Society likes to think that beautiful woman have it all. Good looking women walk in to a room and all heads turn. A flutter of their eyelids and a coy smile can get them just about everything. As beautiful women go Cameron Russell is impressive. But do they get everything their own way? Listen to her in this video for an insider’s view of being beautiful:
By changing her clothes on stage she invites the audience to change their opinion of her – but was it too late? Did the tight black dress, the 8″ heals and her face paint a first impression that was impossible to destroy?
Well, actually, no. As she speaks we begin to look past the face. We begin to understand her mind. We identify with her point of view and the potential pitfalls of becoming a beautiful teenager at an age when it is mentally difficult to cope with life.
On Beautiful Women
If you watch the video you will have seen the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots. With some of the images taken just a few days apart the photographs show the true art of being a professional photographer. Photographers, makeup artists, stylists and Photoshop retouchers turn good looking women in to stunningly beautiful women. These images are of people whom it’s impossible to live up to. Young woman seeing these images in magazines are bound to compare how they see themselves in the mirror with what is printed on the page. How can they live up to that? What does this do to their self-esteem and confidence?
On Insecurity
Cameron Russell quotes two statistics: that 53% of 13 year old American girls don’t like their own bodies; closely followed by the possibly more shocking statistic that this figure reaches 78% by the age of 17.
As the Sunscreen Song nicely points out nicely – young people do not have the capacity to understand the ‘power and beauty’ of their youth. Yet the ‘before’ photographs of Russell show that even she doesn’t live up to her image in everyday snapshots. The production of fashion and beauty images is a highly technical task. Many experts are involved in the journey from face to page.
Women without a knowledge of photography or the fashion industry are unaware of the amount of work that goes in to making models appear beautiful. Their world view is an illusion.
On Teenage Girls in Modeling
Did you see the photograph of Cameron Russell as a 16 year old girl – posing in a sexually seductive manner? She hadn’t had a boyfriend when that photograph was taken. Yet she was presented as a sexually mature ‘adult’ in the final image.
- Should these issues worry us?
- Is it appropriate for society to present young women as sexual objects?
- What does this do to both younger and older women in terms of their self-esteem? What does it do to the expectations of men?
In her talk Cameron Russell highlights aspects of the personalities of beautiful women that most of us would never consider. We see only the obvious. We don’t see the insecurity and the self-doubt. Yet many men who have dated a beautiful woman will know that Cameron Russell is identifying a truth.
Stereotypes
What is particularly good to see in this video is a beautiful woman killing the stereotype that beauty and intelligence don’t go together. She’s insightful, honest and thought provoking. Well worth watching.