Your favourite celebrity reporter is back.

Joking, obviously, but two things are happening this week in the world of pop culture… and they have a lot in common.

Firstly, White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood was parodied in an SNL skit over the weekend. Personally, I don’t think SNL has been funny for decades, but I digress.

The skit takes a low blow at Aimee’s teeth, the most iconic part of her appearance. Throughout the airing of the most recent season of Mike White’s epic show, Aimee’s teeth have repeatedly made headlines… because they are, well, different. Or at least that’s what the media wants us to think.

They are not different from the teeth you see in daily life, really. This might seem groundbreaking to the media, but in real life, people’s faces (and teeth) come in all different shapes and sizes.

Aimee’s teeth are part of her charm, but you can tell she is still self-conscious of them following her rise to fame across the pond. In an interview, Aimee recalls how Mike White had to fight for her to be cast:

“It was honestly from the nicest place, but my little head goes: ‘HBO didn’t want me. And I know why HBO didn’t want me, it’s because I’m ugly,'” she said.

“Mike had to say, ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!'”

Aimee has spoken out herself about the skit, calling it “mean and unfunny” on her Instagram stories.

This, as a standalone story, isn’t groundbreaking. People on the internet (and apparently also on TV) are mean. So what?

Well, this other story caught my eye.

This week also marked the return of HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The latter of whom seems to attract more online scorn than anyone I have ever seen in recent years

Bella, who recently came out as autistic, is a non-binary actor who plays Ellie, the female co-lead in the show. They do not look much like the game version of their character, but neither does Pedro.

And yet, the comments sections about the new series are filled with hate towards Bella. Why? I guess because they aren’t conventionally attractive. It's a bit troubling that people are concerned with the physical appearance of a 19-year-old character, but that’s besides the point.

Commenters justify their dislike of Bella claiming it’s just “terrible casting”, but what does that even mean? Bella is cast in the role of a character from a video game. They embody that character's core personality traits exceptionally well, and have proven to be a fantastic actor from a very young age, having made their GoT debut at just 13.

I won’t go too far into the Bella stuff because, quite honestly, I don’t want to be attacked. The LoU fandom seems vicious. I’ve said my piece. I’ll move on.

I wrote this newsletter and then couldn’t help but think I needed to mention the elephant in the room: men. It goes without saying that this issue is a very female-coded one. Men in the limelight are allowed to have unusual facial features; in fact, it’s often what makes them attractive in the first place.

Aimee’s White Lotus co-star Walton Goggins has had his ‘moment’ recently. I can’t open Instagram without seeing a Walton thirst trap, most of which fail to mention his receding hairline, which is actually a core characteristic of his appearance. I take no issue with Walton’s hairline; I actually think it’s really cool to see a male actor owning it, but it’s interesting that SNL didn’t parody it like they did Aimee’s teeth.

The rise of Instagram face

Both Aimee and Bella are British, white, and slim. And even then, they can’t win in the court of public opinion. Are we not used to seeing a variety of faces on TV anymore? Why is that?

Instagram face is a term used to describe the ‘sameness’ of faces seen on the social media app. These faces are typically female and use the same filters, perhaps even similar cosmetic procedures. Think white but tanned, feature symmetry, poreless skin, slick back hair.

In an article in the New Yorker, celebrity makeup artist Colby Smith said:

“People are absolutely getting prettier,” he said. “The world is so visual right now, and it’s only getting more visual, and people want to upgrade the way they relate to it.”

But is pretty synonymous with sameness?

It isn’t to me.

There are two issues at play here:

What people actually look like (sans filters, angles and make-up)

and what people expect other people to look like (in TV, films and on social media.)

The former is on our doorstep; it’s happening to us. If we let it.

Editing photos is nothing new, but it’s more accessible than ever. I hesitate to ask: What lessons are we teaching young people if we are so concerned about how we actually look that we have to manipulate even the most mundane of selfies?

That leads us to the second point…

It’s not really our fault.

Monkey see, monkey do

Comment sections are divided, but it doesn’t take an internet sleuth to see that there is really no winning for people like Aimee and Bella. What’s the alternative? They get work done… what happens then?

It isn’t a stretch to imagine being someone with imperfect teeth and seeing the SNL skit or clicking in the social media comments section and starting a journey of ‘fixing’ said gnashers.

If you use social media, you might have seen posts by cosmetic surgeons describing what they’d do to certain celebrity faces to ‘improve’ their natural features. I’ve sacrificed my algorithm to dig out this video from cosmetic surgeon Dr Daniel Barrett, guessing the ages of Love Island stars.

I specifically remember when last year’s Love Island hit our screens. People were shocked at the real ages of some of the female contestants. In the video above, Dr Barrett is happy to highlight that this premature ageing is a result of ‘incorrectly done’ fillers and botox… therefore inferring that his work couldn’t possibly have this effect.

So these women are to blame for the way their faces look? Because they went to the wrong people for the work?

Funny that reminds me of the diet industry, which is very quick to blame the individual when their miracle weight loss programmes don’t work, or how the Law of Attraction dummies love to point the finger when what you manifested didn’t come true because you simply ‘wanted it too much’.

As always, I encourage you to ask the question: who wins?

It’s certainly not women and non-binary people.

It’s the social media platforms that benefit from our extra dwell time spent scrolling and replying to contentious comments. And it’s people like Dr. Barrett who administer the procedures.

It’s never us.

Personally, I think it would be really boring if everyone looked the same.

And I think most people would agree, but the echo chamber of online comment sections might make you think differently. Variety is the spice of life. It’s a cliché for a reason.

My training for the Edinburgh Half Marathon is in full swing now, so all I have been doing is running, parenting, and working.

Here’s a picture of some cute lambs at Gibside. Don’t eat them.

Here are some things I've enjoyed over the last week:

📺 The Last Of Us (Season 2) - Obviously.

📚Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley - Love me a troubled musician and songwriter relationship.

Ellen x

💌 About this email

I’m Ellen, and I write about mental health for the chronically online. I am a freelance copywriter, strategist and web designer, and I work from home with my husband, Craig, at Content By The Sea. We have two rescue greyhounds, Potter and Harmony, and a toddler.

I started this newsletter in March 2020 and have sent over 200(!) emails; currently, I have over 1,300 subscribers. I write about a wide variety of topics, including diet culture, my love of running, jealousy, my life falling apart, mam guilt, and this dystopian world we all live in.

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