Save the potato noses!
By Kati Sinisalo, Saska Snellman, and Riikka Venäläinen
In Hollywood, it is starting to look like all the actors are related. They have the same chin, nose, Bambi eyes, high cheekbones, and pouting lips.
In the United States, cosmetic surgery is becoming a part of everyday life even for regular people. A white row of teeth, a straight nose, balloon breasts, and hair implants prove that a person is attractive and competitive.
Plastic surgery has arrived on Finland's shores a bit more slowly, but not for lack of trying. Extreme Makeover, where regular Americans visit plastic surgeons, began showing on Finnish television just this past week.
As a part of the show's campaign, there is a competition for Finnish viewers where the main prize is plastic surgery. Similar competitions have already been arranged by magazines.
Hands off Finnish faces! There is much more to see and admire in potato noses and squinty eyes than in faces that have been cut up to resemble some uniform beauty standard. Artists are well aware of this fact.
Finnish artists have always valued the Finnish face. The women in the paintings of Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Albert Edelfelt would not strut on catwalks. Popular actors Vesa-Matti Loiri and Kati Outinen also represent a look that is far from modern Hollywood.
Who would remember the characters in Finnish books, paintings, and movies if they all had shiny, wavy hair, regular facial features, and immaculate white teeth?
Actress Ulla Tapaninen feels that she looks Finnish. Therefore, she was not very surprised when she was asked to represent a Finnish face for this article.
"It is easy for Finnish women to relate to me. I am no classic beauty, I have an upturned nose and blue eyes that are not that big, I do not have much hair, and there is actually little of anything. I do not have much else than my brains!"
"Maybe someone will get a boost to their self-confidence after seeing my face and think that if she can succeed looking like that, I can too."
Tapaninen says that the cosmetic surgery trends of concealing your age and aiming for a uniform look are boring.
"Male Barbies and female Barbies. It is so disgusting: expressionless faces where nothing is going on. Every line and wrinkle speaks of the life you have lived, and that is the way it should be."
The actress also maintains that plastic surgery should have nothing to do with the profession of acting. "In this job, how you look off duty is trivial. Professionals can make you look different if it is required."
"I for one want to be who I have become, and who I will become when I get older."
Tapaninen does not believe that Finns really long for cosmetic surgery. "It is so dark here that no one can see what you really look like anyway."
According to novelist Petri Tamminen, self-criticism is typical for Finns, and this includes how they look.
When travelling abroad, Finns recognise each other from afar, but Tamminen points out that other nationalities recognise each other as well.
"Maybe it is in our wide step. The knee bends slightly, and we hit the ground flat-footed. And I am not quite sure that in other countries people value an easy-to-manage hairdo on women quite as much."
Tamminen says that for men in particular, being handsome brings to mind a dark and exotic look. Finnish women, on the other hand, can go for the blond and blue-eyed domestic look.
Finnish beauty can usually be found inside.
"Olli Jokinen is incredibly handsome when he scores a goal. He is no pin-up boy, you can tell he is from Savo. Jokinen's beauty comes from what he does, just like with mothers. A mother is beautiful because she is a mother. Olli Jokinen and mothers, Finnish beauty can be found in between them."
Tamminen feels that the Hollywood playboy beauty achieved through plastic surgery can be likened to the beauty of an object.
Photographer Esko Männikkö gained fame with his pictures of men living in remote villages in Northern Finland. What type of face interests him?
"You need to look at the whole package. It is not only a question of how someone looks. A natural appearance is more interesting than some oddity or beauty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Männikkö feels that cosmetic surgery as a phenomenon is "really repulsive".
"Everything should supposedly look beautiful. If you think about sticking plastic in the human body, it is not natural."
"The first thought that comes to mind is who defines the prevailing beauty standard, and why", says artist Heli Rekula.
"After all, beauty is a completely subjective concept, and therefore emotional. It depends on other things than just physical appearance."
Rekula, who has received the Ars Fennica prize, has touched on the themes of beauty and sculpting one's body in her photographs and videos. She ponders what type of face is beautiful to her: Charlotte Rampling. And Matti Nykänen!
"He has become beautiful in my eyes just recently. You can tell from the new pictures that he understands the fragility of life, but is completely lost in front of it."
Rekula does not own a TV set, so she will miss the series on plastic surgery. She hopes they will show the entire process of cutting through flesh, sucking out fat, and carving bone.
"When wrinkles are erased, you hide a person's history", says painter Rafael Wardi. Because of his work, he values the experiences and past that have left their mark on a person's face and overall appearance.
Wardi does not understand cosmetic surgery for any other reasons than medical ones.
"That brings the paintings of Pablo Picasso to mind! Is it not enough that people are changed in art?"
For Wardi, beauty encompasses the voice, gestures, and one's appearance.
"Beauty is not in blond or brown hair, it is the human glow, and everyone sees it in a different way. Beauty may be in some small characteristic that could never be created with a knife, or seen by the naked eye. No matter how much you change your looks, you will not find the road to growth or happiness."
"We will never become Swedes, we do not want to be Americans, so let's be Finns!" These are the words of director Aki Kaurismäki, who has made the Finnish face well known around the world through his acclaimed films.
His favourite actors, Esko Nikkari, Matti Pellonpää, Kati Outinen, and Markku Peltola are far from the standard Hollywood mould.
"Acting skills naturally come first, and the face then comes along as given. But the movie camera is merciless, it cannot stand symmetry. The camera does not even notice a person who looks like a mannequin."
According to Kaurismäki, Finnish faces work well in movies because they are sufficiently askew. But symmetric faces cannot be found even among American actors.
"These modern stars, like Richard Gere, have crooked faces in person. Cameras love some people, and make them beautiful."
One visitor at a movie festival in the U.S. asked Kaurismäki why the actors in his movies are always so ugly.
"I was speechless. That is not the way I think. To me, the actors in The Bold and the Beautiful are terribly ugly."
No one should try to get a slot in one of Kaurismäki's movies after visiting a plastic surgeon.
"I would never consider letting someone get even behind the camera who has had one single line drawn for aesthetic reasons. As far as I am concerned, those cases can be left for reality TV."
The director reveals that he has pondered looks for personal reasons as well: he has a prominent nose.
"People let me hear about it when I was young, but as a grown-up you understand that your nose is a key part of your personality. A large nose is handsome. It would be senseless to pay good money to get rid of it."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.9.2004
KATI SINISALO, SASKA SAARIKOSKI AND RIIKKA VENÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kati.sinisalo@sanoma.fi, saska.saarikoski@hs.fi, riikka.venalainen@hs.fi
