Jennifer Lawrence, is that you?
In a new story from The Cut, the naturally beautiful Silver Linings Playbook actress admits she had breast augmentation surgery, had “baby Botox” injected, and plans to have plastic surgery in the future.
There’s also something striking about the pictures that accompany the article. She looks like she’s been filtered through a Kardashian. Her lips looked as plump as a slug, and her eyebrows had moved an inch from their original position. She had a deadpan expression on her face. It’s not just that these are still photos. In a recent “Call Her Dad” interview, she looked very similar.
“I want to be a sexy mom,” she told the magazine. “When I get out of the car, I want to look like a well-rested woman, even if I just woke up and I’m not back to my normal self yet.”
Lawrence is not an over-the-top actress clinging to her youth. She is 36 years old.
She’s not a desperate striver, believing that if only her lips were bigger, her brows higher, or her buccal fat pad sucked away, she would eventually get her big break.
Lawrence won an Academy Award for her talent and eccentric personality and received universal acclaim from the industry and public. She has always been open about her flaws, even stumbling on her way to accepting the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2013.
These interventions are not really about fighting Father Time. It’s about fighting her genetics and changing the characteristics that make her unique and come to life on screen.
Her transformation and openness about the new faces of the future only highlights what’s happening in our culture. Sadly, we are losing our understanding of what a normal human face looks like.
Watch a movie from about ten years ago where the actors and actresses actually have real teeth and faces, characters and minor flaws. Now it’s all chick veneers, tiny noses from the same doctor’s catalog and lips that scream, “I bought these.”
Of course, Lawrence isn’t the only member of young Hollywood to change up her appearance. Emma Stone looks less sharp and more subdued. Anne Hathaway’s cheeks are as tight as ever, and Kristen Bell’s is tighter than a West Point cadet’s sheets.
These ladies were never bombshells. Their appeal is that they are pretty girls next door.
If Lawrence believes she needs to change her natural appearance, what does that mean for the average insecure young girl growing up in today’s world, where social media reinforces their need to look and sound?
Their feeds are filled with influencers and reality stars, all of whom have a derivative face. I see the results of bites, tucks, and injections on average young women walking around New York City. In the suburbs, it’s not uncommon to see ladies with lips and eyebrows so ridiculously fake that one prays they’re currently suing doctors for malpractice.
Due to the widespread popularity of surgeries and injections, we have become too casual about plastic surgery. Women are convinced they need to start preventive Botox treatments in their early 20s. Once you get going, it’s a relief to try other things on the menu. Hey, let’s do fillers here and lip plumpers there. Any insecurity can be repaired, softened, or eliminated entirely at a cost.
Sadly, it has become so normalized.
Decades ago, cultural messaging emphasized learning to love the face you have, which builds character and resilience. Indeed, plastic surgery at the time was more expensive, more invasive and less accessible. Now, with many advancements, it’s easier to fix the face you have so you’ll love it.
It was very dark.
But just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
Does changing your traits really bring about self-love? Often it just causes people to focus on the next “flaw.”