I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any photos of me with a face filter. There are, but I didn’t take them....
COVER STORY
I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any photos of me with a face filter. There are, but I didn’t take them. They’ve been captured by family and friends from their cell phones. I refuse to keep any beauty cam or filter app on my phone.
Sure, I look wonderful in a filtered photo. My skin looks fair and lovely, my face slimmer and contoured, and my eyes almond shaped. However, that’s not me. Truth be told, I do not have perfect skin, nor is my face as slim as the filter makes it, and my eyes are round like buttons – well, almost. That being so, I do not feel very comfortable with such an altered image of me. To be overjoyed at any appreciation on a filtered photograph would be quite foolish because put simply, it’s just not real!
Selfie filters became all the rage when they were introduced by the app Snapchat in 2015 and quickly went from being fun to indispensable. Of all the varieties, the beauty filters gained the most popularity, because seeing oneself looking so ravishing was addictive for a great number of people. Now most popular social media apps have built in filters and there is a plethora of beauty camera apps available to download on one’s smartphone. I’ll admit I did take a few selfies with Snapchat filters when they were novel back in the day, just to check out the hype, but this was only for a few weeks; I went cold turkey on face filters shortly after, deleting my account and not looking back.
With filters becoming so ubiquitous, people – most particularly young women – have become so accustomed to capturing their photographs with filters that they cannot stand to look at unaltered images of themselves anymore. Their unfiltered images begin to appear inadequate and even disturbing to them. As a result, beauty filters are causing body dysmorphia in young people who feel traumatized seeing their natural photographs. This is especially common when they have been using filters for so long that they are unwilling to accept their real and raw appearance. Some time back, I read a news story about a young woman who took her filtered image to a plastic surgeon and requested that he make her look like it.
As someone who is always late to the party – figuratively – as in, always slow to follow trends if at all (I was the last of my family and friends to join Facebook, had Instagram and Snapchat only for a few weeks, and have never downloaded TikTok), I was wary of filters from the start. I will put on a bit of makeup and strike a pose to try to get a nice picture of myself but using a filter just doesn’t sit right with me. It gives me little happiness to see a perfect image of myself that looks like me but doesn’t look like me at the same time. People may argue that makeup is deceitful as well, but the purpose of makeup is to accentuate and enhance features unique to individuals whereas beauty filters create one kind of a beauty look. It can be safely said that most beauty filters make the eyes larger, faces slimmer and noses smaller, as if this is the only beauty ideal. In reality, beauty is found in many different kinds of facial features.
I feel that sharing filtered images is a bit of a foolish attempt to deceive. People who know us know what we really look like and those who don’t are appreciating an illusion. I cannot recall the number of stories I’ve heard about people meeting each other off social media and feeling deceived or disappointed because the other person did not look like their photographs. It is important to show others the true image of yourself especially if you plan on meeting them after getting to know them online, because otherwise the look of disappointment in their eyes will be devastating. Some people may not even be so kind. I’ve heard accounts of young men actually confronting young women about the vast difference between their images and real selves. Brutal. On the other hand, while young women might not question the men about the difference in photographs and reality, they will ghost the individual if they didn’t find him as attractive in real life. Therefore, in order to avoid awkward and hurtful situations, it is best to share authentic images.
Under constant pressure to look young and beautiful, celebrities are guilty of excessive filter use. Many who use beauty filters aggressively have been trolled mercilessly because of it. Their ‘with and without filter’ photographs have been placed side by side and shared online. There are web pages and online communities dedicated to filtered photographs of celebrities (and even regular people), with users making fun of the images. Since beauty filters make a face smoother, slimmer, with bigger eyes and high cheek bones, they provide a youthful look, making a person look much younger than their actual age. Several actresses have been accused of sharing heavily filtered photographs of themselves in which they are looking decades younger.
Taking filtered photographs occasionally is absolutely fine; even sharing them once in a while is ok, but if a filter must be used in every single instance, then we have a problem. It depicts low self-esteem, denial, and an addiction. There are many ways for a person to improve their appearance and capture good photographs of themselves: maintaining proper hygiene, managing a healthy weight with a clean diet and regular exercise, taking care of the skin, hair, and teeth, applying suitable makeup, and not to forget a big smile will all guarantee a nice snapshot.
