In Ovid’s “Pygmalion,” an artist produces a stunning ivory sculpture of a woman and falls in love with it. He kisses his statue, decorates it with diamonds and finery, and prays to Venus for a spouse similar to her. Venus answers his prayer. She gives the statue life, transforming ivory into flesh. Pygmalion marries his perfect creature, subsequently named “Galatea.”
For centuries, artists have reimagined Pygmalion (written in 8 A.D.) in countless stories of alluring dolls or automatons who either come to life or hover between seeming fully alive and being inanimate objects, from the ballet “Coppélia” to Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” the 1987 film “Mannequin” (starring Kim), the Spike Jonze film “Her,” and even Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023.
Instead of transcending from inanimate substance to human flesh, today’s Galateas do the reverse, transforming into artists’ works and exposing their living flesh to tinkering and inanimate substances — all while happily declaring it all on social media, which is yet another sort of irreality.
Kris and Kylie Jenner, mother and daughter, are at the vanguard of this movement, ushering in a new era of beauty culture. Celebrities may now not only recognize cosmetic surgery, but also expose their physicians’ names and surgical specifics, thereby marking their aesthetically transformed body parts with a medicalized luxury logo. Move over Balenciaga and Chanel; the poshest labels now read “Dr. Steven Levine” or “Dr. Garth Fisher,” the plastic doctors mentioned by the Jenners.
Kris Jenner, 69, blew up social media last month when she was pictured in Paris looking decades younger and wearing a coif evocative of an earlier American superstar in Paris: Josephine Baker. The new ‘do — ultra-black, short, glossy, and slicked back — exposed every re-sculpted angle of Ms. Jenner’s face and was accented by a flawless circle of a forehead curl. She resembled a cartoon painting while also resembling her daughter Kim (and being just slightly older).
Following widespread media speculation, a spokesman for Ms. Jenner informed Page Six, “We can confirm that Dr. Steven Levine did Kris Jenner’s recent work.”
Ms. Jenner’s younger daughter, Kylie, went even farther, sharing on TikTok a stunning degree of detail about her breast surgery. “445cc, modest profile, half beneath the muscle, silicone!!! Garth Fisher!!! “I hope this helps lol.”
We now know not only the doctor’s name, but also the size, style, material, and anatomical location of the implants. We also get the impression that Ms. Jenner doesn’t think much of it. Major surgery appears to be carefree fun, no more serious than a lip kit, as represented in her TikTok vernacular – no whole phrases, exclamation marks abound. Dr. Fisher, free of both a medical title and capital letters, appears young and friendly. There’s nothing alarming here, lol.
The elder Ms. Jenner may now wear her face and the younger Ms. Jenner’s breasts as if they were couture clothes. Their doctors’ names give their body parts the shine of acquired exclusivity, transforming flesh into inanimate goods such as ivory or gems, reversing the Pygmalion myth.
