Zendaya for Vogue Australia 2020, Photographed by Daniel Jackson.

‘Twas the 10th of December 1949 and Stockholm Concert Hall was buzzing; everyone, from the Swedish Royal family to the keenest minds in chemistry, medicine and physics was on site. The audience edged, anxious to see who’d win the Nobel Prize and to their surprise, this year’s award in medicine was awarded to two and not one man.

‎Walter Jackson Freeman II, for his discovery of the interbrain’s connection to bodily functions and Portuguese neurologist, António Egas Moniz for his groundbreaking mental health treatment. They were prized for developing what would be known as one of mankind kind’s greatest evils- Lobotomy.

WHAT IS LOBOTOMY CHIC:

For Gen X, lobotomy was in the news in association with Serial Killer, Jeffery Dahmer. For Millennials, it was in a Martin Scorsese film, Shutter Island. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, it was memes on TikTok with idealistic captions or the dissociative pose of Instagram.

Chloe Cherry by photographer Stolen Besos.

By dusk of 2023, #lobotomychic had racked up 11 million views on TikTok, distinguished by its yin sanpaku eyes, and swollen lips that create the signature “dissociative pout”. As a Gen Z in love with fashion and working as a fashion journalist, this trend is reminiscent of the Heroin Chic of the 90s, and Indie Sleaze of the 2000s. 

“Fashion often reflects the current ideologies of both interpersonal and popular culture, and it’s no surprise that social attitudes have gotten more nihilistic recently.” Bust Magazine. “Fashion has often served as a vehicle for hyper-ironic expressionism.”

Growing up in the 2000s, I quickly caught on that there was an ironic beauty in a detached gaze.

“How do you get your eyes to look like that?”

I got asked that question last year more times than I can recall; although this series of questions began in the summer of 2022, I was never surprised to hear it. Like a robot completing its programmed task I respond, “Oh I was born with dark circles.”

I’ve experienced the cycle of body trends in the media as a young woman. But Lobotomy chic was the first time I saw public mania for the out-of-body look my eyes had.

I remember the first person to be enthralled with my dark circles when I was a kid, she spoke about how good they would look in photos. Born and raised in a coastal city in West Africa, we are taught to beware of strangers throwing modelling contracts at us.

They might be the real deal and they might not, but when the closest escape route for a kidnapper is the Atlantic Ocean, it helps to write off every attempt as a threat. Nevertheless, her words struck something in me.

“You do not know how to stare.” My best friend constantly laughed at me. It was not my fault; I simply looked lost when I stared at things. It spooked him, and it was his running joke that when I stared, I sold a better act than those kids in the do-not-do-drugs movies.

His words had some truth, and thanks to technology, I have become quite skilled at intensifying the look. By positioning myself in the right way, I can even achieve that ‘soulless’ look that has been popularized on Instagram by Euphoria star, Chloe Cherry, and Grammy Award winner Billie Eilish.

HISTORY OF SOCIETY’S OBSESSION:

This aesthetic was defined by the photographs by Stolen Besos, whose famous works included Addison Rae in the Holy Trinity bikini that resulted in backlash. 

Controversial Adidas X Praying ad starring Addison Rae.

At its inception, Lobotomy was an altruistic approach to solving mental illnesses; it stabilized patients or so they thought. Surgeons in the early days conducted lobotomies by either drilling or cutting a hole in the skull, thereby disconnecting the frontal lobe from the thalamus. 

When its creators split, Freeman took it commercial and invented the ice pick lobotomy, involving the insertion of a tool resembling an ice pick through the eye socket and into the brain. Lobotomies left patients inactive and with irreparable brain damage.

“You do not need to glamourise addiction to sell clothes.” President Bill Clinton in 1997. “It’s not beautiful; it’s ugly. And this is not about art; it’s about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society.”

Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss circa the late 90s.

To the dismay of President Bill Clinton, this glamourisation predates the 20th century. Before the 90s, the 19th Century had tuberculosis chic or as they called it- Consumption.

The allure of consumption as a fashion trend lies in its symptoms; the fragility and demureness are stereotypical feminine ideals, the damsel in distress.

Victorians viewed pale, delicate, feverish blushed, and glassy eyes as fashionable, even using drops of belladonna to complete the consumption look. Consumption was not the only unhealthy look that Victorians obsessed over, there was the age of the fasting girl. They also had the “fasting girl” trend, which emphasized fragility and demureness as stereotypical feminine ideals.

“The fasting girl is the latest of the wonders which the world has seen.” – The New York Times, 1871

Fasting girl was a term used in the 19th century to describe young girls who claimed to be able to survive for long periods without food. These girls often gained notoriety and were celebrated as miraculous figures, but in reality, many were likely suffering from eating disorders.

These unhealthy obsessions were not confined to the Western World, as Far Eastern cultures indulged in similar designs, including drug use among women in art. In Japan, there is a famous woodblock print series called “Thirty-Six Beauties” by Eishi Hosoda depicting courtesans using opium pipes. In Chinese art, there are many examples of women using various drugs, such as opium and tobacco, in paintings and prints. One famous example is the Qing Dynasty painting “The Dream of the Red Chamber” which features a woman smoking opium.

As recent as the 2010s, Japan had the Byojaku trend, characterized by puffy eyes and pale skin akin to a fragile porcelain doll.

Byojaku.

DARK SIDE OF SOCIETY’S OBSESSION:

There is an invisible thread connecting the various glamourised affliction that exposes that its allure ends in appearance. The “heroin chic” look was part of the Dirty Realism photography trend with Kate Moss as its face, but when it was revealed that Kate Moss was on drugs, the industry turned its back on her.

“This process obviously has its ups and downs, but I’ve started realizing so much. People want my story to be this after-school special where I just say, ‘Oh look, I was an addict, and now I’m sober and that’s it.” Cara Delevingne is another victim of this double standard. For a generation focused on sensitivity and mental health, Gen Z spared no mercy in picking apart Cara after photos of her looking dishevelled hit the internet.

Society is attracted to the unhinged, messy and crazy when it is on a screen or in the papers. This attraction to the edgy romanticized suffering does not include the afflicted.

Another connecting thread is the use of conventionally attractive women as its subject. The heroin chic of the late 90s and early 2000s would not have caused such wide media sensationalism with their unkept look if they had not been attractive.

Films such as Pulp Fiction and Moulin Rouge show pretty girls burdened with drug addictions and consumption, and you can not deny, that it was appealing to see a gorgeous woman falling apart.

“I should like to die of consumption.” Lord Byron to Tom Moore. “Because ladies would all say ‘Look at that poor Byron, how interesting he looks in dying.”

The male counterpart would be the Byronic Hero; a type of character who is typically dark, brooding, and mysterious, with a troubled past and a rebellious nature.

Due to a lucky case of genetics, Timothée Chalamet has been projected as a modern-day Byronic archetype.

Lobotomy, tuberculosis, cocaine, heroin, indie sleaze and TikTok’s most recent favourite artistic depiction, Female rage, all have the same underlying tone- the hot mess is artistically appealing. Nothing is sexier than a girl who looks insane.

“Judith Beheading Holofernes” (c. 1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi

Poetically, this is one of Social media’s art depictions of female rage; rarely is the story behind it told with its use as a meme.

According to CNN Style, it is argued that Gentileschi’s trauma, stemming from being raped by her painting teacher at age 18, likely influenced her portrayal of Judith’s story. Despite bravely testifying against her attacker in court—an uncommon act for the 17th century—Tassi was freed, while Gentileschi endured public shame and torture during the trial. Her depiction of Judith may reflect her quest for justice, denied to her in her ordeal.

The art was adored and inspired many, but 17th-century society did not hold the same opinions as its influence, and neither did the modern scene.

While fashion gets the brunt of the stick, the issue is a lot deeper. Fashion is a mirror of its time, and the dazed and unhinged look would not be constantly recycled if there was not an audience. This is society’s guilty pleasure and fashion capitalises on that.