I’ve always thought this

Posted: April 23rd, 2025 | Tags: Uncategorized | No Comments »

from jessica defino’s great newsletter — bolding my own:

Another theory: after a decade of algorithm-approved flawlessness, the beauty standard has gone flawsome, a term coined by Tyra Banks on America’s Next Top Model. Banks encouraged up-and-coming models to see a physical “flaw” – a large forehead, wide-set eyes or, yes, gapped teeth – as an asset, something to set them apart in a sea of homogeneously beautiful women. Crucially, this quirk could only function as beauty capital if the model embodied the beauty standard in every other way: thin, young, smooth and taut, with otherwise symmetrical and/or desirable features.

I always thought about it in regard to pj harvey — her thinness allowed her so much latitude in terms of her looks.

---