Normally, correcting disadvantages beyond our control is seen as laudable. So why do people look down on individuals who alter their looks?
the immorality of lookism will become as obvious as that of sexism or racism. Nuanced language and cancel-free ways to reason about it will emerge. However, I’m here to make a stronger claim than that of lookism not being nice. The claim is that, in the future, it will be unethical to stigmatize people who undergo significant physical enhancements, such as plastic surgeries.
Let’s clarify some terminology. I use “transfiguration” to refer to substantial physical enhancements, both because it’s a dignifying term free from derision associated with terms like “cosmetic surgery” and because, in the future, enhancements of physical beauty may not even be surgical. These transfiguration procedures—“services” may be a more apt term—could become noninvasive and reversible, no more laborious than getting a facial and no costlier than buying a new retinol serum.
This vision of transfiguration should not be confused with the sensationalized bad examples—TMZ's fascination with "botched cosmetic procedures" and Madonna's "unrecognizable" appearance at the 2023 Grammys—that have led us to anathemize transfiguration so far. It also has nothing to do with transhumanism, which involves enhancements that transcend what is organically achievable, such as becoming 9 feet tall.
Even if we locate an acceptable boundary, claiming that transfiguration yields something inauthentic or inferior denies a whole host of people their beauty. Take, for example, individuals who undergo gender-affirming surgeries or facial feminization surgery that involves the recontouring of the lower jaw. Does that mean beauty is forbidden to transgender people?
In fact, we already apply a curious logic when evaluating natural and artificial beauty. We compliment artificial objects for having a natural look—Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is a textbook example of conformity to nature—but we praise natural objects that exhibit order as if they were artificially crafted, like Antelope Canyon in the Navajo Reservation or termite mounds that resemble planned cities. Don’t worry.