Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
There is a new filter on Tiktok called “Bold Glamour”. You may not have to explain what Tiktok is anymore. But first you might have to explain what a filter is in the sense of social media. A filter is something that holds back pollutants, such as coarse particles. In social media, this means your own face.
To a certain extent, the not so beautiful aspects of the face are filtered out. And what is perceived as a beautiful face on social media remains. It started with digital gags, for example you could conjure up a pig’s nose on your face. In the meantime, more normal noses are conjured out of the face.
There are filters that make your own appearance sparkle, as if you were Goldmarie, there are filters that you can use to transform yourself into a manga character, there are filters that eliminate skin blemishes, make up red lips or give freckles. And recently there are also filters that paint a completely different face on your own face.
Tiktok also has the teenage filter, which simply erases 30 years from your own face. As a 50-year-old, you can look on the internet in real time as if you had just graduated from high school.
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And now “Bold Glamour”. It is aimed at those who would like to have a face that would not attract too much attention on the red carpet. With “Bold Glamour” digital make-up is not only brushed on the skin and mascara is washed on the eyelashes, facial surgery is also carried out free of charge. You get a narrower nose, fuller lips, a more prominent forehead and a defined jawline.
So “Bold Glamour” is an optimized version of one’s own face, which in a way shows what would have been possible facially if it had been genetically matched a bit better. This type of digital make-over was immediately discussed. Some criticize that the digital face can lead to depression because it gives young people the feeling that they are not beautiful enough.
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It is also warned that the Tiktok developers are making Western ideals of beauty the standard. Fitness model Pamela Reif has grumbled that the new filter makes her look like a “tranny”, which has not brought her a red carpet but sharp criticism.
After all, a filter can save a lot of money, because you can sit in front of the screen with your everyday face and show the whole world the best version of yourself without any surgical intervention. You can never go outside the door again, but maybe you didn’t intend to do that anyway.
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