Actress Rachael Leigh Cook fights female body image in media

[Green_Lantern]

Actress Rachael Leigh Cook is rallying against the perfect portrayal of female stars in the media - insisting she is outraged over the "manipulated images" of celebrities which are fed to vulnerable young girls.

Cook admits she's "up in arms" about the relentless stream of airbrushed images of famous women plastered over the pages of magazines, and she's urging young girls not to measure themselves against the impossibly high standards of celebrities.

She tells Fox News, "I did not grow up getting told about how manipulated the images we see of women and girls out there are, and I think it's an absolute travesty that young women are seeing what the media is feeding them. It breaks my heart to be part of an industry and part of a machine that really pushes out these images and propagates these really terrible standards that are false.

"Nothing that you see is real, even if you look at what looks like a candid photo of someone, anything can be done. It is false advertising and false advertising is a crime so why isn't this a crime? I'm just up in arms about it."

http://blog.seattlepi.com/people/archives/225878.asp

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Good for her!

Having done make-up for print work and film, and I can tell you first hand the images you see are NOTHING like reality. And with the introduction of digital images, "retouching" has been amplified to the point where there is very little left of the original image at the end of the process.

Even when an artists doesn't want that kind of extensive retouchng has been done despite their wishes. I remember the singer who married Paul Simon did a cover shot where she had wanted a more natural look, including showing her underarm hair, and when to went to print the hair was gone and she looked retouched to within an inch of her life. :(

[Green_Lantern]

3. the underarm hair thing is a bit over the top...but so would

Being "natural" by not showering.

But I'm also not fond of a guy with five o'clock shadow.

[MikeH]

6. It is something we are not used to in this society

The "underarm hair thing", particularly on women, might be considered to be "over the top" simply because it is something that most people are not used to in our society. Otherwise it is really absurd to think that there is anything wrong with a woman having underarm hair, or any other body hair.

As far as comparing women being natural by keeping their underarm hair with being "natural" by not showering, would that comparison also apply to men who stay "natural" by keeping their underarm hair or other body hair?

I for one am a heterosexual male who has always liked natural body hair on women since I was an adolescent, and I know that there are some other men (and women as well) who also like natural female body hair.

I have had a very hard time understanding why just about anything else is or has been acceptable in our society at least at some time since the 1960's, except for natural body hair on women.

I think that somebody who is concerned about female body image in the media and in society, and about the "perfect" standards which women feel they have to measure up to, should also speak out about the demand by society that women practically have to go through all kinds of pain and trouble to remove any and all body hair, and to actually look like plastic Barbie dolls.

I am sure that many women would love to forgo the pain and trouble of removing any and all body hair. And I, for one, would love to be able to enjoy the natural appeal and beauty of women with their body hair and who are not ashamed of it. In fact I would love to admire and marvel at a woman with an abundance of body hair and who is also attractive by other standards; I would probably find such a woman to be very sexy.

[whathehell]

5. Good for her and Kate Winslet who recently admitted "We don't really look like this"....

Good for you, too, for sharing your information.

I used to "do" makeup as well, although I never got as far as print ads, professionally.

I have to tell you, though, I do still love it, and think of it as an "art".

[provis99]

2. even the celebrities wish they looked like their own pictures.

Just compare the paparazzi shot of a celebrity at the grocery store in the morning, compared to the glamorous shots taken in studios, and heavily edited. Really, the pictures are so modified, they're not even real people anymore, so I get what Cook is talking about.

[tech9413]

4. I always had a soft spot in my heart for her, this just enforces it

Too bad I'm so old and tired to be of any interest to her.

[dane88]

7. body image statistics

Good for her. I think it is outrageous how they portray body image in the media. Check out this video with some stunning statistics on body image and the media http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkBN1Ol8fAA