Imagine someone telling you your face is symmetrical. How are you meant to react to such a statement?
Is it a compliment? Is this an insult so nuanced which goes completely over my symmetrical head?
Does having a symmetrical face somehow benefit my life? If so, how? These are the questions which sprang to my mind when someone told me the very same thing. We’re led to believe having a symmetrical face is the epitome of beauty.
Pseudo-science has this notion where a symmetrical face means a clean bill of health. I would say it’s a fallacy because none of it’s proven, like an old fisherman’s tale. Speaking to Science News for Students, Anthony Little, a psychologist from the University of Stirling in Scotland, claims ‘People’s faces usually only differ subtly in symmetry’.
He points outs how everyone’s face is ‘slightly symmetrical’, albeit in various ways. It’s an illusion that we all have symmetrical faces, thus ‘symmetry looks normal to us’ and it is appealing to the eye.
A study from August 2014, led by Nicholas Pound (of Brunel University) disproved the theory.
He and his team concluded there was no strong link between good health and a symmetrical face. This was after the team analysed the health records of 4,732 British individuals – 2,506 males and 2,226 females. All whom with different degrees of facial symmetry.
He and his team concluded there was no strong link between good health and a symmetrical face. This was after the team analysed the health records of 4,732 British individuals – 2,506 males and 2,226 females. All whom with different degrees of facial symmetry.
Yet, in a world jaded by aesthetics no one cares about health. The real concern is if having a symmetrical face is the key to looking beautiful. To decide whether this holds true or not we have turned to celebrities to offer us this moment of clarity.
Why celebrities? Maybe because without their acknowledgement or approval nothing is worth doing. We’re all sheep to this game called life and we need them to make us feel validated.
Putting our years of Photoshop skills to good use, we tested this theory on the world’s most well-known faces. We were keen to see if having a symmetrical face is a true embodiment of facial perfection.
Emila Clarke
Your mother of dragons.
Victoria Beckham
If you squint a little bit, the Posh Spice on the right looks like she is smiling at her creation.
Adele
‘Hello‘… oh, wait sorry. Wrong number. Thought you were Adele.
Robert Downey Jr
Someone should’ve told Iron Man to go to Specsavers.
Meghan Markle
There’s not too much difference here… other than the superimposed nose and overly exaggerated grin. It’s like The Joker sprayed poor Meghan with laughing gas.
Johnny Depp
Depp’s symmetrical doppelgänger looks like he should be carrying my bags up to my room at a very expensive five-star hotel. He gets no tip though.
Liam Gallagher
Both images portray the look of a man who would not be happy at any of my incredulous observations…
Tom Hanks
The image on the left looks like my old maths teacher. The image on the right is of my dad at parents evening when he finds out I’ve been pissing about too much in school.
Taylor Swift
I would say something funny about Taylor Swift but her rabid fanbase would descend on me like the 10 biblical plagues. Instead, I’ll just say the image on the left also reminds me of my ex who told me ‘it’s me or your sneaker collection’. Guess which I picked.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
If there’s ever a live-action version of Wreck-it-Ralph Disney should hire the bloke on the left. As for the guy on the right, he might be president in the next few years.
George Clooney
Both images are of a man who possesses a gaze which can pierce through the soul of even the most steel-hearted individual. Both would probably be good at selling coffee.
Kim Kardashian
If you don’t like Kim Kardashian now, you’ll hate her even more now that you know she’s aesthetically flawless in symmetry mode.
Last week someone decided to see what the Marvel movie actors would look like if they were women. Why? I don’t know, people have time on the internet I guess.
Check out the video below of our gender-swapping Marvel actors
You’ll never watch MCU movies in the same way ever again.
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