Interesting debate and discussion about the trend of celebrities appearing in fashion magazine editorial spreads sans makeup, photoshopping or retouching as seen in this photograph of Scarlett Johnasson from French Elle.
Matt Yglesias writes at Think Progress:
The “stars sans fards” initiative seems, especially when you consider the meaning of the French idiom, to be a deliberate effort to re-inject the artifice into the conversation under guise of rejecting it. Obviously, artifice hasn’t, in fact, been done away with here. The lighting, the attire, etc. is all being professionally done; vast quantities of film is being shot and only the very best images selected; and the “stars” being presented “sans fards” are extreme outliers in the genetic lottery. All of which is no worse than conventional magazine cover art, but it’s not really any better. And just at a time when public awareness of the fakeness of magazine covers is growing, we get a new artifice presented as unadorned reality.
Discuss.