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Over the decades, the media and beauty industry has been working on brainwashing us with impossible beauty standards through adverts, social media, and magazines to portray “the perfect body and face.”
Although efforts are being exerted to demolish such a concept and promote body positivity, a considerable number of people still fall for the trap of photoshop, beauty surgeries, and other things behind the camera to achieve this perfect appearance.
What makes this worse is that people start to forget what a normal human being should look like, and they start to feel insecure about the smallest normal details about their bodies and faces. That’s why we find thousands of “anti-aging” creams, videos on reducing wrinkles in your face, etc. But the thing is, none of these things are “defects” or are supposed to be fixed because we’re not made out of plastic.
We witness such a brainwashed vision and expectations when a celebrity starts aging and their appearance changes with time.
In the last few days, we’ve seen multiple social media posts about the popular Lebanese singer Haifaa Wehby. This was in light of her recent concert in Riyadh. Many commented on her appearance, questioning why she didn’t look “as flawless as she always does.”
Two months before that, pictures of the Egyptian actor Mervat Amin attending a funeral without makeup were circulating on social media. Not only people invaded her privacy and didn’t respect her mourning, but they also got the nerve to comment on her wrinkles.
This circle of judging and criticizing keeps happening every time a celebrity appears with a natural look, raising concerns about our perception of beauty and natural appearance.
Embracing natural look and signs of aging
While many celebrities and influencers still hold on to surgeries and injections to preserve or modify their apperance, other celebrities embrace their natural looks. They are not afraid to show the grace of aging on their faces.
On a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Barrymore spoke to Jamie Lee Curtis about aging, and Curtis had a strong message to share about this topic.
“I hate the word ‘anti-aging,'” she said. “There’s a genocide of natural beauty out there, and I don’t need to point fingers or… but there are charlatans and fakers and people who are selling BS to unsuspecting women who are old enough to know better, and teens who aren’t. Because we have lost touch as a society about what beauty is. Beauty has become something that can be doctored and filtered and injected and peeled and stripped away, and the truth is you can’t.”
Drew also shared her take on this topic.
“I’ve never messed with my face,”
Barrymore continued:
“I don’t want to fight nature. I’m raising two daughters, and we were raised in an industry where it was desired to drink off the fountain of youth, and I just never subscribed to it. So I appreciate everything you said. And I think men just need to let women know aging is safe and awesome.”
Their conversation was really honest and truthful. It reminds everyone who watches that we shouldn’t always resist and try to turn avoidance that we age and our appearances change with that.
In a world filled with plastic and artificial beauty, let’s never forget that our natural looks are more than enough, and we don’t need to go with the flow to please the public. Wrinkles are okay, and aging is part of the cycle of life. We don’t need to hide it or run away from it.
I’m Aya, a senior mass communication student. I’m interested in digital journalism and content writing, and I always try to develop myself in these fields. I like hearing stories about people and life and love watching films.
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