How Digital Culture Is Reshaping Our Faces and Bodies | Elise Hu | TED

翻译人员: Lening Xu 校对人员: Bruce Wang

Earlier this year, I was in Taipei, Taiwan,

今年早些时候，我在台湾台北，

where I decided I wanted to make a TikTok about Cup Noodle.

我决定要做 一个 关于Cup Noodle的TikTok。

Only this brilliant TikTok never happened

这种出色的TikTok从未出现过，

because of the shock I got when I opened up the app

因为当我打开应用程序，

and flipped it into selfie mode.

并将其切换到自拍模式时， 我感到震惊。

The face looking back at me was a face, but not exactly my face.

回看我的脸是一张脸， 但不完全是我的脸。

A whole array of beauty filters had automatically worked me over,

一整套美颜滤镜自动加载，

and I could not turn them off.

我无法把它们关掉。

There was so much going on here: skin smoothing, skin lightening,

照片做了很多处理： 皮肤光滑、皮肤光亮、

teeth whitening, nose narrowing, bigger eyes,

牙齿雪白、鼻子变窄、眼睛变大，

and it gave me a thinner, softer jawline.

还给了我更薄、更柔软的下巴线。

This was a whole lot of nonconsensual filtering

这是大量未经同意的滤镜，

or what someone joked was forced catfishing.

或者有人开玩笑说 这是强迫“照骗”。

And for me, it's the perfect example

对我来说，这是技术凝视 起作用的完美例子。

of something called the technological gaze at work.

What is it?

这是什么？

Women have had to play to the male gaze forever, you know what that is.

女人必须永远迎合男性的目光， 你知道这是什么。

But the technological gaze describes an algorithmically driven perspective

但是技术视角描述了一种 由算法驱动的视角，

that we learn to internalize, perform for and optimize for.

我们学会将其内在化、 执行和优化。

And then, by taking in all our data,

然后，通过采集我们的所有数据，

the machines learn to perform us, in an endless feedback loop.

机器可以在无休止的反馈循环中 学会表演我们。

We learn it so young.

我们如此年轻就学会了。

An estimated 80 percent of 13-year-old girls in America

据估计，在美国， 有 80％ 的 13 岁女孩

have already used filters or some kind of editing

已经使用滤镜或某种编辑方式

to alter their appearance online.

来改变她们在网上的外表。

And these days, the filters are hyperrealistic

如今，滤镜是超现实的，

because they tend to be AI-generated.

因为它们往往是由人工智能生成的。

They come with a suite of characteristics teaching us how to look,

它们具有一系列特征， 教会我们如何好看，

things like arched eyebrows, or higher cheekbones or plump lips.

例如拱形的眉毛，更高的颧骨 或丰满的嘴唇。

What then happens is we see the gap between the way we look in the mirror

然后发生的事情是， 我们看到了我们在镜子中看到的

and the way we look in these filters,

和在这些滤镜中看到的之间的差距，

and the digital world begins to dictate real-world beauty standards.

数字世界开始决定 现实世界的美容标准。

We've seen it in celebrity culture,

我们在名人文化中看到了这一点，

and I know this, because I saw it

我知道这一点， 因为将近 10 年前，

when I lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea,

我在韩国首尔生活和工作，

as the NPR Bureau Chief there nearly 10 years ago.

担任NPR站长时就看到了这一点。

Seoul is all about optimizing your face and your body.

首尔致力于优化您的脸部和身体。

If you want your vagina rejuvenated, your skull reshaped,

如果你想让你的阴道恢复活力， 你的头骨重塑，

any part of your body lifted or enhanced, have at it.

身体的任何部位都要抬起 或增强，去手术吧。

It's the cosmetic surgery capital of the world.

它是世界整容手术之都。

Nearly half of all Korean women

将近一半的韩国女性

have already undergone some kind of plastic surgery

在 20 多岁时已经接受过 某种整容手术。

by the time they're in their 20s.

No other place comes close.

没有其他地方能与之相提并论。

These days, traptox is really popular.

如今，瘦肩针真的很受欢迎。

That's injecting Botox into the base of your neck, your trapezius muscles,

就是将肉毒杆菌注射到 脖子底部，即斜方肌，

to give the appearance of a longer neck.

使脖子看起来更长。

Calves are being injected with Botox for the same reason.

出于同样的原因， 小腿也同样被注射肉毒杆菌。

Having a slimmer jawline is so desirable

拥有更纤细的下颌线是如此令人向往，

that a Seoul plastic surgery clinic once displayed

以至于首尔的一家整形外科诊所

the human bones of jaws it had shaved down in a glass vase in its lobby.

曾经在大堂的玻璃花瓶里展示了 它剔下来的人体下巴骨骼。

This has since been removed,

此后它已被移除，

but this kind of body augmentation work isn't just accepted,

但是这种身体增强手术不只是被接受的，

it is expected,

而是被人期待的，

because in Seoul, looks matter so much

因为在首尔，外表对于职业 和个人发展至关重要。

for your professional and personal advancement.

Headshots are required on résumés.

简历上需要头像。

Hiring bosses make character judgments based on your face.

雇佣你的老板会根据你的脸 作出性格判断。

You were often bullied if you were bald or big.

如果你秃顶或身材高大， 你经常会被欺负。

Trying to look better is framed as a route to economic security

努力让自己看起来更好， 被描述为通往经济安全的途径

and a matter of personal responsibility.

和一种个人责任。

But Korea just shows us a more concentrated and extreme example

但韩国只是向我们展示了 一个更加集中和极端的例子，

of the pretty privilege that exists everywhere.

说明了到处都存在的美好特权。

Look at fatphobia in the United States,

看看美国的脂肪恐惧症，

helping drive off-the-charts, off-label use of Ozempic,

在司美格鲁肽脱离标签的使用上 推波助澜。

not for diabetes, but for weight loss.

不是糖尿病，而是为了减肥。

It makes sense when we are so rewarded for thinness

当我们因瘦而获益

and stigmatized for fatness.

因肥胖而被污名化时， 这是有道理的。

And all I'm saying is we should reckon with this,

我要说的是我们应该 考虑这个问题，

because the more narrow our idea of beauty is,

因为我们对美的认识越狭窄，

the wider the pool of ugly becomes.

丑恶的范围就越大。

And digital culture is now reshaping our actual faces and bodies.

现在，数字文化正在重塑 我们的真实面孔和身体。

Under the technological gaze,

在科技的注视下，

I worry that our bodies become projects to be worked on ... forever.

我担心我们的身体会成为 永远需要努力的项目。

And if we don’t slow down this body augmentation arms race

如果我们不放缓我在首尔看到的 身体增强军备竞赛，

that I saw in Seoul,

then the enhancements that were available there

only get farther and farther out of reach.

只会越来越遥不可及。

And not just for women.

而且不仅限于女性。

Because if we are chasing digital beauty,

因为如果我们追逐数字之美，

well, then, the limit does not exist.

那么，极限就不存在了。

AI's idea of attractiveness

AI对吸引力的看法只会越来越不人道，

is only increasingly inhuman ... and cyborgian.

机器人化。

I don't want this.

我不想要这个。

I don't want my daughters coming up in a world

我不想让我的女儿们来到一个 长相最重要的世界。

in which their looks are the most important things about them.

It is incredibly marginalizing to everybody who can’t fit in

它对所有无法融入的人来说 都是令人难以置信的边缘化，

and exhausting for everyone who can,

而每一个有能力的人都会筋疲力尽，

because you are constantly having to make or pay for

因为为了跟上步伐，你必须不断地

interventions in order to keep up.

做出干预措施或支付干预费用。

So what do we do?

那么我们该怎么做？

Filters aren't going anywhere,

滤镜无处不在，

but we can challenge what the system is optimized for

但我们可以通过改变美观的含义 来挑战系统的优化。

by changing what it means to be beautiful.

Just as the solution to homophobia isn't to make everyone straight,

正如解决恐同症的办法不是 让每个人都变直一样，

and the solution to racism isn't to make everyone white,

种族主义的解决方案 不是让所有人成为白人一样，

the solution to lookism and fatphobia

长相主义和脂肪恐惧症的解决方案

isn't to make everyone interchangeably skinny and conventionally pretty.

也不是让每个人都既瘦又漂亮。

In fact, it's the opposite.

实际上，情况恰恰相反。

It's to celebrate diversity

这是为了赞颂多样性

and the differences that make us who we are,

和造就我们本质的差异，

that are inherent to the human condition.

这些差异是人类所固有的。

And ultimately, we have to disrupt a system

最终，我们必须打破

that reduces our worthiness to our looks.

一个降低我们外表价值的系统。

Even though my face is rounder

尽管我的脸更圆，

and probably darker than an algorithm would like,

可能比算法想要的还要暗，

I have come here tonight wearing my actual face.

但我今晚还是 带着真实的脸来到这里的。

And my hope for all of you is that you feel comfortable

我希望你们 所有人都能感到舒服，

and will continue to feel comfortable doing the same.

并且会继续感到舒服。

Because I see a wide variety of jawlines out here tonight,

因为今晚我在这里 看到各种各样的下巴，

and let me just say they are all worthy.

让我说，他们都值得。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Cheers and applause)

（欢呼和掌声）