Messages of Beauty
Jessica Alba is featured on the cover of Self Magazine’s February 2010 issue and in the issue she talks pretty blatantly about her body after baby.
Pregnancy was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had, so I’ll take the stretch marks. I’ll take the sagging boobs. I’ll take the cellulite I can never get rid of. If you walk around with your head held high and you’re happy and positive, then all that other stuff is irrelevant. Confidence is number one.
Jessica Alba message of body acceptance after baby is one to pass on. Confidence and happiness are much more important than what your body looks like. However several years ago, I may have bought into the magazine’s message. Then I had my daughter and I couldn’t ignore the contradictory messages that magazines are sending to our girls.
Jessica Alba message of body acceptance after baby is one to pass on. Confidence and happiness are much more important than what your body looks like. I completely but into her message, but what I have a hard time buying into is the image behind her quote.
There are so many beauty or health magazines with quotes from celebrities on “Yes, I have cellulite” or “I hate my thighs, too.” All of these quotes from celebrities try to place those girls in the same category as other women. “See we are all in the same boat. We all hate our bodies.” However, these quotes are often right beside an air-brushed version of themselves that are completely devoid of cellulite, fat thighs or sagging breasts. As a non-celebrity, I look at this image and I think to myself, “Wow, she dislikes her body. She would completely hate herself if she had my thighs.” And that’s the problem. These “improved” images of models and celebrities just set a precedent for unrealistic visions of beauty.
Fine, if you want to Photoshop or edit pictures, go ahead, but please don’t put a quote in there about how she has cellulite when you just airbrushed it away. The visual message of her picture far outweighs the small black and white words on the page. The contradictory messages are just perpetuating girls need to complain about themselves even when they look just fine (beautiful, even).
Body acceptance is one of the hardest things that girls face today. All of the contradictory female images leave girls wondering where their bodies fit in all of it. I know that I’m not saying anything new, but what troubles me is the fact that I’m not saying anything new and airbrushed women still plaster magazine covers. It’s all fine and dandy that we are aware of these images, but what’s not fine is the message behind them. Until the images match the verbal messages that are sent, body image will continue to be an issue discussed.
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Ironic. What you said was true.
“Do as I say, not as I did.”
So well said! It’s quite disturbing what we’re expected to look like. Or at least what the magazines expect people to look like!
Hi Rebecca and Lex Cut – I couldn’t agree more