In recent years, the European and American entertainment circles and sports circles have set off a "lip plumping fever". From Angelina Jolie's iconic thick lips becoming synonymous with sexiness, to the Kardashian family's reshaping of "curvy aesthetics" through lip augmentation and buttocks augmentation, to athletes such as tennis star Sabalenka showing the image of "plump lips" in the cross-border fashion field, lip augmentation has gradually evolved from a plastic surgery to a global aesthetic symbol.

Sabalenka, for example, is over 180 centimeters tall and is known not only for her strength on the court, but also for her diverse image outside the court through fashion magazine shoots. In a recent set of blockbuster films, she tried a sexy red lip look, although she admits that "wearing high heels is more difficult to adapt to than playing a game", but the diversity of her image has undoubtedly strengthened the public's perception of "plump lip beauty". Young players such as Russian tennis player Potapova are also frequently discussed on social media because of their appearance, which indirectly promotes the popularity of this aesthetic.

However, behind this trend lies a profound business logic and cultural manipulation. Through reality shows and social media, the Kardashian family packaged features such as lip plumping and buttocks as the standard configuration of "perfect women", and even gave birth to the cultural phenomenon of "Kardashianization". The popularity of microplastic surgery techniques such as hyaluronic acid injections has made lip augmentation a "beautiful shortcut" within the reach of ordinary people - according to data from a Chinese guide website, lip augmentation costs between 1,200 and 8,000 yuan, and the promotion of "non-invasive and painless" has further lowered the threshold for trying.

The prevalence of lip augmentation is essentially the discipline and alienation of women's bodies in contemporary society. In traditional aesthetics, lips, as a symbol of sexual attraction, are endowed with qualities such as "fullness" and "softness", and lip augmentation surgery artificially magnifies this feature, pushing the female body to an extreme sensuality. This trend is in line with the historical habits of girdle and foot binding, all of which attract male gaze at the expense of health.

What is even more alarming is that social media reinforces the singularity of aesthetics through algorithms. For example, Instagram has more than a million posts with the hashtag #plumplips, and filter technology can even simulate lip plumping effects in real time, causing teens to fall into "appearance anxiety" in the contrast between virtual and reality. According to a study, more than 60% of women aged 18-25 believe that social media influences their perception of their appearance. The popular science content on the webpage about the "diversity of labia shapes" just reflects the mainstream culture's disregard for the natural form of the female body - when the "butterfly shape" and "drop shape" of the labia are classified as normal phenomena in the medical literature, why is the "thinness" of the lips only standardized?

The globalization of lip augmentation reveals the erosion of pluralistic aesthetics by Western cultural hegemony. In the case of Angelina Jolie, her thick lips are an individual trait, but they have been shaped by the media as a "global sex template", causing women in Asia, Africa and other places to follow suit. This kind of "aesthetic colonization" not only dissolves the unique beauty of the local culture (such as the "cherry mouth" tradition in East Asia), but also transforms the body into a tool for capital through the industrial chain. What's more serious is that the deformed aesthetic has given birth to the black industry chain. The case of Deborah, a French girl, is very alarming: she is gullible enough to believe that unlicensed doctors inject low-quality fillers, which causes her lips to be severely swollen and deformed, and eventually faces the risk of irreversible disfigurement. Similar incidents are not uncommon in Brazil, South Korea and other major plastic surgery countries, reflecting the dual dilemma of lack of regulation and consumers blindly following the trend.

To combat deformed aesthetics, we need to start from multiple levels of culture, education and system. First of all, the media should abandon the stereotypical representation of the "perfect body", such as the scientific attitude of social media that emphasizes that "the shape of the labia does not need to be treated", and the same applies to the natural features of the lips and other parts. Second, the education system needs to strengthen the education of body autonomy so that young people can understand the diversity of "beauty" - just as the "steamed bun" and "purse" of the labia are normal, there is no superiority or inferiority in the thickness of the lips. In addition, the law requires severe punishment for illegal medical aesthetic practices. The case of Jennifer, France's "three-no-doctor" who made a profit of 186,000 euros by falsifying qualifications, and was eventually arrested, highlights the need to strengthen industry supervision. Public figures should also assume social responsibility, such as Sabalenka's multifaceted image of strength and grace on and off the field, which may provide a new paradigm for breaking the monolithic aesthetic.

Behind the lip augmentation trend is the complicity of capital, media and patriarchal culture. When Angelina Jolie's lips become a global template, and when Sabalenka's fashion image obscures her athlete nature, we have to ask: who defines "beauty"? And who is profiting from this? Returning to respect for the natural state of the body and refusing to objectify self-worth to the thickness of the lips may be the ultimate answer to deforming aesthetics. After all, true cultural diversity begins with embracing each unique face.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Xiaodi)