This (top half; I am not slick enough to use photoshop and trim the bottom off) is the picture I liked a lot better, which they said was horrible and "didn't look like her":
I wonder which one her mother would recognize? I wonder in which one she most clearly identifies herself?
Grrrr. With all my efforts to be nonjudgmental in the classroom, let me use THIS space to growl about how women are expected to look perfect here. The surgery. The regular skin peeling. The absolutely indispensable makeup ritual. (One girl told a story of her friend who overslept and so canceled a date with her boyfriend rather than have him see her with no makeup. Literally.) The constant stream of appearance-focused self criticism and/or narcissism.
I only hope Hyori loves her smile as much as I do. THAT, boys, is what a REAL woman looks like.
3 comments:
I have to say, I don't think it's just in Korea. Think about the plethora of women's magazines in every country, all screaming about makeup and how to get a perfect body in 10 Easy Steps and all that crud. My mom doesn't feel she can leave the house - practially not even to go pick up the paper on the front sidewalk in the morning - without putting on makeup. I mean, People magazine in the last year or so did a "revolutionary" article/photoshoot titled "Stars without Makeup", where various actresses consented to be photographed as they actually look. It was revealing in all sorts of ways - stars look like the rest of us, for one, and for the other, that it was even considered to be revolutionary to do this.
I only wear makeup maybe once every three or four months, and then it's usually only mascara. I feel like infrequency gives it more of an impact, and every once in a while it's fun to get all dressed up. But do it every day? How is that fun? Or real?
@Julia: it's not even that I object to makeup, or to sexy clothes. However a woman wants to present herself is her business. What bothered me was that these guys allowed only the made-up version as the "real" Hyori. I love myself in lipstick, a dress and my best hairdo. I love myself in pyjamas and pigtails. I enjoy the freedom to define myself differently from day to day, and I'm not cool with people accepting only one of these versions as the authentic Heather. They're all me.
I suppose I am also biased towards the second picture because the first is clearly a creation, not just of the star herself, but of a dozen makeup and hair artists, costume designers, lighting specialists, photographer, director, agent, touch-up photoshop person, etc etc. Whereas the second picture is (I'm assuming) more her own creation. I think the idea of having others create my image for me scares me somewhat. With all those artists working together to define the star's image, and the group of boy fans who defined her by selecting how they want to see her and how they don't, there is a double layer of selective viewing.
I don't want to live in a society where men have the power to define me like that, or where women fear certain visions of ourselves being rejected by others.
I agree with you that a woman should be able to present herself however she wants and to be accepted as herself by those who know her. But surely every public figure - politicians, celebrities, bus drivers, whomever - are constantly seen through at least one lens of removal, with added filters of preconceptions, and possibly more of all of these? We all create images of other that may or may not bear any resemblance to reality. Perhaps that's why friends are friends - they have/take the time to try to delve into "reality" as opposed to perception?
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