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SalamanderSleeps

(1,036 posts)
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 11:19 AM Thursday

NYT Guest Opinion "Rich People Didn't Look Like This Before"

If you spend enough time around the very rich these days, it’s clear. People didn’t use to look like this because people naturally can’t 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 person’s 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. They’re 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 it’s not just about looking “better” or “fixing” something or trying to remain competitive in ageist workplaces. It’s 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

38 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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NYT Guest Opinion "Rich People Didn't Look Like This Before" (Original Post) SalamanderSleeps Thursday OP
Kick dalton99a Thursday #1
Good. It makes it easier to spot them Endlessmike56 Thursday #2
Easier to spot the rich.... carpetbagger Thursday #34
Luxury brand Matires Fecales??? "Fecales" calls to mind... 3catwoman3 Thursday #3
How does The Onion stay in business? Pinback Thursday #23
The movie "Brazil" turned out to be prophetic ... nt eppur_se_muova Thursday #4
Oh yes, that's the image that came to mind PatSeg Thursday #9
And that wasn't the only thing it was prophetic about. Grokenstein Thursday #13
It has been so many years that PatSeg Thursday #15
Everytime I see those faces I think of this pic kimbutgar Thursday #19
It's called "Uglification". Many of them were pretty or handsome before they had stuff done. mwmisses4289 Thursday #5
And how about these attractive women in their 20s PatSeg Thursday #10
Disturbing! They gave away their natural beauty and for what? Passages Thursday #24
Exactly PatSeg Thursday #25
Yes. It is so sad for those very reasons. Passages Thursday #28
And it can't transform their broken self-image PatSeg Thursday #33
So sorry to hear that. I have a cousin, her daughter went through something similar and thankfully pulled out Passages Thursday #36
Why do they hate the way god made them? MagickMuffin Thursday #32
I was just thinking the other day Figarosmom Thursday #6
They look like they were attacked by bees! BlueWaveNeverEnd Thursday #29
That's what Karoline Leavitt reminds me of PatSeg Thursday #35
The rich watched the Hunger Games Quanto Magnus Thursday #7
And, as always, they didn't get Bettie Thursday #16
The poor man's version of this is Politicub Thursday #8
Beauty Knows No Pain JoseBalow Thursday #31
Kinda makes the petty assertions of 'class envy' we so often hear Torchlight Thursday #11
I've alaways liked the term "Mar-a-Lago Face" johnnyplankton Thursday #12
So true. ananda Thursday #14
Masks shoule be worn at Halloween. They have that look year-round. twodogsbarking Thursday #17
Kinda glad that I'm not rich ... oldsoldierfadingfast Thursday #18
customizable uglifying relayerbob Thursday #20
+1,000,000 Dawson Leery Thursday #27
Reminds me of that woman, whose name I don't recall, who was known for plastic surgery gone bad.... Sogo Thursday #21
Jocelyn Wilderstein BlueWaveNeverEnd Thursday #30
Yes, I googled it, and that's who I was thinking of.... Sogo Thursday #37
The few women I know who have done this were really pretty when they were younger and can't admit they are aging and kimbutgar Thursday #22
Watched the show on YouTube KT2000 Thursday #26
Curious as to whether that was an actual fashion show or mwmisses4289 Thursday #38

dalton99a

(95,054 posts)
1. Kick
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 11:23 AM
Thursday
In earlier decades, the roles were reversed: Plastic surgery was a punchline. “I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware,” Joan Rivers once joked. Now Ms. Rivers seems ahead of her time. Procedures are a sign of making it in the most Kardashian-coded way — get rich, then buy a face. Stars such as Kris Jenner go viral for their cosmetic work. Asked if she’d had “the seemingly ubiquitous new style of face-lift,” Jennifer Lawrence told The New Yorker, “No. But, believe me, I’m gonna!”

3catwoman3

(29,713 posts)
3. Luxury brand Matires Fecales??? "Fecales" calls to mind...
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 11:34 AM
Thursday

...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)
23. How does The Onion stay in business?
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:28 PM
Thursday

It must be increasingly difficult to find subjects to parody that aren’t already self-parodying.

This bit of information reminds me that Kurt Cobain’s original name for his trio was to be “Fecal Matter,” but recording industry execs thought “Nirvana” was more marketable.

PatSeg

(53,378 posts)
9. Oh yes, that's the image that came to mind
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:18 PM
Thursday

I always found it unnerving and turns out it was prophetic as well.

PatSeg

(53,378 posts)
15. It has been so many years that
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:45 PM
Thursday

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)
19. Everytime I see those faces I think of this pic
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:16 PM
Thursday

And i use it as my icon on DU !

Im ok with aging gracefully.

mwmisses4289

(4,582 posts)
5. It's called "Uglification". Many of them were pretty or handsome before they had stuff done.
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 11:41 AM
Thursday

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)
10. And how about these attractive women in their 20s
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:19 PM
Thursday

who get work done that makes them look older and plastic? That always blows my mind.

Passages

(4,435 posts)
24. Disturbing! They gave away their natural beauty and for what?
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:33 PM
Thursday

So young...I find it horrifying because they can't get back the look they were born with.

PatSeg

(53,378 posts)
25. Exactly
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:40 PM
Thursday

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)
28. Yes. It is so sad for those very reasons.
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 03:06 PM
Thursday

Some of the wealthiest women look terrible; plastic surgery has not been able to revive their youthful skin.

PatSeg

(53,378 posts)
33. And it can't transform their broken self-image
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 04:10 PM
Thursday

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)
36. So sorry to hear that. I have a cousin, her daughter went through something similar and thankfully pulled out
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 04:57 PM
Thursday

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)
32. Why do they hate the way god made them?
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 04:10 PM
Thursday


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)
6. I was just thinking the other day
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:11 PM
Thursday

That the filling of the lips are beginning to look like the plates of the Mursi tribes in Ethiopia.

PatSeg

(53,378 posts)
35. That's what Karoline Leavitt reminds me of
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 04:16 PM
Thursday

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.

Bettie

(19,815 posts)
16. And, as always, they didn't get
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:02 PM
Thursday

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)
8. The poor man's version of this is
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:17 PM
Thursday

looksmaxxing: hitting yourself in the face with a hammer then rubbing piss all over it.

Torchlight

(7,003 posts)
11. Kinda makes the petty assertions of 'class envy' we so often hear
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:21 PM
Thursday

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)
12. I've alaways liked the term "Mar-a-Lago Face"
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 01:27 PM
Thursday

It's the condition where previously attractive people (mostly women) distort themselves to look like an alien from The Twilight Zone

18. Kinda glad that I'm not rich ...
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:11 PM
Thursday

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???

Sogo

(7,290 posts)
21. Reminds me of that woman, whose name I don't recall, who was known for plastic surgery gone bad....
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:21 PM
Thursday

She died some years ago, but the face was ghastly!

kimbutgar

(27,487 posts)
22. The few women I know who have done this were really pretty when they were younger and can't admit they are aging and
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:22 PM
Thursday

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. She’s 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)
26. Watched the show on YouTube
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 02:57 PM
Thursday

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)
38. Curious as to whether that was an actual fashion show or
Thu Apr 30, 2026, 10:11 PM
Thursday

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.

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