'Mar-a-Lago Face' is a problematic trend - no matter which political party you support

100 days into Trump's second presidency and climate chaos, the downfall of democracy, and women's rights are all under threat, but for some reason, there's only one thing we can focus on right now: Mar-a-Lago face.

The viral aesthetics trend-meets-mockery of those found in the perimeters of Trump's Florida resort is being used on social media to refer to the tight skin, lifted cheeks, and pursed lips found on the likes of Melania Trump, Karoline Leavitt, Lauren Sanchez, and Kristi Noem to name but a few.

More specifically, it targets women who they feel have turned to plastic surgery, Botox, or other enhancement methods in pursuit of beauty.

However, to the internet, it's been dubbed "ageing" and become the centre of talk shows (complete with canned laughter in the background) as an insult to those on the other end of the political spectrum.

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As leading aesthetics doctor, Dr Ahmed El Muntasar puts it: "It's a very hyper-feminine look...high cheeks, plump lips and a lifted, pixie nose.

"Dermal fillers are required for this look specifically, along with skin laser treatments, microneedling, and radio frequency that maintain the tightness of the skin to keep someone looking taut."

He adds of its growing popularity: "It's also elements of looking overly-glam like having manicures and pedicures, fashion, having hair done - there's a lot to it. I wonder if it's the pressure they feel to look and be perceived as put together."

Have I Got News For You US even ran a "guessing game" segment which showed the women of the Trump-sphere pre-Mar-a-Lago face and compared them to their current appearances.

"She can't possibly believe in her heart that she looks better now", one comment on Lara Trump read.

"There's some pretty bad ones but I can't think of any worse than Laura Loomer. I didn't even know who she was till people started calling her jigsaw", another wrote.

"It looks like a bad reaction to bee stings or shellfish", someone else penned.

But this isn’t just bad taste—it’s bad politics wrapped with a misogyny-shaped-bow in which women are used as scapegoats for the bad decisions of the people leading the charge in Trump’s government. 'Mar-a-Lago face' isn't the problem, it's a distraction from what's really happening around us, and a missed opportunity to fight back against it.

"Trump just toppled the stock market as a result of frankly stupid decisions, sure, but did you see how Melania looked last night?", the headlines often imply.

While we're busy laughing at injectables, the White House has vowed not to "slow down" the "deportation of illegal aliens", U-turned on a 24-hour pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine war, stripped the Gulf Of Mexico's identity, clamped down on LGBT+ rights, and vowed to end DEI. That's the short version of a growing list of things we should be talking about, and we're only 100 days into this presidency.

It's like we're all for freedom of expression until it's a woman who doesn't think like us.

Sure, we have to acknowledge that many of these women are also strong, and spear-headed with controversial views of their own that deserve to be scrutinised - but Botox isn't a political critique, despite it being far easier to slam a nose job over the rise of authoritarianism.

53 per cent of Americans say there are still too few women in high political office and Kamala Harris is still the first and only woman to ever have held the position of vice president, but it's easy to feel like women are being discouraged from going down such paths, or face intense scrutiny that has nothing to do with their policies or views.

Women have long been in the firing line over their appearances, which is no doubt what has grown the global aesthetics industry to one worth over $14billion (and counting), and this new jab at fillers over fascism is setting the standard for how we view women, reducing them to nothing more than a look.

As long as we're distracted, democracy will continue to go up in flames.

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