In recent years, filters are used on social networks. Whether on Instagram, Snapchat or even TikTok, faces are changed. But now a new ultra-glamorous filter is currently being debated. It is called the Bold Glamour, understand the Glamor daring. But here is a real problem: the artificial intelligence used makes it possible to erase many “defects” of the face. Used in more than eight million videos, Bold Glamor uses effects with 3D images and makes the person appear to have the features of beauty standards.
How does this filter work?
Our media colleagues DNA explains how Bold Glamor is used. “This “beauty” filter uploaded by TikTok enlarges your lips, narrows your nostrils, enhances your eyebrows, sculpts your cheekbones, adds makeup to your eyes, marks your jawline more… It’s you without being totally you. A Kardashian version of you, passed through the hands of a plastic surgeon or a contouring pro. Above all, Bold Glamor is particularly well done. Unlike most SnapChat, TikTok, or Instagram filters, this one seems attached to your skin. »
— memo act (@memotv) February 26, 2023
Internet users do not hide their anger against this TikTok filter
If some users are delighted to use this filter, others cry foul. “This filter must be banned. If you don’t want to ruin your day, don’t try it. ‘Cause all he’s gonna do is make you feel like shit,” adds another user. “ This filter should be illegal, I wish you all not to fall into dysmorphophobia”, also explains a user of the platform, whose 20 Minutes relayed the remarks. It must be said that these filters can have devastating consequences on the mental health of users. “By dint of looking at oneself through filters that erase any imperfection, the slightest physical defect becomes an obsession. This can lead to a form of positive alienation from a face that ultimately no longer corresponds to who we are. And subsequently generate phenomena of dysmorphophobia [obsession pour une petite imperfection ou un défaut imaginaire] »explains to 20 Minutes Michaël Stora, psychologist, psychoanalyst and founder of the Observatory of digital worlds in the human sciences. “With this filter, there is no longer the notion of fun, the playful side. It is so realistic that it only reinforces the fact that the self-image is failing”.
Surgical professionals are sounding the alarm
Thus, even on the TikTok platform, some are rebelling, such as the Californian surgeon Monica Kieu, specializing in facial plastic surgery, who acknowledged that this filter was very impressive. “The biased reflection of this kind of filter therefore risks integrating illusory and arbitrary standards of beauty into the collective imagination”, she explains. Worse still, it is above all likely to generate “a standardization of faces”, notes Michaël Stora. ” Today, young people no longer want to look like celebrities, but like an improved form of themselves, with standardized criteria. We were already in a clone war, but here we are reaching a peak. It’s the idea that there is a universal canon of beauty that everyone should look like.”explains the psychologist and psychoanalyst, who is afraid that “This type of filter pushes even more young people – 18-30 year olds – to resort to cosmetic medicine or surgery in order to match a “filtered” self”. Users also testify: “This filter gave me complexes. It’s totally unfair, when I take it off you’re going to be shocked.” can we read.
