Regarding my post of a few days ago, where I posted my Photoshopped masterpieces, I have come under some criticism in comments that all I did was add hair to three guys and proclaim them hunks. This is not quite the truth (I added hair to two of them, but that was only the least subtle of my efforts in those cases). Because I was racing the chupacabra in terms of getting my story out, there is much I didn’t say about the origin of my experiment.

When I began studying how artists created “cover girls” with features largely unheard of in our species, I was struck by a number of thoughts. The first was that the “female ideal,” according to the examples I studied, required a certain age, a certain texture to the skin, a certain ratio of eyes and neck to head size and shape. Jaws are often softened, lips widened, noses whittled down, etc. There are ways of accomplishing all of these things in Photoshop, some of which is documented in online tutorials and some of which I figured out on my own.

This also led me to wonder whether there was a “male ideal” that is equally propagated by media artists, or whether men were largely left alone except for the concealing of a few of less pleasant blemishes. In the photos I posted below, I actually applied the “female ideal” tutorials to George Bush. You will notice a smoothness of the skin, a reduction of the jaw, a reduction of the ears, an increase in the volume of hair, darkening of the hair, whiter teeth, brighter eyes, etc. The only things I didn’t do (which I should have except I was getting too creeped out by looking at this photo for as long as I did) were make the eyes larger and the neck longer.

Interestingly, I didn’t find a single tutorial for how to modify a male head and face to make it more visually acceptable in a stereotypical male way. Actually, the only thing I had to go by was something I read twenty years ago about drawing the male form for comic book artists. But I was more interested in the subtle differences of reality rather than the heroic form, so I began experimenting.

Guy #1 saw a decrease in wrinkles overall (see under eyes and cheeks and around neck), a lowering of the hairline, brighter blue eyes, and slightly whiter teeth. Guy #2 got the same treatment with the hair darkened in his beard (this last was not quite as realistic as I would have liked, but it definitely doesn’t call attention to the white). Also look at his shoulders, where the folds of skin have been removed. I went a slightly different direction with Guy #3, who was already “young enough.” Instead, look for a complete reworking of his skin, a hardening and widening of his jaw, and a widening of his mouth. And I also decided he needed green eyes. Nothing was done to his hair.

I can’t say what the point of this was; it certainly was not “the more hair the better.” I suppose I’m becoming more interested in the signs of aging since (I know you will gasp with horror) I have noticed one or two on myself. I suppose I wish they were as easy to address in real life as they are in Photoshop, but that goes back to that nasty question of who gets to decide what the “ideal” is. In the gay community, even at my ripe old age of 23, I am definitely considered well over the hill, and my endomorphic body type is not considered as desirable as certain other forms. I suppose I find what separates regular from idealized faces interesting because it’s been something I had been conditioned to worry about by the culture I chose to inhabit. Usually, it’s stuff that is so minor that the individual traits go unnoticed and only the overall effect is perceived. Guys #1 and #2 each look ten years younger just through the concealing of some minor features and the minor enhancement of others. Guy #3 goes from geek to chic merely by the very minor adjustment of his facial contours. The interesting thing is, despite what I did to them and the reasons I did it, I find the first two guys more naturally attractive in their “before” photos. I think I’m a good enough artist that one doesn’t necessarily look at the “afters” and think that there’s something not quite right; I didn’t make them into space aliens with long necks and big eyes. I just think I robbed them of what makes them interesting by reducing their deviation from what someone, somewhere has decided was the ideal.

All of this is to say that it’s not just about the hair. It’s about subtle changes that affect larger perceptions and the insidious mindset that forces one to interpret those perceptions in particular ways. This is something we have barely begun to internalize about how we're manipulated to think visually about women, so I won't hold my breath for an in-depth analysis of the male form anytime soon, but it's a problem I expect to get worse before it gets better.