(no subject)
So this article pissed me off to no end:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/fashion/25natural.html?ref=style&pagewanted=all
It's just another way to shame and scrutinize women in a culture of misogyny. We spend decades nit-picking women's weight, skin, hair, features. We nitpick how women apply make-up or do our
hair or what we wear. It doesn't seem surprising that now we're nit-picking how we get our plastic surgery done. And the backlash isn't against plastic surgery, it's against plastic surgery that looks obvious. Because nothing has changed -- it's the same beauty myth. Women are supposed to be beautiful without obviously trying. Casting directors want people who LOOK natural, not people who ARE natural (whatever that means). This anti-plastic surgery attitude is a form of elitism. It encourages directors to give work to women who are "naturally" beautiful, normalizing the idea that all women should be beautiful without trying -- as though we're not all expected to be superwomen as it is -- and thus just makes Hollywood and the general beauty standard more inaccessible to the average woman.
Not that I support buying into the patriarchy by getting plastic surgery. But shaming women who do get it is worse. Basically if you're a woman in Hollywood, or a woman in general, you're fucked. But we knew that already.
Also, this bit really pissed me off:
"An actor can even lose a role if a director suspects surgery, whether it was performed or not. John Papsidera, a casting director for the “Batman” movies, said he and a director (he declined to say which one) recently debated whether to hire an actress in her early 20s to play a
teenager falling in love. The actress was talented and naturally pretty. But what stopped the director was his suspicion that, at such a young age, she already had breast implants.
“We looked at film where she was topless and it was like, ‘Maybe,’ ”Mr. Papsidera said. It wasn’t a period film, so authenticity was not an issue. Instead, the possibility of implants became “a point of reference,” he said. “It was more of, ‘Where is that person coming from as an actor?’ ”She did not get the part."
Talk about policing women's bodies! How about fuck you John Papsidera. He found her "naturally pretty" (which we're apparently supposed to be pleased with), but suspected plastic surgery. Because heaven fucking forbid a woman actually attempt to be pretty and get a
role in a movie! And you damn well know she wouldn't even have been considered if she wasn't pretty. This is total bullshit and it really pisses me off. And the "at such a young age" bit? What are you, the morality police? You get to monitor women's bodies and their histories and judge what we should or shouldn't be doing at what age? Could he possibly be a little more patriarchal?
And this:
"But a talented 35-plus actress who has had particularly good surgery can still find work"
Yah, if she's beautiful. Fuck those women who have the nerve to age and get ugly but still want to work, and interesting double standard that older women who have "good" surgery can still work, but if anyone even suspects that a younger woman has had surgery, she's out. Again, just upholding impossible beauty standards.
And this:
"Lisa Kudrow, in a recent interview with New York magazine, seemed happy to own up to the fact that the face viewers saw on an episode of “Cougar Town” was hers, age lines and all."
Yah, cause it's trendy right now to put "real" women on magazine covers or TV, but the reality is they aren't real. This ISN'T a new attitude, and it's insulting that we're supposed to
believe that these are real faces and bodies. These women are still chosen for their remarkable beauty, they all have stylists and trainers and are able to dedicate their time to being beautiful. They're filmed in flattering light from flattering angles. Stopping short of cosmetic surgery doesn't make them real.
Hollywood needs to stop smugly patting itself on the shoulder as though its attitude is changing and it's doing something good for women. The answer is to work on an expanded and accessible concept of beauty, not sneer at women for getting plastic surgery, or for having breasts that maybe look as though they're enhanced, or for not meeting a restrictive concept of beauty in the first place.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/fashion/25natural.html?ref=style&pagewanted=all
It's just another way to shame and scrutinize women in a culture of misogyny. We spend decades nit-picking women's weight, skin, hair, features. We nitpick how women apply make-up or do our
hair or what we wear. It doesn't seem surprising that now we're nit-picking how we get our plastic surgery done. And the backlash isn't against plastic surgery, it's against plastic surgery that looks obvious. Because nothing has changed -- it's the same beauty myth. Women are supposed to be beautiful without obviously trying. Casting directors want people who LOOK natural, not people who ARE natural (whatever that means). This anti-plastic surgery attitude is a form of elitism. It encourages directors to give work to women who are "naturally" beautiful, normalizing the idea that all women should be beautiful without trying -- as though we're not all expected to be superwomen as it is -- and thus just makes Hollywood and the general beauty standard more inaccessible to the average woman.
Not that I support buying into the patriarchy by getting plastic surgery. But shaming women who do get it is worse. Basically if you're a woman in Hollywood, or a woman in general, you're fucked. But we knew that already.
Also, this bit really pissed me off:
"An actor can even lose a role if a director suspects surgery, whether it was performed or not. John Papsidera, a casting director for the “Batman” movies, said he and a director (he declined to say which one) recently debated whether to hire an actress in her early 20s to play a
teenager falling in love. The actress was talented and naturally pretty. But what stopped the director was his suspicion that, at such a young age, she already had breast implants.
“We looked at film where she was topless and it was like, ‘Maybe,’ ”Mr. Papsidera said. It wasn’t a period film, so authenticity was not an issue. Instead, the possibility of implants became “a point of reference,” he said. “It was more of, ‘Where is that person coming from as an actor?’ ”She did not get the part."
Talk about policing women's bodies! How about fuck you John Papsidera. He found her "naturally pretty" (which we're apparently supposed to be pleased with), but suspected plastic surgery. Because heaven fucking forbid a woman actually attempt to be pretty and get a
role in a movie! And you damn well know she wouldn't even have been considered if she wasn't pretty. This is total bullshit and it really pisses me off. And the "at such a young age" bit? What are you, the morality police? You get to monitor women's bodies and their histories and judge what we should or shouldn't be doing at what age? Could he possibly be a little more patriarchal?
And this:
"But a talented 35-plus actress who has had particularly good surgery can still find work"
Yah, if she's beautiful. Fuck those women who have the nerve to age and get ugly but still want to work, and interesting double standard that older women who have "good" surgery can still work, but if anyone even suspects that a younger woman has had surgery, she's out. Again, just upholding impossible beauty standards.
And this:
"Lisa Kudrow, in a recent interview with New York magazine, seemed happy to own up to the fact that the face viewers saw on an episode of “Cougar Town” was hers, age lines and all."
Yah, cause it's trendy right now to put "real" women on magazine covers or TV, but the reality is they aren't real. This ISN'T a new attitude, and it's insulting that we're supposed to
believe that these are real faces and bodies. These women are still chosen for their remarkable beauty, they all have stylists and trainers and are able to dedicate their time to being beautiful. They're filmed in flattering light from flattering angles. Stopping short of cosmetic surgery doesn't make them real.
Hollywood needs to stop smugly patting itself on the shoulder as though its attitude is changing and it's doing something good for women. The answer is to work on an expanded and accessible concept of beauty, not sneer at women for getting plastic surgery, or for having breasts that maybe look as though they're enhanced, or for not meeting a restrictive concept of beauty in the first place.