Cellulite- Proving Women's Imperfection

The Celebrity Condition recently published an article praising finally seeing Britney Spears' cellulite. Not only was she at the top of the list, but there were also numerous portrayals of celebrities sporting bikinis, with photographers obviously zooming in on their cellulite.
The writer of this particular blog chose to post these pictures for very obscure reasons. It seems that the writer, a woman, only wanted to point out that these celebrity women were not perfect, which may be misconstrued as noble to some.
But, the ways in which she did this were only demeaning to the women portrayed. The blog had a picture of Britney Spears, and besides it being a close-up of the cellulite on her thighs, it also recommended that she should don a bra. Spears has had two children, and is expected by many to be free from all of the signs that she was ever pregnant. Not only is this an unrealistic expectation, but it just continues to show that Americans think too highly of celebrity women, because we do not expect non-famous women to meet those high of standards.
Another picture of Charlotte Church talked of her up-and-coming career while simultaneously demeaning her body, but also chose it important to mention that her cornrows were “horrible.”
Yet another example was of Uma Thurman, who even the writer of the blog admits had a hard time finding any real cellulite, was made fun of for her “saggy boobs.”
This blog completely misses the point. In the process of pointing out the imperfections of these celebrity women, it completely demeans their characters. Most of the women were involved in a field other than bikini model, so their cellulite should not be a factor on the minds of the American public. These women are talented, many are mothers, and most importantly, they are people. None of the photos stated that these celebrity women were claiming to have perfect bodies, and that statement is rarely, if ever, heard anywhere. So, to pick on the faults of these celebrity women, we are trying to bring them down to our level as non-perfect. But, in doing so, we bring the entire class of women down by subjecting them to the ideals of perfection, and then “proving” that the concept of the perfect woman is impossible.


Sources used:
The Celebrity Condition: Diet, Fitness & Health News of the Rich and Famous. 2008.
http://www.thecelebritycondition.com/cellulite/index.html