Sex Edition: Students, professors question authenticity of ‘real beauty’

Julianne Whaley respects that Jennifer Lawrence stays true to her identity as well as her positive image. 

“That’s really hard to do in that industry,” Whaley, an undeclared junior, said. 

Whaley is not alone in her positive view of celebrities such as Lawrence, and her opinion aligns with a nationwide trend that embraces the concept of being normal as a new form of beauty. In recent months, popular media and celebrities have circulated ad campaigns, photos and other messages, in which normality trumps the over-glamorized trends of the past. 

Since her starring role in the 2012 box office hit “The Hunger Games,” Lawrence has become America’s sweetheart. Her official Facebook fan page currently has more than 5.7 million likes, and she has been featured on the cover of magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, InStyle and Seventeen.

Like Whaley, people find Lawrence’s seemingly normal qualities to be what makes her so lovable. 

Lawrence famously fell on stage as she walked to receive her Oscar award in February 2013 and has discussed her acne and “stomach rolls” in her interviews with the press. 

“I just really respect that she is holding true to her own identity,” Whaley said. 

While supporters find Lawrence’s normal qualities refreshing, not everyone holds the same opinion. 

Frayda Cohen, an anthropology and women’s studies professor at Pitt, said Lawrence’s fame automatically differentiates her from the average person. 

“Celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence might look very normal and acceptable, but in reality, they still have a wide variety of fashion and makeup choices that most people don’t have access to,” Cohen said.

Lawrence is just one player in the rising obsession with “real beauty.”

The use of the hashtag “nofilter,” which refers to the lack of a photo filter on a photo, has become increasingly popular on social networks.

Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus and AnnaLynne McCord frequently use the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram to show followers what they look like without photo retouching. 

McCord, an American actress known for her appearance on 90210, surprised her fans in May 2012 when she tweeted a picture that showed her acne. 

With a rising interest in realistic beauty, many companies have capitalized on the phenomenon. 

Aerie, the female apparel and lingerie manufacturer, announced last month that the company will stop airbrushing photos of models and feature more diverse models in ad campaigns. In 2004, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty, which included women of diverse races, sizes and ages.

Cohen said the companies are often “trying to use the artificial as a way making the natural seem really natural.”

“But it’s not natural,” she said. “It’s still artificial and just looks like a more perfect version of the natural.”

Cohen also mentioned that even when society thinks of people as normal, it might still be thinking of a “white, skinny and blonde” standard of beauty. 

“If you walked into an engineering class here at Pitt, you actually would see a much broader range of people, body types and ideals of beauty and dress than you would ever see in one of these ads,” Cohen said.

One of the most viral advertisements released during Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign in April 2013 was the Real Beauty Sketches video.

The ad features various women describing to an artist how they perceive their appearances, while the artist sits on another side of a curtain and draws the women speaking based solely on that woman’s description of herself. 

After the artist completed the initial drawings, strangers who saw the other women before the exercise then describe to the artist how they think each woman looks. The artist draws the same person again, but this time based on the strangers’ description, which always resulted in a much more attractive drawing. 

The ad aimed to show that people are more beautiful than they think, and Whaler like the approach.

“I thought that was very powerful. I think it is very sad that that’s the reality of girls’ self-esteem,” she said.

The ad also had several detractors. A parody of the ad called Dove Real Beauty Sketches-Men features men who think they are more attractive than strangers do. A YouTube comedy channel, newfeelingstime, uploaded the April 2013 video, which has garnered more than 3 million views.

Michelle Mancuso, a senior environmental studies major, opposed Dove’s campaign.

“Wha

Mancuso, who is an active member of Pitt’s Campus Women’s Organization, said she believed that the Dove advertisement was not positive. 

“It’s still pushing a very conventional standard of beauty,” Mancuso said.

Others, such as Suzanna Hinkle, a sophomore chemical engineering major, were a bit more neutral toward the ad campaigns promoting untouched images. 

Hinkle said she appreciates Dove’s attempt, but that audiences connect better with ads that feature models more reflective of themselves.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but I think that [companies like Dove] are capitalizing off people wanting to see themselves in an ad,” Hinkle said. 

Hinkle was referring to the fact that many young people are searching for themselves in media. They want to see role models that look and act like themselves.

“I would like to see more weird people in ads and would be more likely to support companies that did that. They know that, and they are capitalizing of off that,” Hinkle said. 

Hinkle, also an active member of the Campus Women’s Organization, was surprised when she discovered Unilever, the company that owns the Dove brand, also owns the Axe brand. Axe circulates ads that feature scantily clad women obsessing over the scent of Axe body spray and the men wearing it. 

Mancuso also expressed disconcertion with the company’s varying messages, adding that Lawrence’s reputation in the public eye could also be disingenous.

“It promotes the opposite. It just shows how it’s all commodified. Even Jennifer Lawrence has been commodified for being a goofy, normal girl. And she might not be,” Mancuso said. 

Whaley said she thinks people are more likely to buy products based on advertisements.

“I would probably buy Dove products for that reason. I already do because it’s cheaper, but I never put it in that perspective,” Whaley said.

As a result, companies profit.

“Most of these companies are still geared towards success in the marketplace. Their decisions are going to be based on that success,” Cohen said. 

Cohen said consumers need to think carefully about these issues and added that consumers can be more critical when viewing advertisements. 

“The combination of education, social activism and cautious consumerism is absolutely essential,” she said.

For Mancuso, seeing people unlike herself portrayed in popular media isn’t anything new.

Mancuso, who is a lesbian, noted that as normal as people such as Lawrence appear to be, Lawrence will never fit the normal mold for every person.

“Trying to find normal is impossible. They should just try to find a bunch of differences, show those differences and how they are all equal,” Mancuso said. “We should have people of color, gay people, trans people and heavy-set people and put them all together and show that they are all equal.”

Mancuso added that role models should exist outside the mass-media spectrum.

“It is so much more rewarding to find people outside of mainstream media who are positive role models. It’s harder, but it’s worth it,” she said.

The obsession with beauty also impacts men, Cohen said, adding that a narrow standard of beauty drives men to search for sexual partners who reflect the ideal.

And as generations pass, the standards of beauty change, too. 

“One hundred years ago, there would have been a whole slew of things that were different about the way we view beauty. They would have not have been as thin, and women would have never had short hair,” Cohen said. 

Mancuso echoed this sentiment.

“I was in a class, and almost every girl in it said they would not be comfortable dating someone shorter than them, yet they could not explain why,” Mancuso said.

Whaley added that she has also found people attractive simply because they resembled people she had seen in media. 

“I used to like people who looked similar to the guys in One Direction,” Whaley said. 

Despite the controversy surrounding beauty and body image, Whaley still believes that shifting perceptions is an attainable feat.

“I do think that it can change with our generation if we teach our kids what it really means to be beautiful,” she said.