In the immortal words of, well, someone I can’t remember, “It’s hard out there for a girl!” So you’d think we’d all be a bit nicer to each other, right? And we are – unless that girl is rich, famous and beautiful. Then it’s a socially sanctioned free for all.
Celebrity body snarking has long been the bread and butter of the weekly rags, not to mention all the websites devoted to Brittney’s waistline and Uma’s cellulite. I’m not saying I’m above it all – I’ve already ‘fessed up to an evil fascination with Miley Cyrus’ muffin top – but I am saying it’s starting to come full circle. It used to be that celebs had powers we mere mortals could never hope to attain and they used them to aggrandize themselves even more. Super powers such as Photoshop, Botox, and lipodissolve assured that the playing field would always be tilted in the favor of those who could afford them. But recently these super powers have been unmasked for the trickery they are. In the immortal words of someone I can remember but wish I didn’t, “The stars: they ARE just like us!”
And being “like us” means that despite what they and their PR machines would have us believe, they are not immune to the effects of aging. First it was the Faith Hill debacle where she got a bit of a tummy tuck and some wrinkles and eye bags erased via computer. Then it was the recent Demi Moore for W photoshoot where her hip was chopped (or wasn’t – who cares?) and the perfume ad where the tweeted before pictures proved that her skin really wasn’t waxen and monotone like it appeared in print (no, really?!). And now we have Madonna, queen of the ageless sylphs.
This week several pre-production pictures were leaked (or “leaked”) of the grand dame of pop music looking, er, her age. That one should look older as one increases in years ought to be a given but Madonna has been able to control every aspect of her image for so long that they surprised a lot of people. Newsflash: Madonna has gotten older. And she looks it.
For me I think the shock came from the incongruity of a woman of mature age dressed like an extra from the Halloween scene of Mean Girls – a movie about high schoolers, in case you have forgotten. (It also included a sober Lindsey Lohan, in case you have forgotten that too.) The pictures from a Louis Vuitton ad campaign that ran last year joined others of a similar nature already leaked from her Hard Candy album.
But while it is always fun – and reassuring – to see celebs without the veil of computer enhancement, much of the glee seems to be directed at the fact that the Material Girl is starting to look a little threadbare. Jezebel writer Irin says, “mocking what these women actually look like is not the point.” I’m not sure how I feel about a school of thought that makes Madonna and I both victims of the same crime against women and yet this kind of reporting seems to be taking a serious toll even on those whom you’d think would be immune to it. While Madonna hasn’t said anything, other women are speaking out. Lily Allen recently claimed to have Body Dysmorphic Disorder saying she thinks she she looks “‘considerably more overweight’ than she is.” and “compared herself to Michelle McManus, who won [Britain’s] Pop Idol in 2003 and then claimed she was dropped by her record label because of her weight. Anne Hathaway confessed in an interview this month with In Style, “I think I’ve got really weird features. I have very large features on a very small head. But, you know, I’m not going to beat myself up. It’s my face. I’m not very pretty.”
What do you think? Is it fair to complain about celebs being airbrushed and then make fun of them when they aren’t? And yet, anyone else find it nearly impossible to look away?
i definitely don't think it's fair to complain about airbrushing then mock the stars sans makeup. it's totally a catch-22. no one can win.
that said, i do believe that if you're going to be famous than you need to accept that, right now, this is part of the package. sure it'd be nice if once the day was done and the workweek over they could relax like the rest of us sans makeup and whatnot. but they chose this lifestyle so i'm not really outraged over the whole thing even though i think it's wrong.
I'm glad Madonna's looking her age. It seems much more healthy to accept change rather than spend more time & money trying to hold back the tide.
Besides, no matter how much money Madonna has, it must get expensive bathing in the blood of a thousand virgins every night just to preserve youthful looks.
Whether or not it's right, I just think that it's human nature to take delight in witnessing train wrecks of varying sorts. On the one hand we love to idolize people. Then when we see that they are human we are a bit relieved- that makes them more like us mere mortals.
I think that the first photo of madonna was pretty unflattering but I'll tell you- I can find a few doozies of myself and I'm not 50. I don't really think that the other untouched photos was all that terrible. Sure they made her look soft around the edges with the touchups, but the untouched photos weren't awful to start with.
I read somewhere that Demi Moore tweeted a response to someone hating on her for looking old and she said something like "I'm 50, how am I supposed to look?" Good for her- even without her hip.
My heart aches for women. Esp. those in America. Nothing is EVER good enough.
I am fearful of raising little girls, because I do not want them to ever have to endure what is presented to them all the time…
You're not good enough.
We have taken a culture of women..esp…and WE women rate them not on their talents/abilities/intelligence…but on their looks.
I don't agree with the feminist movement in every since of the word. But we have evolved from an oppressive/uneducated world..to one were we oppress ourselves on looks.
What are we doing to ourselves?
Seriously, as long as we send all our time, energy and money on our appearance, as well as snarking on other womens' appearance, we will never get anything done. If we took all that time and effort (and, yes, money) and put it toward doing useful things for ourselves, our daughters, and other women around the world, we'd all be a lot better off and a lot happier, IMHO.
It's a vicious cycle … the stars go into the process knowing they'll be touched-up and then berated for it. But what it creates is this unhealthy standard for all of us girls out there — young and old. People who don't know any better compare themselves to these "idols".
And I admit … it fascinates me. I do pay attention. And in some ways — I think it's absolutely fair (paybacks a doozy) when celebrity airtouching is exposed. But then again — the celebrities themselves can't get around it. If they want a paycheck … hello airbrushing! Like Marathonmaiden said, It's a catch-22.
ahhh schadenfreude.
I know for me the biggest "thing" I walk away with from all this is the notion that we (the masses)no longer have any idea what aging looks like (to paint with a broad brush).
I should invite star mag to move in with me as this 40 year old life guarded for too many years not to age….wrinkly.
And theres no make up or botox happening up in herre either.
I kind of like to see the real pics because the media spends so much time fooling us & making women think they have to be perfect & look the way the stars do so I guess I like to know that they are not as perfect as the pics say…. less pressure on us maybe…. I don't know but it feels good to not always see perfect.
I think the reason why we tear down stars when we catch them in unattractive moments is because their whole lives are one big "dontcha": Dontcha wish you were hot like me? Dontcha wish you were thin like me? Dontcha wish you had thick glossy hair like me? Dontcha wish you were wrinkle-free like me? Then they shill products/designers/exercise programs that don't work. And to be honest, considering they make money by making us feel inferior to the standards they help set, I think it's okay to rag on them for failing live up to those same standards.
For as old as Madonna is she looks young to me–even un-airbrushed. I hate every part of judging anyone on their looks. I hate it when others do it and I hate it when I do it–even to myself. People are beautiful, fat or thin, and I see beauty in everyone. I guess it is a product of the world we live in that we are judged on our outer appearance more than we are on what we do with our outer appearance.
I really wish all the airbrushing would stop. Models and celebrities already have makeup artists to enhance their looks – that should be enough. I would much rather see more realistic photos of people than the current trend of totally unattainable.
I confess to an unhealthy interest in tabloid and celebrity news,too. I think it is that whole train wreck philosophy, that makes it impossible to look away.
I do agree with marathonmaiden, however, that these celebrities go in the biz knowing full well about and even desiring the extreme scrutiny. I believe the majority of celebrities are narcissists, who need the constant flow of attention to feel fulfilled.
Unfortunately, unconsiously or not, it has put a lot of pressure on girls and women to look a certain way which most of the time is unrealistic to meet and maintain. I am just constantly trying to find a balance between looking and feeling good and becoming self-absorbed to an unhealthy level.
It's actually comforting to see Madonna looking her age, in that even if she's had some work done, she doesn't look like she's made of plastic.
As far as Anne Hathaway's concerned, even on her worst day, that woman is gorgeous.
My 0.02 anyway.
What? You don't look perfect?
HA HA! You don't look perfect!
I feel bad for celebrities – they can't win…When I consider I danced around my living room as a teenager to Madonna's Like a Virgin album…I'm surprised she looks as good as she does. I mean *I* look old 🙂
She should just age gracefully.
You know, Madonna doesn't really look that bad in the pre-Photoshop versions. I think it somewhat comes with the territory of being a celebrity. If you're famous, people are going to take an interest in what you look like on an off day, without a hair and makeup staff. And now with Photoshop, we really want to see what celebs look like in real life–since everything printed is so far from real.
I do feel bad that as women we critique other women's bodies so much, but at the same time, it's just their line of work.
Photoshop and Autotune irritate me. Both are used to create unreal images-that are then used to sell us a product-that make people a lot of money.
So I don't feel bad when celebs are caught sans makeup or photoshop. It is really a relief to see there is a real person "behind the curtain". By making themselves look 100 times better in photos than they would ever look in real life, they have created the shock that comes from seeing the disparity.
Gee. I hope I can look as good as Madonna looks at her age when I am her age.
Oh, crap. I almost AM her age.
It's not fair at all. I sincerely would like it if all air brushing and such would please go away. It make the viewer feel bad and it probably makes the subject feel bad too, knowing that they need to be "retouched" to be "good enough" for a magazine spread. We have to celebrate what we look like. Who wants to look robotic, alien, or unreal, anyways?
Live by the sword, die by the sword. I agree it's unfair to use the same steel edge against them as is used against all of us but when they've been cheating and we've been compared to them…well, they really just hurt themselves and us. Maybe we all need to adjust our expectations and allow culture to be about adults and not children again.
Ewww, she looks gross beforehand. Well, for a woman her age she looks GOOD, except for those clothes not fitting her age…Obviously the airbrushed pics look good, but I knew it was too good to be true…