Laura Loomer. Kristi Noem. Lara Trump. Matt Gaetz. They all have something in common besides their hatred of human rights and their slavish devotion to Donald Trump.

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The gays are just realizing who Laura Loomer reminds them of

It’s called MAGA face, and as Laura Loomer has continued to make headlines, it’s been harder and harder to avoid seeing it everywhere. We’ve spoken before about Loomer’s strange transformation from normal human being to full-on Jigsaw, but her choice to embrace full facial MAGA-fication is still bringing up questions. Namely: why does everyone in the Trump firmament look like this? Because it’s not just Loomer. It’s also Lara Trump, Kristi Noem, and even Matt Gaetz. Why do they all look like they went to the same plastic surgeon, and why is that plastic surgeon Jim Broadbent’s character from Brazil?

@interstellar_isabellar

Why do MAGA people do this to their faces? These SPECIFIC plastic surgeries? Like…what is going on here?

♬ original sound – Isabella Segalovich

TikToker Isabella Segalovich (@interstellar_isabellar) might not have the answers as of yet, but she is asking the right questions.

“The choices that [Laura Loomer] made,” Segalovich says, referring to Loomer’s extreme plastic surgery transformation, “are the same choices that Lara Trump made, as well as Kristi Noem and Kimberly Guilfoyle.” Not to mention Matt Gaetz, whose bizarre eyebrow lift was the talk of the RNC.

It’s true: it’s not that all these conservatives are getting Botox and filler. It’s that they’re getting the same kind of very obvious plastic surgery that causes their faces to tip over into the realm of the uncanny. They all started out looking human, and currently resemble nothing so much as each other. Which is weird, and a phenomenon that needs to be studied.

In the comments of Segalovich’s video, folks are sounding off with similar questions and speculation. “Someone said “Mar-a-Lago” face and I can’t unsee it,” one poster wrote.

“Apparently the very popular surgeon [they all use] begins each consultation by saying “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” another commenter joked.

One user may have come close to the truth when they said, “they’re trying to look like Melania.”

Sure, when it comes to Republican beauty standards, Melania Trump might be the one they’re trying to emulate, the Kim K of the whole operation. But say what you will about Melania, at least she still looks like a human being. This is something entirely different.

But writer and cultural commentator Tressie McMillan Cottom may have hit the nail on the head with her recent response to the “MAGA Face” TikTok. Stitching the video, Cottom explains that the force behind these bizarre makeovers is tied to the desire MAGA women (and men) have to rise in a patriarchal system that believes in their own oppression.

“We confuse being beautiful, or desiring to be beautiful,” Cottom explains, “with the desire to signal that [these women] are absolutely willing to be molded by patriarchy.”

@black_was_genius

#stitch with @Isabella Segalovich

♬ original sound – Tressie McMillan Cottom

“[Loomer] is signaling to very distinct class of a patriarchal power,” Cottom continues, “that she is willing to play ball.”

It makes total sense. Right wingers are obsessed with claiming that it’s a “humiliation ritual” every time a beautiful man steps outside wearing an outfit perceived as feminine. But as Cottom notes, the true humiliation ritual is happening within the ranks of the conservative right.

Which means that, sadly for everyone’s eyes and general sanity, we probably won’t be seeing an end to the horrifying MAGA face phenomenon anytime soon.

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