OH DEAR GOD WHY WOULD SOMEBODY DO THIS TO THEMSELVES!?

gentlemanorcus

Girls usually grow out of their Barbie adoration stage when they're, like, seven. I feel sorry for this woman, really.

DonZabu

I severely doubt this woman is some poor victim of a societal beauty standard. In all likelihood, she knows full well how abnormal she looks, and she pursued that look with a similar idea in mind as this guy had:

I think you're leaping from one thing to the other, Flyboy.

gentlemanorcus

^ Yeah, pretty much. Almost all girls grow out of their Barbie stages after prepubescence. That this woman would transform herself to look like one suggests a problem much worse than simply trying to fit into some beauty standard, as Flyboy suggests.

MadassAlex

I don't know, 'cause some people make themselves look very fake in an unironic search for more beauty. It seems like the simpler and more likely option than this woman matyring herself to make a point or something. 

Flyboy

That this woman would transform herself to look like one suggests a problem much worse than simply trying to fit into some beauty standard, as Flyboy suggests.

Considering that things like anorexia and bulimia are documented mental disorders in which people actually have mental breakdowns trying to stay thin and in the process put their body through intense punishment, yes, it could very well be something much worse, but I still think it circles back to the harmful beauty standards at the end of the day.

Social standards are intensely powerful things.  Remember, 175 years ago "black people are inferior" was a simple social standard, and yet it was powerful enough to build one of the most cruel forms of slavery in human history.  Beauty standards being "just" a social phenomenon doesn't mean they don't hold immense sway over the actions of individuals within our culture. 

Icalasari

I love how this thread went from being about why somebody would make themselves look like a creature from the very depths of my nightmares into a legitimate discussion about society and what it calls beautiful, and why that can be harmful

Nova

It's the Inverse Rule. The more serious a thread starts, the less serious it remains after; and the less serious a thread starts, the more serious it becomes.

captainbrass

Ica - Weird though she looks, I wouldn't actually say this woman comes from the very depth of nightmares. I mean, she's not Chthulu.

Actually, I think she's the living equivalent of the people who think that the way to write good fiction is to string together a bunch of tropes that are individually quite cool, and then really crank them all up. In fact, it's the way to write really bad fiction.

Also, feminism. This isn't the only standard of beauty that gets forced on women, but it is one of them. If she'd have wanted to look like Angelina Jolie, the lady would probably have been getting flack for her huge fake boobs and obvious fake lips. Women can't really win.

InsanityAddict

If they'd go for 100% accuracy, a Ken look-a-like would cut his weiner of and Barbie look-a-likes would have their vaginas sewn shut.

Also, whenever something gets called a standard of beauty, of course people are going to get picky and find faults with it precisely because they don't like to be standardized.

Schitzo

THREAD HOP

... Did I just run into a The Dark Crystal cosplay convention?

Bee

All we're seeing here is still photos. Imagine what she looks like in motion.

I'm thinking something like Surrogates.  With the rigid neck movements and stuff.