Here are some facts that we’re going to remind everyone of before we begin. Some we can all wearily agree are just basic facts: 1. When people get older/get stressed, their hair goes grey. 2. When people get older they might get a wrinkle or two. 3. Skin gets blemished for all sort of reasons and 4. Photos used to sell things are nearly always re-touched.
Why are we barking facts at you? Because some people still see fit to shame Beyoncé and Kate Middleton for not defying the above rules, despite some of them being very biologically determined, or are simply out of their hands.
First up, someone has decided to leak un-re-touched photos of Beyoncé on a L’Oréal shoot. Why? Well, for the leaker, it’s money, because people will pay for the rights to use the images. And why, in turn, is that? Because some people want to see images of Beyoncé looking normal. Apparently, if someone near deified – in part because of her looks – is dragged down to our level (‘They have spots too!’) we’ll feel better about ourselves and the way we look.
The quest to find the truth behind photos has become a little lost. It started off as a way of proving that magazines and papers were making us think that to be beautiful, you have to be rod-thin, or alabaster white, or you have to be unattainably gorgeous. That people behind computers were in control of how we view our own bodies, dictating perfection using unattainable tools.
And sure, it’s worth shaming the publications that think it’s OK to shave inches off of a woman’s waist to make her look – apparently – more attractive. But what are these photos of Beyoncé meant to achieve?
READ MORE: Jennifer Lawrence Says Nude Photo Leak ‘Was A Sex Crime’
Some might think it’s a righteous hammering down of the wall between celebrity and ‘real person’, showing that celebrities are somehow lying when they’re airbrushed and polished for their multimillion pound advertising deals. But at the same time, it’s showing that no matter how hard a woman works, no matter how talented she is, no matter what she has to say, she’ll still be taken down for the way she looks.
Sure, Beyoncé’s been pulled down to the level of mere mortals, but it hasn’t really pushed any of us up, has it?
As for Kate Middleton, her job, her ‘role in life’ as Bey would put it, is to be a mother, a wife, a tourist attraction and an ambassador to a zillion British businesses. It’s a few jobs, then, but most of them are deeply entwined with how she looks.
It was on one of her silent visits (you don’t ever hear her talk much, at least not compared to husband William) to one of the businesses she is an ambassador for, that she did something drastic enough to make front page news. What was this? What could be so deserving of a close-up shot on the front page of a paper which sells millions of copies a day? ‘OH KATE, ARE YOU REALLY SHOWING GREY ROOTS AT 33?’
Well, yes, Daily Mail, she probably is. Why? Because the very same paper reported way back in November 2013, that ‘Kate displays her greys’. It’s not entirely baffling, then that – woah, there – a woman who once had grey hairs might have them again. Oh, and the very same paper has reported, that ‘you might be advised not to use hair dyes during pregnancy, just as a precaution’ (and, on a separate note, that hair dye can cause cancer, anyway.)
READ MORE: Kate Middleton’s Pregnancy Isn’t An Excuse To Be A Dick
The article decrees the photo will ‘provide some comfort. For it shows even beautiful young royals are not immune to the ageing process.’
Yet even the most cursory knowledge of the fact we don’t still live under Henry VIII’s rule (how many wives would he have racked up and bumped off by then, do we think?) tells us that, no, royals don’t get fed the elixir of eternal youth upon coronation. Does it really make any of us feel better to see a woman’s grey hairs making front page news?
Yes, Kate is ridiculously privileged, living a wonderful existence of riches. However, if this is how we treat the most revered of our society (and yes, it goes for the great do-ers of our society, too, take a look at the treatment, at the hands of the mainstream media, of Mary Beard or Rebecca Adlington, for example), how on earth should the rest of us muggles be expected to be treated?
The solution? Get something a bit more useful out of it all. Like, right now, we’re trying to work out how Kate’s used some of her own hair as a hair bobble. That’s the mind-boggling bit of trickery we actually care about.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Questions We’re Asking About That Photo Of Kate Middleton’s Bum
Depressingly, The Kim Kardashian Bum Fallout Proves We Still Seem Threatened By Female Nudity
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.