Angelina Jolie stands on the cover of People magazine looking down at her feet and playing with her hands in a wedding dress. Through the photographer’s lens she is a blushing, submissive bride, the icon of marital bliss. It’s clear that she is a bride in this photo, but you wouldn’t guess she was worth $18 million.
Type Angelina’s name into Google. Now Jennifer Lawrence. Now Kate Moss. Now Ariana Grande. These are all largely successful women with blockbuster movies, and chart-topping songs. But what are millions searching about them?
“Nudes”
“Leaked Pics”
“Naked”
Some of the most successful women in the world, and all people search for is their anatomy. Women in the media are shrunk down to flimsy words like “hot” or “sexy” when the traits they really possess go so much deeper then their skin. Every women on the cover of a magazine has had a bad day. She has gone through a rough break up, she has done something kind, she is a human being with flaws.
Yes, even Beyoncé.
By posing these real women as perfect paper dolls we commit two injustices: we create unrealistic expectations for women in general, and we discredit the greatness of the actual women being misrepresented.
It has been said time and time again that the media shows young girls the kind of unobtainable beauty that causes eating disorders and years of therapy to escape self-loathing, but what about the lacking emphasis put on the actual achievements of these women? In this culture we’ve created it’s all about skin, hair and boyfriends, not philanthropy or degrees. What motivation do women have to get an education when they’re being taught that all they will be judged on is their pretty face?
And then there are the actual women. Angelina Jolie’s veil was covered in drawings done by her children. Is it out of the question to recognize her as a mother or a young mogul instead of a sexual object? These women do not simply become decorations because they appear on the cover of a magazine.