My friend Joe in Miami sent me this. An artistic girl in New York photoshopped a plain pic of herself to conform to definitions of beauty around the world. I liked Indian and Pakistani the best. The American and Philippina are hysterical! I am sure Cindy Sherman is all over this project.

People have commented how shocking and cheap the Aussie girl is. But yeah, it is accurate. Aussies like unassuming, athletic, simple inexpensive looks, but it can some off as cheap, daggy, or awkward. We are also keenly aware of our rampant Tall Poppy Syndrome, Aussies cutting down any other Aussie who tries to transcend being common.

I was in ultraglam Westfield mall in Bondi Friday. I had to take my faux leather Zara pants to my expert Chinese repair lady who had refitted ten pants and shirts for me in March after i lost 33kg. These Zara pants are great, and since they only make seasonal knockoffs at Zara, there is no way to replace them. Any clothes from Zara that last more than three months deserve to be put in a museum, and these lasted through ten years of hard wear, from NYC in 2004! $82 to repair. No worries, mate, worth it, they are irreplaceable.

Robert and Louise atop Bernal Heights in San Francisco

(Robert in 2004 Zara faux leather jeans from Zara Soho NYC and Façonnable top from Century 21 NYC; Lou in normal lesbian outfit)

Westfield is one of the best designed shopping centers in the world, an icon for lots of others that have been redesigned. Why are Aussies so good at shopping centers?!! I took a few pics of ordinary Aussies, and sure enough the quasi valley-girl praddling mall girls look just like the artist's Aussie beauty. Well done, Esther.

Artist's mock Aussie beauty

Aussie girls ride the escalator and praddle on at Westfield Mall Bondi. The selfie trick I used to photograph ruski police works for (old looking) teens, too.

No need for makeup?

Plain looking but circus people.

Cynthia in middle is a typical pretty but unassuming Aussie girl

That doesn't mean Aussies don't have freaky fantasy outfits

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The Artist's Full Piece:

This Woman Had Her Face Photoshopped In Over 25 Countries To Examine Global Beauty Standards

Through her work, Esther Honig hopes to discover if a global beauty standard actually exists

Original, unaltered photograph of artist.

Esther Honig.

Moroccan interpretation of beauty.

Esther Honig, a freelance journalist based out of Kansas City, sent an unaltered photograph of herself to more than 40 Photoshop aficionados around the world. “Make me beautiful,” she said, hoping to bring to light how standards of beauty differ across various cultures.

The project, titled Before & After, originally came to Honig while she was working as a social media manager for a small startup. Her boss introduced her to Fiverr, an international freelancing website where anyone can hire freelancers from around the globe to complete almost any task imaginable. While browsing the site, Honig realized the prevalence of those offering Photoshop skills. “It immediately occurred to me that in this pool of workers, each individual likely had an aesthetic preference particular to their own culture,” Honig told BuzzFeed. Thus, the idea for Before & After was born.

Working with freelancers in over 25 countries, Honig expected that the images would differ from country to country, but was herself caught off guard by just how drastically some of the images were altered. “Seeing some jobs for the first time made me shriek… Other times images, like the one from Morocco, took my breath away because they were far more insightful than I could have expected,” Honig said.

To be sure, the images Honig has collected so far are interesting as individual images, a unique portrait of the standards of beauty in each country. However, when taken in totality, the project becomes much more striking, an interesting launching point into a global conversation about unattainable beauty standards around the world. “What I’ve learned from the project is this: Photoshop [may] allow us to achieve our unobtainable standards of beauty, but when we compare those standards on a global scale, achieving the ideal remains all the more illusive.”

Below are the photographs that Honig has collected thus far. Note: Some countries have multiple images from different artists. Honig continues her project on her website.