No one can be that shallow! Can they?

On the way to read the company newsletter

There is a certain allure about celebrities and models, especially when they are featured in the glossy magazines in advertisements, photo spreads and award ceremonies. They all look picture perfect: immaculate hair, smooth skin, sparkling eyes and glossy lips all shrouded in the latest designer looks. In the way they present the image of themselves, people have elevated them beyond celebritydom. They are now revered, closely followed and feverishly worshipped. One only needs to watch the MTV specials on how ordinary people undergo surgery to look like their favourite celebrity to realise the god like pedestal that we have placed celebrities on.

I guess it is human nature that entrenches people to become something they are not: a hot movie star; a stunning cat walk model; a sculptured Adonis; the rebirth of Aphrodite; or the feeling of being important. And one of the easiest ways of achieving this besides transformation surgery is to emulate your celebrities look. The boho chic of Kate Moss or the bling cringe of Puff Daddy or mega slut of Paris Hilton or the trackidaks of sport stars or the rock star look of Dior Homme.

Taking it a step further, we can also create the celebrity look by wearing the stars signature scent: Miss Hilton by Paris Hilton; Lovely by SJP or Chanel No. 5 for that mega-rich Australian feel. But the one area that people fail to emulate is how to mimic the celebrities’ face – the single most defining feature of a celebrity. The flawless skin, the perfect tan and the wrinkle free smiles.

These images are forever perpetuated in magazines and generally in all forms of mass media. They create a misleading image that propels people to emulate – to achieve the unachievable. But every now and again, the trashy tabloids comes out with a special issue that unmasks the masked celebrities, showing how they look in real life, free of painstaking airbrushing and Photoshop manipulation. The photos show in minute detail every blemish, every wrinkle and every puncture wound from the Botox injections. All in the effort of destroying the perfect image and to show celebrities as they really are: ordinary people.

How painful must it be for celebrities to see those issues. To realise that they are imperfect and ordinary must be soul crushing and self esteem destroying. I feel a sense of empathy for those exposed celebrities. I too know the feeling of having an undoctored photo printed in a national wide publication.

I was recently featured in the company newsletter bulletin. It was glossy and distributed across Australia. And on one of the pages, there was a photo of me: un-airbrushed and un-manipulated. Oh the pain.

posted by tykang @ 8/15/2005 12:07:00 PM