The way we’re bombarded with images of how we should look drives me crazy. In 2011 we’re supposed to be ‘warrior women’ – toned, firm, curvaceous in all the right places and glowing with year-round health. The hitherto sought after slimline alternative is now the ‘skinny bitch’ look, epitomised by the masochistic tendencies of ballerinas a la Natalie Portman in Black Swan. Yes, we’re finally bored of hearing about the monotonous Madonna-style macrobiotic route to sinuously muscular nirvana. In any case, we know the stars have secret ways of enhancing their appearance, usually involving vast sums of money and lengthy recuperative vacations the likes of which we’ll only encounter in lavish magazine spreads. And still they need to be airbrushed…
Apparently, the craze for faddish dieting, that most women will encounter at some or other stage in their lives, is now something men do too. A whole host of men’s health magazines has appeared on the shelves of suburban newsagents. Men are working out more, using beauty products, having treatments like fillers and liposuction to improve their looks. Inevitably some will become obsessed to the point of living on protein powder and having buttock implants.
The reliance of social networking platforms and, worse still, internet dating sites upon images rather than face to face relationships is a particularly worrying trend. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that the media driven ideals of bodily perfection and social acceptance are no more than that. In reality, each of us will always be totally unique. What’s more, happiness and good health are a state of mind as much as body – if not more so. Physical appearance is only a fraction of the story we project to the oustside world, like the lesser part of a complexly structured iceberg. The other nine tenths, including those bits encased deep within our subconscious psyche, are far more interesting, surely?
What do photographic images (retro or contemporary) actually say about us, anyway?
Theatrical and adventurous? Beautiful handwriting?
Sporty and competitive? Velvety smooth voice?
Down to earth and instinctive? Enjoys cooking and eating out?
Silly, yet sensitive? Secure and dependable?
Colourful and charismatic? Great conversationalist?
The vision of private Widdle bending over is more than a person can stomach on this fine frosty morning. Strange how many people are ‘photogenic’, they look good in photographs or in movies whilst in the flesh appear ordinary, Monroe was a good example. Most modern photography, aided and abetted by CS5, is simply smoking mirrors, made even worse now by the arrival of close to 100 megapixels
Was Phil wearing his own schmutter in that photie?
Good point about Phil, malty. Not sure about the punk t-shirt, but the fetching floral shorts look suspiciously Vilebrequinish…
Sir Philip Green, bloody hell though. What a mess! Is that a mullet he’s sporting or is he a stranger to his hairdresser?
I think old Mick is the odd one out. Always carries a sense of style, as well as being photogenic. There’s a great picture of him in the book, Exposures, by photographer, Jane Bown, which I had for Christmas after seeing her small exhibition of hers at the NPG last year.
Hey, Suse, my new Kaspersky 2011 anti-virus software has just blocked The Dabbler on ‘parental advice’ – blimey, 48 years old and 1000 miles away and I still can’t make my own decisions…. – and I’m wondering which of these lovely glamour shots you’ve offered us counts as ‘pornography’! It’s Widdle, isn’t it. 🙂
Mickey Rourke’s face is something else, isn’t it? Indescribable. Damn he was good in The Wrestler, though.
Following on from previous discussions about whether you have to be Scottish to have a chance of appreciating Burns, do you think it’s essential to be British to find Charles Hawtrey as Private Widdle very funny (which, I’m ashamed/proud to admit, I do)?
It’s that coy British fondness for camp humour Brit, Alan Carr, Larry Grayson, Jules and Sandy et al.