So many people obsess and judge celebrities and define beauty based on Photoshopped pictures?

Yesenia Herrera | Staff Reporter
Photo by Raz Birkshaw
 

I’m a hermit so, like any good hermit, I can tell you next to nothing about celebrities. However, I have a thirteen year old sister who, let’s just say, is notorious for indulging in a Jersey Shore evening (with popcorn might I add), of shrining One Direction and fan-girling over British boys on YouTube. I also happen to share a room with her so I guess you could say she keeps me informed enough…

A couple of nights ago, I was risen from a nap by a squealing Ruth (my sister) pointing her index finger at a computer screen and who concluded her one man show with a slap to the chest. So was she experiencing cardiac arrest? Although it may seem so, she certainly wasn’t. With a small peek over her shoulder I was face to face with my sister’s attacker: The Queen Beyoncé herself.

According to very reliable sources (swarms of middle school girls on and offline) these pictures looked “less than flawless,” “rough,” “painful to look at,” “the real her” and proved, beyond unreasonable doubt, that this thing was actually human. The Huffington Post tells us that the reactions didn’t stop short there. What they characterized as a “rabid Beyoncé fan army,” drove such a violent backlash, that the administrators of The Beyoncé World, a website for the artist’s fans and the first to leak the pictures, were essentially forced to take them down and to issue a public apology:

“Due to the disdain of the BeyHive, we have removed the photos…we don’t want to cause any drama, nor do we wish to start fan wars. Some of the things we have seen posted were just horrible, and we don’t want any parts of it. We were just posting the photos to share the fact that our queen is naturally beautiful, at the same time she is just a regular woman.”

I understand that “touching up” women, models, actresses and other artists, more likely than not, is harmful. Photoshop is usually used as a tool to conform to an unrealistic and unattainable standard of beauty, rather than for, what I would consider, more noble edits in the name of artistic expression. This results in women and men with poor-self confidence and, as miniscule as many may consider it, can and often does lead to graver complications down the line, including but not limited to chronic depression and a variety of eating disorders.

Celebrities are held on pedestals and, for some reason beyond me, are essentially worshiped a lot for their looks (understatement of the year) with their talent left as nothing but an afterthought (especially where women artists are concerned). If you’re assessing this woman’s morality and, for that matter, your worth compared to hers based off of how many wrinkles she has compared to you, maybe, just maybe, you should reassess how you evaluate, not just celebrities, but all people.

Beyoncé, independently of whether I’d go out of my way to listen to her music or not, is known for being a fierce performer, a woman gifted with a crushing voice, and likely has other virtues on and off stage that make her not “just a regular woman.” Hopefully she earned that pedestal she’s held on because of something more than curves and leopard eyes. It seems so… but our reactions of delight at what’s considered flaws by mainstream society, indicates otherwise.

Now, if we’re talking about having healthy body image…Want to feel great about your body? To feel great about your body and not a People’s magazine model’s body? One possibility: challenge yourself to question “your” definition of beauty, ask yourself why you find something beautiful versus ugly, immerse yourself in photography that defies these conventions or something. There are a lot of possibilities out there. There’s absolutely no need to target women who are likely equally, if not more, vulnerable to the silk hair, eternal youth, fine featured, tall and slender paradigm. And hey, if you happen to fit that last description, don’t get offended, you’re still pretty damn attractive.