Personal Campaign for Real Beauty

Back in 1848, in England, John Ruskin, renowned poet and art critic, married his next-door-neighbor, Effie Gray. Six years later, their marriage was annulled. The reason was Ruskin’s “incurable impotence.” In fact, the marriage was never even consummated. Effie, when petitioning for the annulment, told the judge that John Ruskin was repulsed by the sight of her body on their wedding night. “He imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and the reason he did not make me his wife was because he was disgusted with my person the first night.” This seemed curious, as Effie Ruskin was widely considered to be extraordinarily beautiful, but there was an explanation. It seems that Mr. Ruskin’s sole familiarity with women was his appreciation of classical art. Historians have theorized that he had never seen female pubic hair before, and thought Effie freakishly deformed.
You might be wondering why I’m telling you this. While it might seem absurd that Mr. Ruskin would hold Effie to the impossible, frozen standard of a marble statue, it strikes me how this is analogous to what confronts women today. Icons of feminine perfection may have shifted from statuary, but are the photographic images of women in magazines any less unrealistic? The advertisements, especially those for facial skin care and make up, have been so heavily retouched and airbrushed that they are more akin to illustrations than photographs.
These glossy images, sans pores, hair follicles, or tonal variations, perpetuate the lie of physical perfection. As a consequence, beauty products and advertisers rake in huge profits (I guess that’s the point) and women, especially young women to whom it matters most, are left both poorer and unable to reconcile what they see in the mirror with the image tantalizing them from the pages of a magazine. It’s no surprise; when you compare real to ideal, real is going to fall short. By setting up this unequal equation, advertisers open the door to a continuum that runs from mild low self esteem to abject self-loathing.
I’m not advocating an all-out rejection of the processes that make two-dimensional perfection possible. What I am advocating is full disclosure. Just a small statement in a bottom corner, acknowledging that the photographic image has been enhanced or retouched.
We exist in a dermatologic reality fraught with hair follicles and pores. While we can strive to look our best, we are human beings, and regardless of what advertisers would have you believe, no matter what you put on your face, you will never be perfect. As Ruskin found out on his wedding night, it’s skin, not marble. When we compare ourselves to Revlon girl Jessica Alba or Cover Girl Drew Barrymore, we might just as well be comparing ourselves to Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop.