I notice that most YouTube channel owners in the makeup field are really open to plastic surgery. Some look dramatically different from when they started their channel. Their face and body is, in their minds, endlessly malleable.

Obviously, the problem is the camera. The camera is a laser beam that targets what we find annoying – perhaps, it wasn’t even that annoying at first – and blows it out of proportion.The camera has just one eye. That is the crux of the issue. It is not even a cyclops, who are skilled with hands. It lacks the rest of the senses and perception and is used (or abused) for its imagined objectivity. Casting a cold, distant eye on all, it suggests judgements.

The audience is suspicious yet enamored by the one eye creature. The operator assures it is all true. Only the objective truth! Trust us!

Lies, really. We don’t find anyone’s grandparents ugly. We don’t find anyone’s parents unattractive. (We don’t find parents attractive in general.) We don’t find strangers unattractive. We find certain people attractive – even if he or she may have a bulbous nose, two flapping ears, or a wide stretching mouth. 情人眼里出西施 is not the same as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The problem, I am trying to tell you, is the camera.