Mirrors lie. They reverse things. That face you see in the bathroom every morning, in your makeup compact: that is “opposite you” – the inverse of the face everyone else sees. We all know this, in theory.
And yet, for the past two years or so, this simple fact has riveted and sometimes deeply upset many people (especially young ones) trying out the facial-symmetry filters on social media. Some of these filters invert the mirror’s reflection, revealing images of one’s face as others perceive it, unnerving many users by casting new light on all the imperfections to which our familiar mirrored reflections inure, or even blind us: the uneven hairline, the crooked mouth, the not perfectly level eyes.
