Elites frequently engage in body-modification intense enough to look grotesque to others as a way of marking their status. Mayan and Hunnic cranial deformation and Chinese foot-binding are prominent other examples.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Mar-a-lago face

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B5JNc3mOYM

Skip to 1:30 if you're in a rush.

[–] xorollo@leminal.space 4 points 3 days ago

People, please watch. It's hilarious.

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

Holy crap - that was brilliant, and Amber’s over-the-top reactions were just the cream on top! 👌🏼

[–] ansiz@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure Marge was just born with that face, but I get what you mean

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

You're right. Samsquanches need powerful masculine jaws in order to crack bones and suck marrow.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I have no idea if you're being serious.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I have no idea if you're being serious.

Tbh I struggle with that myself sometimes.

But mar-a-lago face is a real thing and while the first instinct is to recoil in horror at what these people have done to themselves, elites have a long history of this kind of extreme identity signalling. And I do think this phenomenon is best understood as part of that tradition.

[–] guillem@aussie.zone 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That looks like an extension of the handicap principle, which is quite blindly accepted (like the alpha males thing) but has not a lot of evidence.

There is some real signaling that looks kinda handicappy, like the ancient Chinese growing long fingernails: at first sight it was detrimental to their ability to do manual work. But it actually isn't because they didn't need to do manual work. That's different in my opinion from botching one's face, as they see the procedures as an improvement over the alternative of looking their actual age. They are fleeing from the wrinkles, and that face is a consequence, not a goal.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

that face is a consequence, not a goal.

My understanding is that it is a goal. It's not just a botched face job or over use of botox. People walk in and ask for a face like that.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

I used to call it real-housewife-face, because that seemed to be where the desire to do this to themselves started.

But is does seem to overlap a lot with visitors or wanna be visitors to that Nazi bar down in Florida.

[–] raod_guitar@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago

I was thinking 18th century over the top make-up, corsets and absurd wigs.

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

God the orokin from warframe are getting more and more plausible as an outcome for humanity. (They can transfer their souls into new bodies, and eventually became masters of genetic engineering, making theselves fancy ugly af bodies for fashion purposes. Notably, blue skin, very tall and large, with a freakishly long right arm)

[–] M137@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Always fun to see Warframe referenced in the wild. Thought about this too.

[–] lastunusedusername2@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

First thing I thought of

[–] ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Cultural Kakistocracy