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» Is that cute girl’s profile pic really anything like her ‘real’ face?

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Is that cute girl’s profile pic really anything like her ‘real’ face?

Cara Clegg Oct 24, 2014
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This compilation of the makeup transformations of Japanese girls has sparked debate on whether anyone shows their ‘real’ face on the internet any more, and just what counts as a ‘real’ face these days anyway. Read on to see more of the startling power of makeup and good lighting, and find out the point these women are trying to make.

Remember the makeup transformation meme trending on Asian social media sites? While now it’s morphed into a funny joke, the basic meme began with girls showing the progress of their makeup from barefaced to complete in six panels. This apparently caused a lot of men a great deal of shock when they learned that girls don’t have natural smoky lines around their eyes, inch-long lashes, and shiny lips. Seeing the huge changes from the first panel to the last caused some men to voice feelings of betrayal at the ‘fakeness’ of these end pictures when compared to the ‘real’ girl without makeup, filters or photoshopping.

However, some Japanese girls have posted their own sarcastic versions giving a big f-you to these guys. One Twitter user, apparently not getting the irony, compiled and tweeted them under the following heading:

▼ “You can’t trust girls.”

[tweet https://twitter.com/2000Babys/status/519767172755636224 align=center]

Now let’s take a look at the messages these photo sets came with.

▼ “You broke up with me ’cause that girl is cuter? That’s fine with me, next time you’ll be the sucker.”

▼ “When you saw me without makeup you said I’d deceived you. Well it’s your fault for being fooled! Pffft.”

▼ “You broke up with me ’cause that girl is cuter? That’s fine, I’ll get a new boyfriend.”

▼ “You broke up with me ’cause I look old? That’s fine, I can get my youth back with makeup.”

Sure, they’re in a sense laughing at the men who fell for their ‘tricks’, but they’re also making a statement about the unrealistically high aesthetic expectations set for women. The message is that men sometimes have expectations of women which are far removed from reality, and that it’s their own fault that they’re shocked when their ‘perfect’ woman turns out to have some flaws hiding under her foundation – after all, they are the ones who demanded she cover them in the first place. However, judging from profile pics on social networking sites, increasing numbers of men are using makeup and photoshop to enhance their image, so this issue of ‘disguising’ is not limited to women alone.

Whether or not you agree with the idea behind these photosets or their presentation, there’s no doubt that the way we present ourselves online also has an impact in the ‘real’ world. So how pressured should we feel to show our ‘real’ face on the Net? And what counts as a ‘real’ face anyway? Photoshop can work miracles, but as these photos prove so can makeup, which is definitely not digital. Add plastic surgery into the mix and things get even more complicated.

It’s only natural to want to look our best when presenting ourselves publicly, and the modern era offers us more tools to touch ourselves up than ever before. It’s helpful to keep that in mind when looking at someone’s profile pic on Facebook, but I think it’s unfair to say that someone’s being deceiving just because they look ‘better’ in their avatar than they do in day-to-day life. I can tell you that a photo of me on a Monday morning looks decidedly different to one of me on a Friday night, but I’d consider both of them to be the ‘real me’ – although I definitely wouldn’t share the Monday morning one online!

Source: Aol News, Twitter (2000Babys)