that software creates an “illusion of transparency” in which complex algorithms and software present a simplified interface that users interact with, unaware of how they operate. This concept has profound implications when applied to the realm of social media and digital enhancements. Users have a false sense of autonomy and understanding over the technology they use when they are often unaware of the extensive data processing and decision-making that takes place within software.  On every single social media platform, users can manipulate images with filters and editing tools fueled by AI that enhance aesthetics effortlessly with a simplified interface that requires zero understanding of the technology behind it. According to Chun, this is a prime example of how software fosters visual culture, manipulating not just digital images but also the users of technology.

In her TED Talk, Hu speaks similarly about these digital tools, emphasizing the prominence of what she refers to as the “technological gaze”. Because today’s society is inseparably interconnected with the digital, these tools have not only changed how we present ourselves online but have also altered our real-world perceptions of beauty. The ease of modifying one’s appearance digitally, whether it is intentional or not, has normalized these fake representations of individuals, influencing the societal perception of beauty and corresponding processes such as cosmetic surgery. This poses the question:

Are we experiencing a genuine shift in cultural norms towards personal freedom and self-expression, or is the normalization of cosmetic surgery a manifestation of deeper capitalist structures that prey on the insecurities that are heightened by software?

Figure 3. Diagram of the types of canthal tilt

Pretty isn’t cutting it anymore, individuals famous on social media have perfect features head to toe. Cosmetic surgery has become increasingly common, shedding its taboo status and becoming a normalized practice for individuals trying to align with this digitally curated human aesthetic. Though emphasis on personal choice and bodily autonomy has been on the rise, I believe we have much less choice than we think we do. Cosmetic enhancements aren’t “tools for empowerment”— they normalize individuals changing their bodies as they do their digital avatars in the name of ‘self-expression” and “control” over one’s identity. Once again capitalism intersects with digital culture (what a surprise!), commodifying insecurity and packaging surgery as an exercise of free will, instead of recognizing their true status as capitalist-serving solutions to digitally produced imperfections.

Figure 4. Master-slave clocked RS flip-flop.

Not to burst your bubble, but filters rule and reality is optional, and often difficult to navigate given the pervasiveness of the digital. Through this “illusion of transparency”, software seduces users into believing we have full autonomy over our digital avatars, when we’re not truly conscious of the algorithms and technologies that shape us. The “technological gaze” is so prevalent today that most individuals don’t realize real-world beauty standards are morphing into the heavily filtered and edited content we consume on the internet. We have traded genuine self-expression and real appearances for a capitalist-curated facade of choice.

So next time you think about getting just that half a syringe of lip filler or wishing that you had that “natural” ass like that gym- girl you saw on your FYP, ask yourself: Are you really in control? Capitalism wears the prettiest mask of them all.