OPRAH AND KERRI-ANNE. A FABLE
In Magazine Land women never grow old.
I should know this by now. I have worked for magazine publishers long enough to know the familiar and legitimate cry, “real women don’t sell magazines”.
I look at Kerri-Anne Kennerley on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly and once again I do a double take (as I did with Deborah Hutton early this year).
Is that really her?
She looked very different when I saw her in Westfield, Bondi Junction, the other day.
Don’t get me wrong, she looked stunning, but she did not look 30 as she does on the AWW cover. Rather she was a little closer to her (almost) 60 years. Later in the week I was standing in the local Surry Hills newsagency and I over hear the female owner discussing with a local 40 – something customer the ridiculousness of the cover and how it made her “want to run and hide herself” after seeing it.
To her credit, KAK has a sense of humour about it all: ”I told (Women’s Weekly editor) Helen McCabe last year that if ever I was on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly she could Photoshop the buggery out of me and I’m only happy to see she has delivered on the brief,” she said in in her usual frank style. And I am sure she would do it again in a heart beat.
Then there’s Oprah’s May issue.
On the cover she, aged 58, poses beside a photograph of herself aged 21. Even after four decades of living her skin, teeth and hair look more faultless than ever.
Apart from looking a little thicker through the arms and middle there’s barely any difference between her and her younger self.
Quite some time ago, Oprah was honest enough to allow us to see her without makeup and follow the elaborate process of her being glammed up for a show. It was remarkable and with the greatest respect (because I respect Oprah enormously), her makeup artist is a genius.
I just have to ask, where is this all going?
If in 10 years we have 60-year-old women looking 25, where will we be in another 5, 10, 20 years?
I fear not only for my generation but also for the young women who follow us. Famous magazine recently did a six-page feature on young celebrities and their cosmetic surgery which was extremely disturbing. Already such immense pressure to be beautiful, even as children, it seems. I despair where they will be when they are my age. I’m 48.
Is this reverse-ageing business as pointless as holding back King Canute’s tide?
Is it because I don’t have the money, the time or the nerve for surgery? Should I just “let it go” as my friends tell me? My son tells me he loves my “floppy arms” and I have to laugh, even as I reach for my jacket.
The spin from the people and the double standards behind some magazines concerns me. How did the The Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe – who heads a magazine that retouches women within an inch of their lives – become the Chair of the Positive Body Image Awards?
The Weekly images do contain this coda: “these images have been retouched”. It’s there in the fine print with the credits for hair and makeup. I guess it’s a start.
| Page 1 of 2 | next >> |
21 Responses to this article
-
Lady Jewels Diva May 7, 2012
Black people age well, so Oprah’s going to look good for ever!
Kerri-Anne told Helen to photoshop the hell out of her, so who is anyone else to judge?
Unfortunately, “society” is made up of designers, magazines, tv shows, Hollywood, and all the tabloids and companies who think we should look like baby faced anorexic stick insects.
Magazines cannot go a week without telling us about the latest fad diet some celeb is on. One week they criticise celebs for being “fat” and the next they tell us about how they lost their “fat”. They photoshop everyone and constantly tell us about the latest beauty product that will make us look 20 years younger than we are. They also use anorexic girls in their photoshoots.
I DO NOT look like them or will ever wear the clothes they model.
Designers use coat hanger models for their clothes even though they know that most women don’t look like that.
Hollywood has controlled women and their weight and looks for years. The men grow old and fat and are still looked up to, the women are kicked by the wayside and told to go and get plastic surgery.
So really, it’s all well and good for magazines to start saying they are going to change some things, but they are the ones that make us deluded in the first place by using girls and women who do not look like the rest of us. By telling us we are not good enough without the latest beauty cream or make-up, without the latest diet to make us thin, or without the help of some counsellor because we are deluding ourselves into trying to be someone else.
Sorry mags, YOU did that to us. We didn’t do it to ourselves!
-
Frankly feisty May 7, 2012
I’m sick of magazine editors caring more about the advertising dollar than their readership.
It’s also getting really boring and predictable, every time they drag out the bullshit “women understand it’s all about fantasy and luxury” rubbish.
After 20 plus years of being a magaholic, I now only purchase a handful a year.
Dear Editors, please listen and pay attention to what your readers want.
Let your stylists, photographers and makeup artists do their jobs and leave it at that.
Force “designers” to design clothes that flatter and fit women of all shapes and sizes, not just stick insects who are basically clothes hangers. If they can’t do this, then they are not very good designers.
Sorry, for snippiness, but this is one issue that really makes me cross!-
blue May 18, 2012
Hi Frankly, the reason that magazine editors care more for their advertisers than their readers is that a magazine does not make it’s money back from the sales of it’s magazines. They need the advertisers dollar to subsidize it and to make a profit. Put that fact out there and it all makes sense.
-
-
Valerie Parv May 7, 2012
Editors tell us repeatedly that magazine sales drop when they use images of “real” women on covers. If we truly want reality, why don’t we support (by buying) magazines when they risk showing unretouched photos? Either we’ve moved so far away from reality that we can’t accept it any more, or we actually prefer the distorted images we’re getting, in spite of our protestations. Is it another way of denying our own mortality?
-
Frankly feisty May 7, 2012
Knowing quite a few people in the mag publishing arena, the fact is, sales drop when readers have no interest in the person or image on the cover. Nothing to do with whether they are airbrushed and photoshopped. All this means is that the editorial team has to work a little harder at obtaining the right person at the right time and then make the image lively, alluring and inviting. Not fake, plastic and disconcerting.
-
blue May 18, 2012
I didn’t even know it was a picture of KAK until I saw her name next to her shot on the cover. She certainly didn’t look like she did when she was 30. She looked like some other 30 year old. It wasn’t a matter of turning back time but, rather, turning into someone else.
-
-
-
sam May 7, 2012
When I caught sight of that cover in coles on the weekend I thought it was Mel from sunrise. Ooops! I have to say that neither of those stars would entice me to buy the magazine.
-
Jenny May 7, 2012
These magazine covers make me groan! Portray real women rather than airbrushed images that do nothing to promote a feeling of well being in your readers. I stopped reading these types of magazines years ago as they define women as cooks, cleaners and dieters…..Ugh
-
Rikki May 7, 2012
We could just enjoy them for what they are… a form of fiction. When I want to see reality, I look in the mirror, at my friends, at my family. When I want light entertainment for $8.50, I actively choose to purchase a magazine. If the girls I passed in the street, at the cafe, at work etc looked like plastic cut-outs, I might think there was something wrong with me – but on a glossy piece of paper…? I think perhaps what needs to change is how much gravity we give these magazines, rather than the magazines themselves. They are light entertainment. People get glamour shots done of themselves all the time to put on the walls of their homes… you can’t fault a gal wanting to do the same when it’s going to be laid out for the whole country to peruse. C’mon, none of us ever actually think these pictures are for real, relax.
-
Julie-Anne Rogers May 7, 2012
I just don’t buy those magazines – ever.
-
Swanny May 13, 2012
I haven’t bought any such mags for 20 years. It remains a mystery to me how modern women can still not see them for what they are. Light entertainment? I think not. A multi-billion dollar industry designed to extract the max from women who hold the purse-strings in modern society – that caters to their readers’ whims and fantasies and exacerbates their fears and uncertainty.
-
-
Aeron Winters May 7, 2012
I stopped buying magazines like these long ago. I’m not interested in making myself feel bad looking at images of retouched stars and models showing an ideal that is unachievable by a mere mortal such as myself. I am happy in my skin (most of the time anyway) and I don’t think I look to bad for my age. I occasionaly compare myself to others who I know are of a similar vintage and I think I hold up alright. Hubby likes the way I look, and, in the end, I guess that’s all that matters.
-
Louisa May 7, 2012
I stopped buying women’s magazines years ago. Never mind the covers, what’s inside is rubbish. I recently subscribed to Dumbo feather – check out the website. It is all about inspirational people who care about the world they live in and the impact they have. Also, the highlight of my day is coming home from work and reading the Hoopla on my iPad. It is just like a magazine tailored for me. It even gets a mention in my gratitude journal.
-
caz May 7, 2012
I read this just after reading Rachel Ward’s article/photos.
No contest.
You rock, Rachel. -
Alex May 7, 2012
I recently turned 50 and am trying to accept my suddenly (to me anyway, where was I?) changed looks. I thought I’d go onto the net and look for some normal looking 50 year old woment to get some inspiration on some new clothes. I can’t even find any on there for God’s sake! It doesn’t make me feel better to find articles on aging gracefully and dressing to please yourself when the only pics are of ex-supermodels/actors who have had plastic surgery or been photoshopped to within an inch of their lives and what ever happened to double chins!??? Jeez! Fed up already.
-
Helen O'Connor May 7, 2012
Thanks Jane, great article. Like others I stopped buying women’s mags a long time ago as my strategy to staying sane in this photoshopped world we have come to live in. Then just as I was feeling very pleased with myself for not succumbing to the pressure to join the anti-aging race, my ex-husband (who is a photographer) unbeknownst to me kindly photoshopped the last theatre poster I did (I’m an actor) and I have to admit I was very pleased with his work! Ah its a dilema!
-
Serin May 9, 2012
Hey what ever is her real age, she is an older woman who is not sitting in the corner and rusting- I have to say that has to be a good trail- blazing attitude for older women who come after her, all be it only maybe in the fashion and entertainment realms. lets celebrate that fact about KAK if nothing else..
-
Bianca Dye May 11, 2012
I did a shoot for MADISON magazine 2 years ago & it wasnt airbrushed at all.. there was a few of us – media personalitys- & it was very scary – but im glad we did it – you can see us in all our cellulited glory & i wouldnt have it any other way – i received the most amazing feedback from sooo many readers saying THANK GOD! Its getting out of control!
-
Shun May 15, 2012
I keep thinking that today might be the day that the Australian media might grow a conscience and start to report the truth that has been uncovered by http://www.expendabletv
An innocent young Australian woman’s life is in the balance and yet they still prefer to protect corrupt police and politicians.
Please start to report the truth, without honest reporting, without a strong media, the police and government will continue to ignore our human rights and do as they please. -
Louise June 13, 2012
I stopped buying women’s magazines when I realised that they made me feel ugly. Why would any woman pay for something that did that to her? Just say no. Stop buying, start feeling good about yourself.
