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The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA [View all]
Interesting article the popularity of plastic surgery with Trump fans. Although to me this is right wingery reflecting the growth of silly cosmetic procedures in our popular culture.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/maralago-face-conservative-girl-makeup-brutal-aesthetics-of-maga-trump-gaetz-guilfoyle/
The most jarring aesthetic in this burgeoning MAGA stagecraft is the unbridled embrace of face-altering procedures: plastic surgery, veneers, and injectables like Botox and fillers. (As one Daily Mail headline declared, “Plastic surgery was [the] star of [the] show” at the Republican National Convention in 2024.) The overall look has since been disparagingly referred to as “Mar-a-Lago face.”
Although plastic surgery and injectables are enjoyed far beyond conservative circles, what distinguishes Mar-a-Lago face from what you and I might contemplate getting done on an especially self-flagellating day is the aggressive, overt nature with which MAGA-ites seem to pursue it. “Over the top, overdone, ridiculous,” is how one New York plastic surgeon I spoke with described it.
The lack of discretion within the current GOP might feel strange today when many—even Kim Kardashian—appear to prize confidentiality. But for the MAGA-verse, today’s tweaks seem intended to signal membership with Trump, a man notoriously obsessed with the literal pageantry of beauty, and his broader efforts to force strict gender norms onto the electorate. The aesthetic is, like Trump’s politics, ridiculously blunt.
Is one’s proximity to power in Trump’s administration, then, governed at least partly by a willingness to mold oneself to the MAGA aesthetic, no matter how severe the undertaking? As Menon put it to me: “Plastic surgery that is very visible makes it clear that women have invested in their body, and that’s a signal that they’re sending to everybody that they’re putting in this work.”
Call it girlboss logic with a MAGA facelift.
Although plastic surgery and injectables are enjoyed far beyond conservative circles, what distinguishes Mar-a-Lago face from what you and I might contemplate getting done on an especially self-flagellating day is the aggressive, overt nature with which MAGA-ites seem to pursue it. “Over the top, overdone, ridiculous,” is how one New York plastic surgeon I spoke with described it.
The lack of discretion within the current GOP might feel strange today when many—even Kim Kardashian—appear to prize confidentiality. But for the MAGA-verse, today’s tweaks seem intended to signal membership with Trump, a man notoriously obsessed with the literal pageantry of beauty, and his broader efforts to force strict gender norms onto the electorate. The aesthetic is, like Trump’s politics, ridiculously blunt.
Is one’s proximity to power in Trump’s administration, then, governed at least partly by a willingness to mold oneself to the MAGA aesthetic, no matter how severe the undertaking? As Menon put it to me: “Plastic surgery that is very visible makes it clear that women have invested in their body, and that’s a signal that they’re sending to everybody that they’re putting in this work.”
Call it girlboss logic with a MAGA facelift.
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