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Published in April 2003 in The Post-Star newspaper Allure wimped out on true female form COMMENTARY STACEY MORRIS What a missed opportunity. Six actresses posed nude for May's Allure magazine, presumably to show (and reassure) the world that they too have physical imperfections. When it was announced last week on Entertainment Tonight, I thought that surely the trend started by Jamie Lee Curtis last fall must be catching. In a move that was infinitely more daring than Demi Moore's famous pregnancy pose 13 years ago, Curtis matter-of-factly showed us what every woman in show business works overtime to conceal and eliminate: fat rolls and wrinkles. The results of the photographic probe were shocking ... but also a major relief. Curtis proudly and single-handedly dispelled the celebrity perfection myth -- grinning like a Cheshire, she knocked down the door. So when I got my hands on a copy of Allure this week, what did I discover? The six actresses wimped out. Or maybe it was Allure's editors. But in any case, the results fall exceedingly short of an unsparing look at their human-ness. Allure's journey began with Brooke Shields, her breasts veiled artistically by locks of her flowing hair. OK, she was standing at an angle that maximized the bloom of her six month of pregnancy, but the photo was so opaque, I started to wonder if it was shot through gauze. Where were the "bulges, blotches and blemishes" mentioned in the headline? So perfect was the veneer of Shields' luminous skin, it made porcelain look inferior. The next page featured Kelly Preston in centerfold repose, immersed in an environment so smokey white, it looked as if she might evaporate into wisps of fog. But don't let those tiny hips fool you -- in preparation for the Allure photo shoot, the actress gamely took measures to make sure there would be more of her to love. "You know what I did to prepare? I put on six pounds. And I shaved," revealed Preston. Maybe those six newly arrived pounds were there somewhere, but you'd never know it by the clever position she took on a lounge chair or the air-brushing that was obviously done to the photo. Deceptive photography is nothing new on the pages of women's magazines. What makes this spread so offensive though, is that it was billed as honest and unflinching realism. Actress Judy Reyes 'fesses up to having breasts that "aren't perky," but how would we know? She has them hidden and upheld by her left hand and forearm. For God's sake, Judy, just unfurl them. After years of being subjected to the rock-hard immutability of actresses and models with implants, it would have been nice, even healing, to get a dose of pendulous reality. Why? Because it's a natural and truthful representation of the female form. Running away from it only reinforces self-loathing and shame. But what am I saying? This is a women's magazine I'm talking about after all, and their survival is incumbent on dispensing feelings of inadequacy. True, the photographs in Allure seemed to be considerably less air-brushed than those of the cartoonish Playboy, but lighting, airbrushing and poses so contrived, they require more strategy than one of Gen. MacArthur's battle plans don't add up to an honest look at a woman. |