General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT Guest Opinion "Rich People Didn't Look Like This Before"
If you spend enough time around the very rich these days, its clear. People didnt use to look like this because people naturally cant look like this.
Models in a Paris Fashion Week show for the luxury brand Matières Fécales last month caricatured the 1 percent by wearing prosthetics that resembled post-op faces, including grotesque under-eye bulges, skin pulled up from their temples and lips that appeared unnaturally inflated and stitched at the edges. South Park depicted Kristi Noem with a face so Botoxed it melts off and scurries away. From the Met Gala to the Oscars and every red carpet in between, these rich faces are everywhere.
A rich face is stretched taut, often incapable of varied expressions and plumped with filler or implants or a persons own grafted fat. Once, this face belonged to a villainous class of elites in sci-fi depictions of a dystopian future. In The Hunger Games, residents of the capital city who revel in luxury and excess at the expense of other impoverished districts often wear sculpted, altered faces. In Dr. Who, a wealthy socialite from the distant future has gone through so many face-lifts that she becomes little more than a stretched face on a thin sheet of skin mounted on a frame, maintained with constant moisturizer.
The ultrawealthy seem less and less concerned with hiding their excesses. Theyre richer than ever, and figures like Lauren Sánchez Bezos and President Trump give them permission to flaunt their neo-Gilded Age spoils. After all, the unspoken appeal of cosmetic work is that its not just about looking better or fixing something or trying to remain competitive in ageist workplaces. Its about indulging in a particular kind of experiential self-care that is infinitely customizable and accessible to only a select group. It signifies extreme wealth and belonging to an elite, all-powerful clique that gets to operate under a different set of societal norms and rules.
More at link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/plastic-surgery-rich-face.html
dalton99a
(95,054 posts)Endlessmike56
(231 posts)carpetbagger
(5,508 posts)...but harder to eat the rich.
3catwoman3
(29,713 posts)...something not at all regarded as elegant. Can't turn off my nurse brain.
Per Google, seems I am right on target -
"Matières fécales" is a French phrase that literally translates to "fecal matter" or "feces" in English. It refers to bodily waste, with common synonyms including excréments, selles (stools), and matières fécales. The term is often used in medical or biological contexts.
How tacky. Why ever would you name a luxury brand that?
I just went to the website, and the stuff looks like shit, so the name seems well chosen.
Pinback
(13,634 posts)It must be increasingly difficult to find subjects to parody that arent already self-parodying.
This bit of information reminds me that Kurt Cobains original name for his trio was to be Fecal Matter, but recording industry execs thought Nirvana was more marketable.
eppur_se_muova
(42,338 posts)
PatSeg
(53,378 posts)I always found it unnerving and turns out it was prophetic as well.
Grokenstein
(6,402 posts)PatSeg
(53,378 posts)I don't remember a whole lot about the film anymore. Maybe it is time to revisit it, though it is probably unnecessary being we are already living it.
kimbutgar
(27,487 posts)And i use it as my icon on DU !
Im ok with aging gracefully.
mwmisses4289
(4,582 posts)Unless there is a dire need (accident, or birth defect), no one should get plastic surgery. Too many bad ones are done for cosmetic enhancement that doesn't enhance anything.
PatSeg
(53,378 posts)who get work done that makes them look older and plastic? That always blows my mind.
Passages
(4,435 posts)So young...I find it horrifying because they can't get back the look they were born with.
And they threw away something that many of us would like to recapture - our natural youth.
I'm sure there will be regrets later, but so many procedures can't be undone.
Meanwhile if they are actors, they will often get overlooked by casting directors because frozen faces can't show any emotion, an important part of acting. A lot of these people need a psychologist, not a plastic surgeon.
Passages
(4,435 posts)Some of the wealthiest women look terrible; plastic surgery has not been able to revive their youthful skin.
PatSeg
(53,378 posts)It is a disease like anorexia or bulimia. I knew a young teenage boy who was anorexic AND addicted to tanning beds. He just couldn't see how he looked to other people. He died very young because the starvation caused serious cardiac issues.
Passages
(4,435 posts)of this awful trap. She was fixated on being thin; her tanning bed fixation was dangerous, and little by little, through therapy, she became healthy again. Frightened her parents, as one can imagine.
By society's standards, which are intense for young people, she was always an attractive, smart kid... but that doesn't seem to play much of a role in preventing them from falling into such a dark hole.
MagickMuffin
(18,361 posts)Do they believe god made a mistake when giving them natural beauty?
Do they believe they are better than god in that he made a mistake?
And the best part about it is they will now have to live with their decisions. Old age will not be kind to them.
Figarosmom
(12,967 posts)That the filling of the lips are beginning to look like the plates of the Mursi tribes in Ethiopia.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(14,826 posts)PatSeg
(53,378 posts)At first I thought she was on steroids because her face looks bloated all the time. Then I found out that despite being in her twenties, she's undergone a lot of work. Sadly, she looked better before and she can never go back there again.
Quanto Magnus
(1,367 posts)and decided they wanted to be like the rich in that movie....
Bettie
(19,815 posts)that the rich were not the heroes in it.
They think the kids being hunted were the villains....and there are very likely shows in development to mimic The Hunger Games, Running Man, and most likely some competition show that has people who need medical care doing "challenges" to see who wins a necessary procedure!
Way back when Survivor had its first episode, I told my husband that this was the end of a normal society. I don't think I was wrong.
Politicub
(12,335 posts)looksmaxxing: hitting yourself in the face with a hammer then rubbing piss all over it.
JoseBalow
(9,662 posts)Torchlight
(7,003 posts)seem even more meritless and absurd. Readers didn't identify with Tom and Daisy not because of wealth in and of itself, but because they were horrible people,... sometimes, that's all it takes.
johnnyplankton
(653 posts)It's the condition where previously attractive people (mostly women) distort themselves to look like an alien from The Twilight Zone
ananda
(35,408 posts)All that plastic is just so fuckin creepy.
twodogsbarking
(19,209 posts)oldsoldierfadingfast
(358 posts)I worked too damned hard to GET these bags and wrinkles to erase them NOW.
I'm just happy that I can STILL REMEMBER what I did to get them!!!!
What will these younger false faces will look like when they are 86???
relayerbob
(7,447 posts)Dawson Leery
(19,574 posts)This is what happens when one has infinite access.
Sogo
(7,290 posts)She died some years ago, but the face was ghastly!
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(14,826 posts)Sogo
(7,290 posts)TY.
kimbutgar
(27,487 posts)think getting the plastic surgery will keep those youthful when in reality they look freaky for their age
There is a girl I grew up with from elementary to high school and she was in beauty pageants. Shes 70 now and when i see her facebook page she has botox filler and probably some plastic surgery and she looks weird.
KT2000
(22,197 posts)Absolutely amazing! So much was said with symbols, as clothing does for us all. The One Percent are blind, have blood on their hands, live in a cult, and wear their money. So well done - hats off to the designers and the excellent tailors.
mwmisses4289
(4,582 posts)a theatre in the round production, where the fashion show was the background for the point the play was trying to make. It was interesting, especially the face prosthetic on the women in the white blouse. Couldn't watch all of it, the music was incredibly irritating to me.