It's Been a Minute The morbid lifelessness of modern beauty
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Mar 25, 2026 
Jessica DeFino, beauty reporter and critic behind the Flesh World Substack, explores the rise of a macabre 'morgue gaze' in modern aesthetics. She discusses revived fascination with Carolyn Bessette, trends like mannequin skin and cadaver fillers, ties to longevity tech and dissociation, and how anti-aging obsession shapes lifeless ideals.
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Childhood Memory Of Chasing Carolyn Bessette Photos
- Brittany Luse recalls childhood memory flipping through Star Magazine for Carolyn Bessette paparazzi photos.
- This personal memory illustrates public fascination with late beauty icons and current renewed interest via an FX series.
The Morgue Gaze As Aesthetic Immortality
- The morgue gaze describes a cultural glamorization of ageless, poreless, lifeless beauty.
- Jessica DeFino links fascination with young-deceased icons to achieving aesthetic immortality by freezing appearance at peak.
Nihilism And Death Become Fashion Signals
- The trend reflects cultural nihilism and desensitization to death, making mortality consumable as an aesthetic.
- DeFino connects this to anti-aging obsessions and a pushback against billionaire-driven longevity projects.