Skip Navigation
5 comments

  • "Surgeons are more than technicians, they are cultural gatekeepers." I'm pretty sure this was written by an LLM. This phase in particular literally contradicts it's intended meaning for the sake of Pliny phrasing.

    • I think what it's trying to say is that surgeons don't just alter features on demand, they're the ones that ultimately decide what cultural features are allowed to remain, such as wider noses, bigger lips, unibrows, single eyelids, etc.

      • I understand the intended sentiment, but a gatekeeper is someone who acts as an obstacle to something that the subject wants to obtain.

        To say a surgeon is a "cultural gatekeeper" implies that they are dolling out culture--or ethnicity in this case--in an exclusive way to those who seek it. This would make sense if the subject of the surgery was altering their appearance to that of a ethnicity other than their own, but this would be contrary to the point of the article.

        It's emblematic of the purple prose which LLMs engage in. It is unlikely that a human writer who demonstrates such an excellent grasp of the English language as demonstrated in the article would make such a mistake.

        I should also point out that the article lacks any specificity whatsoever. While it does cite general facts about surgery, a specific clinic, and descriptions of ethnicities, The article fails to demonstrate that this trend even exists. It does not contain a single image demonstrating the trend. It does not cite the origin of the trend. It does not cite any central figures, celebrities, or even specific surgeons or clinics that engage in this practice. Nor, does it highlight how this practice would even manifest itself. For example, how are these features highlighted? It only gives examples of whitewashing, but not how it's ethnically sensitive surgery would actually appear.

        It reads a lot more like a Google Gemini search result, or an article prompted through chatGPT, and the subject of the article sounds like it was fabricated by the user.

  • Yeah sounds nice, but what are the examples for these cosmetic surgeries that preserve ethnic features? I don’t get how those two things can co-exist? Lol. Like for instance, this so called rhinoplasty that preserves natural width? Usually people request their noses to become smaller and taller (Western beauty ideals). So I’m confused why you are getting it in the first place?

    Edit: Ok nvm, the only instance that occurs to me is to straighten a crooked nose.