You’ll notice something subtle when you walk into any general practitioner’s office on a busy Tuesday afternoon. At the desk, people hesitate. When they pull out the prescription pad, they speak more quietly. Although it is now easier to talk about antidepressants than it was twenty years ago, the conversation that usually occurs later—often months later—is still spoken in fragments. The atmosphere has improved. It is no longer foggy. However, something else has become silent, something that patients find difficult to identify without looking at the ground. Physicians have long been aware of this. The literature is not brand-new. The…
Author: Michael Martinez
The internet can’t seem to get enough of Matt Damon’s face. If you spend enough time scrolling through a cosmetic surgeon’s Instagram account, his name will appear, typically accompanied by a slow-motion side-by-side from 1998 next to a red carpet still from the previous spring. Depending on who you ask, the assessment can range from “obvious work” to “just a man who got more sleep and a better haircut.” It doesn’t feel quite right at either extreme. His upper eyelids are the subject of the most persistent theory. Recently, an oculoplastic surgeon from New Jersey uploaded a video showing viewers…
Chelsea Handler’s face has become a sort of public record due to the amount of time she has spent on television. With the seriousness of forensic analysts, people watch it, comment on it, take screenshots of it, and debate it in Reddit threads. She also occasionally plays along and occasionally tells everyone to mind their own business, just like she usually does. When Handler shared a side-by-side image of the outcomes of a ProFractional laser treatment on Instagram in October 2016, it became the most well-known part of this continuing discussion. “No one is paying me to tell you about…
It began with a single picture, as these things frequently do. With a small white dog at his heels, a bucket hat pulled low, and the distinctive red curls of a generation completely hidden, Mick Hucknall emerged from his Hampstead home. Within hours, the picture went viral in fan forums and tabloids, and the question reappeared as usual. Has he, or has he not? For years, Simply Red fans have been silently asking that question. Around 2020, the forehead appeared nearly ironed flat, the cheeks appeared fuller, and some angles were suspiciously smooth. His face appeared “shiny like a copper…
Kirsty Young has spent more time than most in the peculiar spotlight of the British fascination with dissecting women’s faces on television. When she succeeded Sue Lawley as host of Desert Island Discs in 2006 at the age of 37, the nation, somewhat predictably, decided she was too glamorous for radio. The pictures followed. Then there was conjecture. Then, almost unavoidably, rumors of cosmetic surgery began to circulate. Things tipped in 2014 after an article appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail and quickly circulated through gossip aggregators. Young herself had once remarked, half-laughing, that she had “quite baggy eyes,” which…
Something in the stadium changed right before Emma Navarro left for her first game in Rome. Neither a roar nor a silence. More akin to a group squint. People were attempting to decipher what they were observing. Since Austin in March, she hadn’t participated in a tour-level match, and two months away from the spotlight had given the rumors plenty of time to circulate. By the time she faced Elisabetta Cocciaretto on the clay, the topic of conversation had shifted beyond tennis. She was defeated 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets. The story ought to have been that. It wasn’t. Social…
For some time now, there has been a murmur on the internet about Tom Hughes appearing very different from the slender, nearly gaunt young man who once played Prince Albert opposite Jenna Coleman. This kind of murmur gradually spreads throughout movie forums and social media comments. That face, with its hollowed cheekbones, sharp jawline, and brooding intensity that made him seem almost too sensitive for the part, will be remembered by anyone who saw Victoria in 2016. His recent roles in Malpractice and The Gold’s second season show how much he has changed. It’s not overly dramatic. He’s not blown…
High-functioning anxiety is peculiar in that it doesn’t resemble anxiety at all. It resembles the coworker you’re envious of. The person who remembers everyone’s birthday, responds to emails before eight in the morning, and manages to fit in a half-marathon on the weekends. She appears to be a model of competence from the other side of the room. She has rewritten the same Slack message four times, and up close, her hands tremble a little when she puts down her coffee. This type of anxiety is so easy to overlook because of the discrepancy between what people perceive and what…