Why are people so obsessed with the "symmetrical face" filter?

 

Why are people so obsessed with the "symmetrical face" filter?

Mirrors can lie. They turn things upside down. That face you see every morning in the bathroom, in the mirror of your vanity case, is the “opposite you”—the opposite of you that other people see. This, in theory, we all know.

But over the past two years, this simple truth has attracted many people ( especially young people ) to try symmetrical face filters on social networks, which has mesmerized and sometimes deeply disturbed. Some filters invert the mirror image, showing how their face would appear to others, and this upsets many users by re-examining all of their imperfections that ordinary specular reflections make us take for granted or even ignore: Uneven hairline, slanted mouth, eyes that are not perfectly parallel.

A mirror inversion will quickly accentuate these features. As such, there can be a sense of strangeness in being confronted with one's "inverted" face (not dissimilar to hearing one's own voice on a recording).

Other filters startle people in different ways, such as creating symmetry, adjusting facial features and smoothing out blemishes, or rendering a perfect but extremely alien image through some kind of real-time image processing technology or cosmetic surgery simulator.

This filter is very popular. Every few months there seems to be a new trend of symmetrical faces popping up on TikTok, paired with audio from music (like Olivia Rodriguez's "Deja Vu" ) or movies . Scroll through the profiles of users who have tried these filters, and you'll find responses vary: Some people laugh at the reflection that looks like a twisted fun house; others seem genuinely intimidated by that strange face on their phone screen Arrived, very disappointed.

Among the "creative special effects" that come with TikTok, a commonly used symmetrical special effect is "reversal". According to TikTok's public viewing statistics, nearly 10 million videos use the "reverse" special effect. On the tab page about "#反失" , a description asks users like this: "Have you #反失失? Use our creative special effects to see the effect."

Algorithms may also be encouraging users to use symmetric filters. Whether it's driven by an algorithm, or purely human curiosity, or both, videos tagged with "reverse" have collectively racked up a staggering 23 billion views on the app.

What is driving the current craze? The sense of distance during the epidemic may be partly to blame. Over the past two years, we’ve spent too much time virtual and too little normal face-to-face time. In private, we spend hours staring at our own and other faces on video conference screens, seeing all the flaws in our looks. (The rise of cosmetic surgery in the pandemic era has also been dubbed the "Zoom craze" ). In public, masks rob us of the wholesome human experience of interacting with all the faces around us. That alone may be enough to explain the growing enthusiasm for face-scrutinizing apps.

But there are far more factors driving this trend than the pandemic itself. It’s the modern entertainment that’s all over social media; it’s the age-old and timeless fascination with beauty and how to see it;

Other young women shared Wolin's ambivalence. Leslie Lisette Cartier, a 20-year-old student from Colorado, became famous on TikTok with her symmetrical face , which has been viewed about 11 million times. What is her musical accompaniment of choice? Quasimodo's theme song from the Disney film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". This song has also been used with symmetrical filters before, and Cartier seized the hot spot. "You're deformed / You're ugly / The world has little mercy for a sin like this," the lyrics read. Regardless of the song's connotations, Cartier says she's not concerned about her facial disproportion in the filter feel troubled.

“Growing up,” she says, “I always joked about the fact that one side of my face was defined and the other half was softer. When I tried a symmetry filter, I basically knew what it was going to look like. I made videos just to joke."

Still, when her video went viral, many viewers were disturbed by the image and audio, arguing that it fueled mockery of those with physical flaws. “Some people say this filter, this whole trend, is very harmful,” she said. "They said: 'You're kidding. But think about people who look really bad, it can hurt them.'"

Journalists have been documenting this phenomenon, exploring the detrimental effects on mental health of seeing ourselves through the eyes of others , and offering ways to cope with this new self-knowledge . Many articles have framed the issue as a form of trauma, yet another example of internet-induced appearance anxiety , which some call “filter dysmorphia.”

That being said, today's obsession with symmetry may stem from something much older and deeper than any of the above triggers. The human obsession with symmetry is an ancient phenomenon with wide-ranging cultural and biological implications, which help explain the strong emotions displayed by social media users.

Beauty always needs to be quantified and evaluated. Aristotle believed that "the highest form of beauty is order and symmetry." The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius compared the beauty of a symmetrical temple to the beauty of a symmetrical human body. Leonardo da Vinci created the famous Vitruvian Man in 1490, depicting a nude figure in perfect symmetrical proportions, demonstrating the mathematical conditions set by Vitruvius, known as the "Golden Ratio" ".

The concept of symmetry helps us see the connection between the design of human life and all things in the world, the connection between human beauty and the complex operation of nature, biology, mathematics, and physics. Animals look for symmetry among potential mates, scientists have found. Birds need symmetrical wings in order to fly. Symmetrical legs help humans walk.

Symmetry is even crucial to modern physics. "Even Einstein's special and general theories of relativity rely on symmetries when it comes to relative velocities or the curvature of spacetime," Mordechai-Mark Lowe, chair of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History, explained in an email. .”

So some of social media's obsession with symmetry may actually stem from ancient beliefs about symmetry.

Some scientists who study beauty have long held to this view. In her 1999 book Survival of the Prettiest, Harvard psychology professor Nancy Etkoff argues that all people, regardless of culture or race, like and are attracted to beauty . "The more symmetrical the body, the more attractive it is," she said in an interview. "Even slight asymmetry can make us feel 'wrong,'" she says, and while beauty styles change over time, many people "want to see something that's close to perfect or free of obvious flaws."

Is it unfair or wrong to dissect beauty in this way? Is it anti-feminist (given the extra time and effort women tend to invest in their appearance)? Maybe. But for Etkov, cultural interpretation is not the point. "Some things" are instinctive, she said. "We have the ability to go beyond our instincts, but that's part of being human." DNA, she points out, is "the original symmetry maker."

So it's no surprise that people who work in beauty cultures are often as interested in symmetry as Aristotle and Vitruvius. According to New York City-based plastic surgeon Dr. Stafford Blumander: "Most people are asymmetrical. Some models have unbelievable facial symmetry and when you see them it's amazing. God. Why are they so beautiful? The amazing symmetry is part of it.” (Which models, exactly? Blumander scowled. “They might even be my clients.”)

But isn’t it too impersonal to reduce our unique and precious features to equations and proportions? Where is the allure of imperfection? Drew Barrymore's adorable smile with crooked teeth? Ellen Barkin's sexy asymmetrical features? Cindy Crawford's mole? The 19th century British thinker John Ruskin wrote in "The Stones of Venice": "These God-given blemishes really make all things better, more lovable, more beloved." Admittedly, "a person's eccentricity, rarity, and uniqueness can be extremely attractive."

We can find evidence of this in 15th century Japanese art forms. The Greeks may have admired perfection, but the ancient Japanese tradition of kintsuki (meaning "to repair with gold") has an entirely different philosophy. Jinji, which became popular in the 17th century, is a process of repairing broken ceramics by first filling the cracks with lacquer and then highlighting the "scars" with gold, platinum or silver powder.

"Kinji is an aesthetic principle that celebrates breakage and imperfection rather than hiding or negating it," said Petya Andreyeva, professor of Asian art history at Parsons School of Design. "It derives from wabi-sabi, a Buddhist idea that emphasizes the impermanence of the physical world, and the transience of human experience. Wabi-sabi aesthetics promote rough or uneven finishes, and asymmetry."

For distressed young people on social media or anyone tired of their faces in video chats, pondering Kim Ji's philosophy may not be immediately comforting. But it does offer valuable perspective, especially in light of philosophies that claim we have a "natural" or instinctive need for symmetry. In essence, the two perspectives are not so opposed, they are two ways of looking at a phenomenon.

Whether you like and seek symmetry (let's call it Vitruvius' side), or reverence and praise the absence of symmetry (Kinji's side), you seek some kind of harmony in the face of rupture or conflict. Indeed, the quest to understand the world and its images is a noble pursuit with a long history.