I’ve been rewatching some old early 2000 movies and thing that I noticed is all the good looking people in these shows are obviously like very attractive, but they look normal like they don’t look unattainable or unreal, which is not true for most of today’s movies or media at least from what I see. Why is that?
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Part of it is plastic surgery and makeup improving. Another, probably larger aspect is that our culture has changed and what we consider attractive has changed significantly too. Ideal beauty standards then are very different to now. There was a time in the early 2000s where women were supposed to be thin with little muscle or curves. Now we value things like toned arms, legs, and larger breasts and butts on women.
There’s a reason “I like big butts and I cannot lie” was a somewhat controversial opinion when the song came out.
Probably less filters, no digital de-aging, somewhat less drastic plastic surgery/procedures (and I do mean less, not none), less messing around with teeth (veneers and the like).
I remember that time and thinking how unrealistic that shit was, and now we’re here and somehow that looks a little bit more realist than what were are at right now, somehow?
It’s especially striking in the 1970s. When there are sex scenes, everybody’s got normal amounts of cellulite and nobody cares.
Cosmetic surgery and minor stuff like botox and fillers have become a LOT more widespread and normalized because of social media.
Person A gets work done, posts picture.
Person B is sad because they don’t look like that, thinking person A looks that way naturally.
Person B gets work done, posts picture.
Person C repeat.
Combine that with filters, face tune blah blah.
The goal was to look good, but natural like it was effortless.
Way less surgery on young folks and less makeup trying to imitate/give the impression of improbable bone structure.
That is no longer the goal, but I suspect it’ll come back around in some years. Currently faces are very status-symboly. They seem to be aiming to look high effort and expensive to create that exclusivity or status, even if it’s honestly slightly inhuman.
Filters and botox and Kardashians and social media pressure and ridiculous over the top teeth make overs have made everyone feel like their normal everyday beauty is not good enough. And a lot of these things that used to be just for celebrities are now in reach of the average person, like botox and lip filler.
It is very sad really. You now have these nipped tucked polished filled people that all look exactly alike and completely fake. No more individuality.
my theory would be it wasn’t a huge goal to go over the top with anything. i also think there were a lot of celebrities that didn’t want a ton of attention. it’s not that people in the last decade or so necessarily crave attention, but a lot of them feel like they have to stand out. artificially instead of naturally.
it’s why dudes love sydney sweeney. jokes aside she does look quite normal. at least as far as famous people go. you could make the argument that the way she looks now wouldn’t totally grab the attention in the 2000s bc she wouldn’t stand out for looking normal.
In recent years, use of plastic surgery, weight loss drugs, hair replacement and steroids have become significantly more common and normalised. As a society we’re getting far more used to seeing pictures of ‘enhanced’ people in the media.
Plus of course it’s all been dramatically accelerated by social media.
Fillers,Botox and plastic surgery are more common now
I LOVE seeing actors have normal faces – I hate newer movies and tv shows where everyone looks the same. There’s nothing more beautiful than an actual human beings different faces
We didn’t have social media back then. I think people are way more shallow and self absorbed today than back then and I didn’t think it was possible, yet here we are.
Instagram and other apps have turned people into a sort of digital cortical homonculus.
Famous people (I won’t mention names here but I’m sure some pop into your mind) are distorting their bodies, faces, and being into a hybrid digital creature that has only looks “normal” when framed in a social screen. When you encounter these people in real life they appear as a sort of carnival curiosity.
If you’re familiar with the idea that “corn is farming people” you have an idea of this. Social Media and AI are literally remaking humans in a distorted hyper realized version of themselves. Just as wild corn no longer looks like corn to us, wild natural people will look like a sort of anemic freak to future humans.
Beauty inflation.
This reminds me of the movie The Hunger Games, when the people were presented in the Capitol and the poor folks were shown, and how artificiality was a symbol of the wealthy.
People didn’t have to look perfect on TV because the TV’s sucked, now with ultra high definition TVs and much better cameras the smallest imperfections is augmented tenfold. So everyone has to have flawless perfect skin and perfect teeth.
Also the Internet, if you attended a late show and didn’t look your best it was a one time thing and everyone would forget after a few days because you couldn’t watch the interview again, when every single interview is available to watch online celebs don’t want to be reminded of that one time they looked less than perfect.
Just look at the last 15-20 years how ceiebs have been relentlessly attacked for not looking perfect.
Jessica Simpson mom jeans.
Chadwick Bozeman weight loss due to cancer.
Taylor Swift eating disorder
And more recently Ariana Grande for looking too thin.
Go back a further 20 years and a lot of people on TV are normal, not always super attractive. I mean can you imagine Jack Lennon being a star now?
Thats not how i remember the 2000s lol. As a girl growing up watching Americas next topmodel, seeing skinny girls being called plus size. The heroin chic size zero trend was in full blast back then
They were at the time. There was a big change in beauty to a more unnatural look in the early 2010s. Things like veneers, steroid use, BBLs, fillers, botox, heavy tattoos etc weren’t as common. With social media, these trends spread much more quickly nowadays.
Actors these days don’t look more unreal or more unattainable in my opinion, at least not compared to the 2000s, the standards for actors was much high back then, looking at the Hollywood beauties of the last 5 years and the ones from the 2000s, the ones that we have now look much more attainable, fashion runways are much more inclusive and they’re not as crazy about weight as they were back then, maybe were interacting with different media but I can’t remember any actor, model or singer rn that looks more unattainable than the ones from the 2000s
Camera filters and BBLs became easily accessible and pretty mainstream.
Because everyone today that ‘stands out’ …:
is using a filter
has had work done
is using more extreme makeup than past decades.
Concept of “Normal” has been altered throughout these past 2 decades. Same thought occurred when thinking about bodybuilding, the physiques from back in the day are looked more normal and attainable now then before. Whereas now, its just a mid physique and not necessarily something too out of this world. Mainly due to influencers and pro bodybuilders on gear saying its all natural or making the argument that its normal to get a physique like theirs without enhancements, which is false.
Standards shifted too. in the 2000s, being tan and skinny with straightened hair was the “ideal.” now it’s all about angles, filler, defined jawlines, and whatever’s trending on IG that month.
What’s crazy is that I remember everyone complaining in the 2000s that everyone on TV was skinny. Then we moved to body positivity for like seven seconds, but everyone had Kardashian-inspired same-face. Then Ozempic became a thing and now we have even skinnier ppl than before that are still same-face. We got the worst of both now.
Depends on what you are watching. People weren’t shooting TV for HD so the makeup was made for different quality. When HD became the norm, the makeup changed with it. It was definitely noticeable with people like news casters whom you’d see every day in the same environment but suddenly the lighting and make-up had to be adjusted to the technology and people had to learn how.
In today’s age make-up has become better. People are much better at applying their own make-up because they can start young learning for free from someone professional online.
Skin care is much better. More people take care of their skin and they start earlier.
Sun screen. Not just used when you’re tanning.
People in early 2000’s were still smoking. Especially actors.
Take all these things and apply them to your current standard of beauty. Of course it’s going to differ. Just as your standard of beauty won’t necessarily change much whilst it will for people younger than yourself.
A lot less Botox and fillers
I was in my early 20’s then, and the funny thing is that they were viewed as unobtainable at the time
We’ve been in an escalating “attractiveness” war for so long that we’re now at the point where people need to actually fake it out to look better than what used to be acceptable. Men used to be able to just be toned, then they needed visible muscles, then cheesegrater abs, and now they need to be dehydrated and starved and even that’s starting to not be enough. Women could just be skinny, then they needed work, then injections, and now they’re basically walking photoshop files.
It always has to be “how can you look better than the norm” with no regard for how that moves the norm into actually impossible territory.
We still understood the concept of reality
I e been watching early 00s shows and it’s so refreshing.
Kardashian Effect
Social media happened.
Because they didn’t have as much plastic surgery, the makeup/hairstyling wasn’t as ‘done’, everyone didn’t have Instagram face, they weren’t so heavily edited etc. Much better imo!
People try to hard nowadays to look “hot” and social media definitely has a lot to do with it.
Beauties from past eras look more attractive to me. I’m typically repulsed by plastic surgery, so preferences vary. Current celebrities often look fake and plastic to me, disturbingly unnatural and weird.
Which is funny, because back in the day those people looked out of this world hot. But I know what you mean – it’s all the lip fillers and constant nips and tucks that people are getting. They literally look unreal.
No social media. Hotness was real world vibes + screen aesthetics.
Now it’s just screen aesthetics.
I wonder if gen Z boys are into the unrealistic look then? Like if they’ve grown up seeing this beauty standard everywhere? Or are Gen Z boys actually into the natural look from 20+ years ago?
Vast improvements in cosmetic procedures that made them more gradual + dental cosmetics + digital photography and editing especially on self controlled social media
I’ll add for men, steroid use has become more progressive. People like The Rock pushed people’s beliefs on what was natty, and even when he admitted he “at one time used steroids” (I bet he’s been cruising on at least 250mg of T a week for years now).
Back in the 00’s, a lot of actors were on steroids, but the 2010’s most actors were on steroids.
Check out British TV shows – normal looking people.
They look more natural
Lots of people on TV now have fake lips, fake teeth, fake eye lashes, there is expertly applied makeup on every person, they all have stylists, etc
In the 2000s celebrities looked like they bought their clothes at the local mall, they were just good looking normal people
Echoing everyone of filters and makeup.
The reverse of this is when you walk into a high end restaurant and all the greeters and bartenders are otherworldly hot. I don’t feel like I entered an expensive restaurant. I feel like I walked into a movie set of an expensive restaurant. It’s genuinely more off-putting than attractive.
They weren’t using fillers and Botox and veneers.
Because back then ppl were still made of human substance and now humans are mostly porcelain, silicon, and botox
social media has made looksmaxing much more common so the top 1% are super sweaty tryhards about it and they look insanely attractive
I work in film and the first time I sat in on a “digital make up” session it was rather upsetting to say the least. As that was a while ago I’d imagine what can be done is even more extreme.
This hurt to read 😭 in today’s movies and shows it’s the norm to spend thousands on plastic surgery, use a ton of filters and editing, and live a completely unrealistic lifestyle just to be considered pretty. It’s actually very refreshing to look back on when this wasn’t the case.
I think social media changed the approach to make-up
because despite all the surgery and stuff they had done they WERE human, they didn’t have all the filters you have on your phone today
Less manufactured bullshit.
2000s was more down to earth focused
At least for action movies/stars, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stallone were unusual for how shredded they got for their roles (Terminator, Predator, Rocky movies). Now if you’re an action star getting that shredded is expected and I think most if not all are using steroids to achieve the look.
For the best example of this imo, look at Hugh Jackman in X-Men (2000) versus Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). He’s over 24 years older and is way more shredded than the first film.
I hate how, nowadays, almost everyone has straight, perfect, unnaturally white teeth.
Almost everyone had somewhat crooked teeth. I always felt it gave a person character and something unique about them. The only people who had great looking teeth wore dentures.
The general baseline for what is determined “attractive” shifted from everyday people to online adult entertainers.
I sont think ur right, do the hot mean girls in Mean Girls look attainable?
Because society lost the plot.
Less to zero filler, and no filters on the pictures.
Normal teeth
Remember when Tobey Maguire’s physique in Spiderman and Brad Pitt’s physique in fight club were considered peak?
Just have a look at Rosswell, Dawsons creek or one tree hill – actors playing kids or young adults weren’t even wearing visible make up and when Joey was wearing lipstick it actually was a topic. Hair looked natural, same as clothes- and then compare it with current high school shows. They were and looked relatable to a point
In the past when people got plastic surgery they tried to make it look natural. Of course there were a lot of procedures having done on celebs. Nowadays it’s the goal to look as freaky as possible with impossible noses, overly inflated lips and overly gaunt/pulled up look. It’s also a flex now, so it is trendier to look slightly alien. In the past if any part of you seemed not natural you would be made fun of so hard for not being “naturally pretty”.
I’ve always been somewhat stood at the side from an observer’s point of view with ‘trendy’ fashion and body image expectations in the moment, as I’ve always viewed it as just that, what sheep are doing in the moment. And I agree with you, at this point in time it’s very over the top. Trends ebb and flow though, so more natural looks will be back before you know it
Off subject slightly, but look at the most popular musicians and groups from the late 60s and early 70s and compare them to anyone in the music industry today! At some point talent lost out to “a look”
Cause AI and filters have inflated standards to impossible levels
Because they were natural
Less plastic
Instagram hadn’t been invented yet. Influencer wasn’t a thing.
Back then almost everybody looked like individual human beings, not plastic and filter filled copy cats with no pores, wrinkles, facial expressions or unique features.