Oh, tastefully nude national magazine photo shoots, how you vex us. Sometimes you boldly declare that a former child star is passed puberty, sometimes you are just trying to be funny, and sometimes, most vexing of all, you aim to "empower" us. The latter, which is what Allure‘s annual naked issue strives to be, brings up complicated feelings for us ladies. (And it’s primarily ladies who are the subjects of such things, unless you count famous beefcake shots of Burt Reynolds or Richard Gere as empowering, which you could.)
Celebrating women’s unadorned bodies? Genuinely awesome. (Especially these days, when most of us lack the funding for the designer threads normally featured in women’s mag pages.) But Allure seems to have airbrushed the likes of Padma Lakshmi, Chelsea Handler, and Eliza Dushku "like a Playboy spread," as one of my astute straight male colleagues observed. Not to mention that there’s something, well, confusing about how proud we’re supposed to be that the freakishly attractive people we call celebrities, who have trainers and possibly other body-oriented professionals on speed dial, are proud of their toned flesh. (And how they provocatively coo to the female readership, via Q&As, that they sleep naked, are "sensual" beings, etc., in a way that’s about half a step from being a Maxim interview.)
Is there a way to accomplish the same goal with a little more honesty and integrity? I’d venture that, within reason, we could handle a slightly less Barbie-esque presentation. As my straight male source also observed: "Most men like the gory details of a woman’s body. Thisspread is like looking at their wax figure likenesses more than fleshand blood." That, plus maybe some more insightful discussions with the ladies about their body images (beyond the standard "we’re all beautiful and it’s sexy to love yourself and we’re good enough and smart enough and gosh darn it people like us" talk) — issues they’ve overcome, worries for the future, ways their bodies have affected their lives. Think it doesn’t matter if you have big breasts or a small waist or tremendous curves, that all that matters is what’s on the inside? Think again. That’s the kind of naked discussion we’d like to see.
What do you think of Allure‘s naked spread? Too provocative, too plastic, or just right?
I thought the idea of this was to feature women who you might not usually expect to be naked (I remember Kristen Chenoweth did this one year). But Padma has been naked in her modeling career, and Eliza has shown some skin on film, so what’s the big deal?
I’m not the type to cover up the fact that I am a womanizer, I love looking at naked women, but often prefer to look at amateur pics because stuff like this is just way to fake. Give me the blemishes, I can take it, it makes you human.
I’m not the type to cover up the fact that I am a womanizer, I love looking at naked women, but often prefer to look at amateur pics because stuff like this is just way to fake. Give me the blemishes, I can take it, it makes you human.
Uh, why do we care what straight men have to say about this? I think we see enough “women posing for the male gaze” as it is. That aside, naked female celebrities is nothing new. It doesn’t celebrate the female form, since as you point out these women achieve their bodies through the kind of work ordinary women will never put in + photoshop, meaning we’re really just celebrating women for being celebrities. If you really want to celebrate the naked female body, why not show pictures of ALL types of women, with wrinkles and stretchmarks etc? And talk about how their bodies affect them? These is really just the same old thing.
Waaaay too plastic. When will these freakin’ magazines step away from the Photoshop?!?!?!?
Padma – She’s always saying how she loves her scar. Then why the hell is she not showing it in this pic?
she actually does show it in a this smae photoshoot..just not in every picture
It’s airbrushed. Where is the scar?
Naked, airbrushed celebrities talking about how much they love their bodies. Ho hum. It’ll be groundbreaking when they publish un-Photoshopped photos of either celebrities or regular folks admitting that sometimes they hate their bodies or that they love them, flaws and all. It’s way too easy to talk about how great your body is when you know all the flaws will be conveniently smoothed over on a computer.
WAWA Woowie more picture’s of Padma naked…
http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/
http://www.celebrityandpics.com/chelsea-handler-allure-magazine-pics/
and
http://marryhumpkill.com/chelsea-handler-eliza-dushku-padma-lakshmi
This is a bunch of nonsense. Are they putting everyday women who don’t look like models in their nude ‘empowering’ spreads? Do they ask them questions that aren’t silly? Are they without professionally done makeup or hair, or airbrushing? I don’t see how this would make any woman feel better about herself. It’s no different than a spread in a men’s magazine. All they’re trying to do, as usual, is sell more magazines. This is not empowerment by any means, it’s just sensationalism.
Not really interested in C-list celebs baring all, when I don’t see a single flaw. Show us the bumps and spots and we’ll talk.
By the way, where are the men?
I wanna see Padma in the “Raw” foods section…more naked pics…
http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/
I think making more than 72 cents of every dollar a man makes for doing the same job just might make women feel more “empowered” than seeing another actress/TV personality promote herself by baring her air-brushed all? Anybody with me?