Beauty ideals have existed throughout time, and celebrities have long been upholding and spreading these ever-changing trends. Over the previous couple of years, as cosmetic surgery has change into more accessible, the goalposts are being pushed ever further, and the standards are increasingly unattainable without invasive treatments and ‘tweakments’. It’s no wonder, then, that demanding celebrities fess up to their physical modifications has change into our antidote. But does this transparency actually make us feel higher?

Many would say that it does, and a complete industry has sprung up dedicated to analysing celebrity modifications with this because the justification. Eagle-eyed Instagram and YouTube accounts like Lorry Hill and @celebface dissect before and after images of celebrities, while plastic surgeons on TikTok break down the procedures they consider certain individuals have undergone. “Some people tell me on the every day that my account boosts their self-esteem because now they know that influencers aren’t perfect and that they’ve flaws or insecurities,” the anonymous user behind @exposingallcelebs told Dazed in 2019.

Nonetheless, Charlotte Markey – professor of psychology specialising in body image at Rutgers University, and writer of The Body Image Book for Girls – believes that transparency from ‘before and after’ transformations doesn’t necessarily make us feel higher. On the one hand, she says, drawing comparisons between ourselves and the ‘before’ image of a celeb may lead us to understand we’re not so different to their natural appearance, and we are able to find comfort and security in knowing that. “I can think, hey Kim Kardashian and I aren’t actually all that different naturally, and I’m not going to the extremes she does, so I’m just wonderful,” she explains.

Once we deal with the ‘after’, nonetheless, we change into more dissatisfied with our own image, and this might make us more inclined to pursue the same transition. In this manner, transparency could be a double-edged sword. “It’s good in making it clear that some appearances aren’t an attainable ideal, but bad in reinforcing this concept that we should always be continually changing our appearances, that we’re never-ending projects,” she says. While transparency may offer momentary gratification for some, it’s value asking ourselves whether it grants us satisfaction in the long run.

For beauty culture critic Jessica DeFino, it’s misguided to say transparency is a net positive for us. She points to a study which proved the ineffectiveness of photoshop transparency on promoting and marketing images, citing a passage from Intact by Dr Clare Chambers: “If advertisers proceed to make use of models who look ‘perfect’ based on a narrow, unattainable standard, then labels don’t do anything to disrupt that ideal of the facility it holds over us.” Transparency, then, falls short by failing to diminish the pressure for physical ‘perfection’, even when we all know the ‘perfection’ just isn’t naturally achieved.

The relief we feel from transparency also speaks to the prevalence of natural beauty in society; where we value beauty less when it’s the fruits of a health care provider’s labour. DeFino says the thought of ‘natural’ – whether that’s in beauty or organic food – is mixed up in our idea of morals and ethics, whereby natural implies goodness and moral superiority. “Confirmation that something isn’t natural is sort of this internal negotiation of power and goodness inside us,” she says. And this combined with an innate human craving for the reality yields our satisfaction from transparency; proved most recently by how Lea Michele’s buccal fat removal speculation blew social media right into a frenzy, yet Chrissy Teigen’s declaration just a number of months prior didn’t kick up half as much fuss.

But a self-esteem boost from the judgement of one other woman is an unhealthy (albeit most definitely unconscious) habit – one which stems from societal conditioning, where we define our own beauty by measuring it as much as the looks of ladies around us and within the media. DeFino believes comparison is a rational response to industrialised beauty as an influence hierarchy. “We live on this very power-hungry culture and sweetness affords access to power. Under this very capitalistic structure, there isn’t room for everybody at the highest and we’re very aware of that, and it instils this competitive, comparative state in our minds.”

Beauty stays currency, particularly for girls. But while conforming to the present beauty standard may afford us individual power and societal advantages, it also upholds the singular, idealised standard and consequently intensifies the pressure on other women to fulfill it. “I feel once we all know someone’s done something, then it starts to open up an issue of if we should always as well,” says Professor Markey. “The normativity and accessibility – particularly of non-invasive treatments like Botox and fillers nowadays – adds extra pressure to women to feel prefer it’s a perfect they ought to be reaching for.” In her eyes, using social comparison to gauge our own appearance rarely makes us feel higher in the long term.

It’s essential to keep in mind that celebrities who depend on their physical appearance for profit have an awesome incentive to disclaim that their coveted aesthetic is sculpted by a health care provider, and never a results of the products or the image of themselves that they’re selling you. With that in mind, transparency can save us from wasting hard-earned money on a false fantasy. Because let’s face it, we won’t appear to be we had a BBL because we wear Skims, and Kylie Cosmetics’ lipkits won’t give us the fuller lips Kylie Jenner flaunts by getting filler.

As DeFino says, beauty trends and the liberation from beauty ideals can never meaningfully co-exist. Ultimately, no matter transparency, embracing a limited conception of beauty is categorically harmful to all women, because it leaves no space to champion beauty in individuality. As Markey reminds us, what’s attractive can’t be objectively defined because we’re greater than the sum of our parts. And he or she’s right – beauty just isn’t limited to a physical construct, but present in our individuality, character, philosophy, minds and so far more, and that’s something that can all the time reign objectively true.

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