The FleshMatrix: MAGA Smells, Red Light Masks, & Love-Rage Blush

If beauty consists of “rituals of control,” if beauty is “necessary” to get ahead in the workplace, if beauty means “risking [your] health for a fling with fame”… then why do we keep calling it beauty? Enter: The FleshMatrix, an attempt at mapping what the word “beauty” meant this month — class performance? political action? consumerism? attractiveness? a bit of everything? — via a fun little perceptual map plotted across four quadrants: COSMETICS (products, physical appearance) HEALTH (physical and psychological wellbeing, hygiene) DESIRE (sex, attractiveness) POWER (class, wealth, status, politics) Where does Ulta Beauty World fall? What about Brittany Aldean’s MAGA-friendly fragrance brand? Is the reaction to Coco Gauff’s Miu Miu campaign about style or class? Well… Quadrant 1 (Cosmetics / Desire) Fruit-flavored vaginal suppositories are here, courtesy of Juice Brides and grooms are turning to GLP-1s to lose weight pre-wedding Lushful Aesthetics offers HoleTox (butthole Botox) “to make receiving anal sex (bottoming) easier” Quadrant 2 (Cosmetics / Power) Ulta Beauty World is like “Disney World, But for Beauty Products” A Democratic strategist “wants Democrats to get hot,” USA Today reports Quadrant 3 (Health / Desire) Sense’s sexual wellness products are now available at Target Sakara markets fiber supplements to “make sh*t happen” with butt pics Quadrant 4 (Health / Power) Early research about red light therapy came from the US Department of Defense Unapproved injectable peptides found to contain lead and endotoxins Dermatologists deny the existence of Topical Steroid Withdrawal Middle