Ben Freeman
Walking through Frasers recently, I was stopped in my tracks by a Chanel advert, for all the wrong reasons. I was not stunned by Nicole Kidman’s glowing skin or luscious locks; I was shocked by how unnatural she looked. There’s no way on God’s green earth that she looks that young and fresh. I spied the artistry of Photoshop and that got me thinking; how much airbrushing is too much? Do we want our celebrities plastic — like Barbie — or somewhat more realistic and loveable?
When HRH The Princess of Pop, Britney’s new album was released, even her most hardcore fan (i.e. me) became slightly suspicious when greeted with her plastic limbed promo shots. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate how much good ol’ Britney has been working out, but no amount of cross trainer can create the retouched vision I saw before me.
Yet another celebrity who appears to have morphed into a completely different person via a stop at airbrushing central is Courtney Cox. I don’t kow what happened to the lovely Monica Geller, maybe we should send out at search party? Cover girl of February’s Marie Claire, Court, a woman of 45, appears without a blemish or pore. Cox doesn’t even look like someone half her age; rather, she looks like someone from another planet.
I do understand the necessity of airbrushing to a certain degree. If sod’s law strikes you down with a facial break-out on the day of shooting your album cover, then yeah, use a wee bit of retouching, but that’s where I draw the line, or we end up with technologically-created plastic celebs.
I believe it has fallen to me (and the naturally beautiful Kate Winslet) to say Hollywood stop, the jig is up! We know no one looks like that so stop this insane conspiracy! These doctored pictures are dangerous, promoting comletely unattainable images. They are used as a benchmark of how we’re meant to look, but how can we achieve that level of beauty when even the subjects of the photos can’t?
This fake form of gorgeousness is boring and must stop. In short, too much airbrushing equals one big fat lie.
