Why did Hollywood paint lips green?
When we talk about beautiful bodies, we tend to imagine a kind of natural grace or exceptional physical attributes that only a minority of people are lucky enough to have received at birth. But what we consider beauty is not a universal or immutable reality, but a cultural construction that each society defines according to its values, imaginaries, and ways of looking. A beauty that, far from being sought for the personal enjoyment of inhabiting one's own body, needs the external gaze to exist and acquire meaning through the approval of others. It is no coincidence, then, that throughout the 20th century and as the means of reproducing and disseminating images multiplied, beauty ideals became increasingly conditioned by technologies of visibility.
The great Hollywood actresses of black and white cinema seem, apparently, of a much more natural beauty than many current celebrities, often associated with cosmetic surgery. But the truth is that those cinematic icons were also subjected to intense intervention processes aimed at precisely constructing this appearance of naturalness. One of the main instruments was makeup, which in no case could be applied in the same way as in everyday life. It was not about pleasing the human eye, but about correcting the limitations of photographic film and studio lighting, since the black and white camera did not interpret colors as the human gaze interprets them.
(the position of the tongue and jaw) or the Faced with this, it must have been difficult to sustain any scene of emotional intimacy when, a few meters away, those faces smeared with whites, greens, and blues probably resembled more the faces of theatrical or grotesque characters than those of real people. But it is precisely here that the deeply constructed nature of cinematic beauty becomes visible: those faces did not exist to be contemplated up close nor to be inhabited by the actresses themselves, but to transform into an image before the distant gaze of the viewer.
Today, when we show our faces on social media, the color range is much more realistic than that of black and white cinema. But, despite this, we continue to modify our appearance to adapt it to the demands of this new visual technology. Hence the success of filters and digital retouching. We also take care of the angle and focal length when photographing ourselves and adopt bodily disciplines such as mewing (the position of the tongue and jaw) or smizing (subtly tensing the gaze), among many others. And, likewise, there is makeup specifically designed for the digital camera and for the way platforms process images. This is the case of contouring, popularized by Kim Kardashian, which visually redefines the jawline and cheekbones to compensate for the camera's softening effect. High-coverage foundations conceal imperfections that the device accentuates, while defined lips or techniques like baking help control volumes and shine on screen.
Two very different technological realities, that of black and white cinema and that of social networks, but which share a same essence: that the concept of beauty is always profoundly constructed, not for life but for visibility.