Would You Get Adult Braces?
Hello and welcome to another edition of THE DON’T BUY LIST! Are adult braces the ultimate emblem of contemporary beauty culture? A new article from the Washington Post — “Old-school metal braces are making a comeback” by Abby Ellin — offers much material to mine.
Braces are trending with “Gen Z hipsters and adults,” Ellin reports, because they communicate youth, wealth, and work ethic.
“Many middle-aged females like having braces now, as it adds a sort of youthful or innocent look,” says Brian Decker, a Tucson-based orthodontist, while Ellin notes they also show “that the wearers can afford to invest in themselves.”
“I get that Invisalign is for individuals who are shy about showing others that they are working on themselves, but I’m not timid,” adds Brooklyn-based dental assistant Francis Alvarez. (I wrote more about the moral imperative to “put in the beauty work” here. Also note the sublimation of the self into the appearance!) Braces represent a sort of becoming — visual proof of being in-process, a hope for future beauty.
But more than that, what interests me is how the attractiveness of the implication of the beauty product (youth, wealth, work ethic) outweighs the attractiveness of the application of the beauty product (braces) for users. This seems to be the case with “Mar-a-Lago Face,” too; the appeal of in-group signaling almost blinds adherents to its less-than-appealing outcome.
Adult braces are also a “fashion symbol,” Ellin says. “While serving an orthodontic purpose, they allow wearers to express their individuality with colorful rubber bands or ‘ties,’ crystals or jewels.”
In this sense, braces belong to Sianne Ngai’s theory of the “zany,” an active aesthetic where work and play collapse into each other. Labor and leisure “are confused so that it’s hard to tell whether we ought to react to a display of zaniness with humor or concern,” Rebecca Ariel Porte writes in the Los Angeles Review of Books — which explains my own reaction to the fact that many of Decker’s adult patients “beg” him to let them keep their braces on.
Anyway! Onto the links.
IN THIS ISSUE: H&M severs its models! The scent of semaglutide! Health as wealth! “Recession blonde”! Hair loss! Facial dysmorphia! Hand sanitizer as a status symbol! The American Psycho beauty boom has arrived! Face lifts are getting a face lift! MAGA is making you look old! & more!
