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For every one of us who leaves the house without makeup, there's this: The April issue of French ELLE features Monica Bellucci, Charlotte Rampling, Eva Herzigova, Sophie Marceau and an assortment of other famous faces "sans fards" -- without makeup or airbrushing or Photoshopping.
And they all look remarkable -- real and relaxed and natural. And, of course, beautiful, but not in the typical fashion magazine way.
Even more fascinating than the actual issue, though, is the response it has generated. Bloggers and commenters are deep in the throes of complex discussions about everything from what constitutes "no makeup" (nothing at all, or just a little lip gloss and concealer?) to what the feminist implications of makeup are in the larger culture.
Jennifer Romolini, at Yahoo's Shine had this to say:
In fact, what might be most striking about French Elle's pictorial is how it actually appears to embrace and celebrate the organic beauty of these famous faces (even if the lighting is super, super flattering and the women are all unbelievably gorgeous to begin with). In the U.S., when you come across a "stars without makeup" story, there's always a GOTCHA! element, a message that says "Our gift to you: Derive pleasure from how ugly this person looks without cover-up for her zits!"
...So American magazine editors, I plead to you: It's time to step up your game. American readers would like to see some real, healthy women who actually look like themselves. Please stop with the whole Frankenstein thing: We know you attach your cover models' heads to skinnier bodies. We know you slim down their thighs and their noses and you lighten their skin. We know you smooth out all of the facial "imperfections" that make them look human. We're tired of fembots. We can handle the truth.
Catherine at The Frisky agrees:
Like Italian Vogue‘s black issue, this month’s French Elle is a step in the right direction for magazines, but once a year isn’t enough. Shouldn’t we be able to see celebs looking more like themselves every month? I don’t mean in unattractive photos like the ones tabloids shoot, showing stars’ boogers and dry skin. Natural can be beautiful and at home in a glossy magazine. In this month’s Glamour, there’s a swimsuit story that features a curvy model, and everyone at The Frisky gushed over the model’s hot bod. But the headline reads: “Not a dental-floss-thing kind of girl? Then you’ll love the new old-school Hollywood trend, meant to flatter goddesses of every shape and size.” Why can’t we just integrate natural, more realistic beauty on a regular basis, without calling out the content: This is for all of our non-skinny readers!!!
But not everyone is celebrating the makeup-free ELLE issue; one commenter at Shine is offended by the whole thing: "Let's leave the 'no makeup' photos to the tabs. If I'm buying a FASHION magazine, I want to see FASHION, which includes but is not limited to makeup...not people who just rolled out of bed." Her comment raises the larger question of expectation -- what are we looking for when we pick up a fashion magazine? Are we able to distinguish between reality and artifice, or do we take what's presented at face value (if you will)?
Jezebel blogger Dodai responds to Matthew Yglesias's claim that the ELLE cover shoot is "a step back." Yglesias argues that we're all smart enough to distinguish between reality and the airbrushed and photoshopped representations of reality presented by fashion magazines. Dodai disagrees:
I'm not convinced that most people understand magazine images are manipulated. Maybe a certain segment of the population — the media savvy, the well-read, the cynics, people who read this blog — but what about teenagers? Or people who aren't immersed in media and just pick up magazines every now and then at the airport or the salon? Or people like your mom or aunt or cousin who just don't think about that kind of stuff? The fact remains that we are living in an incredibly visual culture, and the majority of visuals we're bombarded with continue to be of "perfect," unblemished, (mostly white) women who have 1) lucked out in the genetic lottery department and 2) have been worked on by a team of experts: A trainer, a dermatologist, a makeup artist, a hair stylist, a photographer with
