Dear Fox News and Yahoo online editors:
I recently came across a syndicated Fox New article on Yahoo’s website entitled, “Stars Without the Warpaint,” and was absolutely appalled at the captions in this slide show. The captions repeatedly showed captured images of celebrities without makeup, or not being glammed up by their stylists. Time after time the women in the images were described as "scary", "puffy", "tired", "old", "partied out", "seeing better days", the list goes on and on. What is worse is the images were often next to or followed by a picture that shows the women being styled, with make-up and captions along the lines of saying, “There’s the girl we know” or “What a little make-up can do.” There are 136 slides degrading women, all of whom have feelings, insecurities, and deserve more respect than was given in this demeaning article.
In a world where people are more insecure than ever trying to be the “perfect” and “flawless” representation of beauty, this article only perpetuates the vicious cycle of self-loathing and the fact that we’ll never be good enough. As news agencies and human beings, you should be advocating for and empowering women, not putting them down because they chose not to wear make-up. You just made these women only important for their looks and nothing more, which you so quickly peeled away. Newsflash, no one wakes up flawless and airbrushed, we all have normal days and bad days, including celebrities. Heaven forbid a woman wants to go out for a cup of coffee, walk her dog, or to the store without having to spend hours in a make-up chair so that she doesn’t get a snarky caption from some insecure person penning the words. If you’re saying Halle Berry looks, “scary” or Maria Schriver “looked well beyond her 59 years” or Kristen Dunst “looked flushed and puffy while riding her bike” or that Ellen DeGeneres “is going for that natural look,” what the heck would you say about average woman? You know the other 99% of the female population who are not A-list celebrities. Beauty is so much deeper than the surface and what you’re teaching people is that it is not, that a woman’s self-worth is in her “pretty face”. Shame on you for that. I dare the writer of these captions and the editors who allowed these captions to be penned to take a picture “without warpaint” as they so called it. No Photoshop, no make-up, no styling, just you and your raw face, see what kind words the world would caption for your face. My guess is they might not be so kind, but then again, beauty is more than skin deep.
Sincerely,
Erin Walker-Anderson
San Francisco, CA
PS for those who want to see the captions here are the links:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/slideshow/2016/08/26/stars-without-...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/a16cc1cd-7844-3604-aa42-2341f1bff675/stars-...
I also have copies of the images, as I’m sure the pictures will be taken down soon.
