As someone who remembers the term “celebrity” being awarded to people who had achieved great things, I have always been a bit cynical (and sometimes quite rude) about the culture of calling someone who was the boyfriend of someone who appeared on a fly one the wall TV programme a “celebrity”.
Even more aggravating to me has been the way we are supposed to care about “What Peter or Jordan or STEPS, or any other talentless publicity seeker, did next!” When I say supposed to care, when I did a straw poll around the office a little while ago I was staggered to find that quite a lot of people actually do care. This made me realise just how influential these “nobodies” actually are to the younger generation.
Call me old fashioned but I believe natural beauty outshines anything false. I used to think that Lesley Ash was one of the most beautiful women in the world, and could not believe that she was made to feel that she needed botox…Jennifer Grey had all of us wishing we were her when Patrick Swayze swept her off her feet .. to me the whole success of “Dirty Dancing” was based on the fact that we all were able to believe that an “ordinary girl” would find love and happiness because her personality shone through and made her beautiful –now she is unrecognisable and frankly a bit strange!
But the womens mags headlines in recent years have made young women believe that beauty is being a size zero, with false boobs and trout lips… please!
So, imagine my delight when I walked past the magazine racks the other day and did a double take when I spotted the Now magazine headline ; “Celebs go Muscle Mad!” with quotes from the so called “celebs” of “I looked like and anorexic rat!” and “I panic if I don’t exercise” – accompanied by pictures not of skinny ribs, but toned stomachs! Yes! And alongside that a Reveal headline of “Muscles are hot!”
The timing couldn’t be better, with the Olympic Games leaving us with role models such as Jessica Ennis, Victoria Pendleton, Zoe Smith and all those wonderful women rowers, cyclists, boxers and other athletes, maybe attitudes will continue to change and young people will start to realise that healthy is beautiful? I live in hope!
V good article – might want to change ‘straw pole’ to ‘straw poll’ though
Thanks Jim – changed!
It’s a funny one – All still heavily grounded in appearances.
The tide is changing in the sense that it is apparently becoming less cool to be malnourished which is good, but whilst the media and celebrity phenomenon is no longer advocating this, it is still PRESCRIBING an alternative “Now, THIS is how you should LOOK”.
Rather than apply the pressure for women – and men – to look a certain way, I wish they would talk a bit more about how rewarding it is for somebody to be strong; quick; fit; tenacious. The way that this person looks is a by-product of all of these empowering traits and abilities.
I am being totally hypocritical of course – I am always moaning about “why I am not this size” or “have i gained this weight” blah blah blah, which is completely ridiculous. And I accept that one of the rewarding facets of CrossFit, like any other exercice, is the way it can change your body – Most would say for the better. But it would be nice if the media focussed first and foremost on how much more a person can BE and DO when they are fit and strong (as opposed to malnourished) rather than how they APPEAR.
I agree, I don’t there is anything wrong with people trying to look their best, be slim and look great, what I don’t like is the advocation that rather than make the best of or even celebrate what you’ve got, that it is better to spend hard earned money on falesness – do people really think the people in TOWIE look good? Really? It needs the media to start letting women celebrate who they are instead of trying to change them! Thanks so much for your comments and thoughts Philippa – and by the way you always look awesome! x