Celebrating the “Natural” Pamela Anderson

More beautiful, happier and smarter

Please read this short HuffPost news story, Pamela Anderson Says Her Sons Were ‘Horrified’ Over Her ‘Natural’ Progression. In fact, don’t even read it. Just look at the photos.

Done? Great! Now let’s celebrate Ms. Anderson for coming out of the cosmetics closet.

Some time ago, I published a piece on Medium titled Makeup is Rape. It was a click-baity, deliberatively provocative title which nonetheless accrued very little attention. But it made a serious point, which Ms. Anderson now seems to endorse. That point is that we are beautiful just as we are. We don’t need to strive for that standard of artificial beauty that our culture pushes on us. The real beauty is in being our true selves.

I wonder why we even find that Hollywood makeup artist, glamour magazine version of a women’s face attractive? I’m noticing more and more that it does not even look human. We only accept and expect it because of the way we’ve objectified women in our culture for so long.

For example. The two biggest movies of 2023 were Oppenheimer and Barbie. Oppenheimer, about a real man, a scientist who worked on a weapon that is one of the biggest threats to life on earth, was awarded seven Oscars. On the other hand, Barbie, which is taken as something of a feminist movie, has a heroine who is literally an object, a toy doll. Ken was also a doll, so: equality. Except that Ryan Gosling took home Barbie’s only Oscar for his portrayal of Ken. Meanwhile Margo Robie, playing Barbie herself, and Greta Gerwig were snubbed, not even being nominated for the best actress and best director honors. Perhaps the Academy should have an award for “Best Object.”

Think of the Disney princesses, or even the actual princesses of medieval or Victorian times. They do not live as normal human women, doing what humans do, looking like humans. You know, the Disney princesses who are role models for our youngest girls.

Think of a medieval peasant toiling in the fields or cooking dinner in a cast-iron cauldron over a wood fire. That is what a human woman looks like, not princesses, not movie stars. Today we have much better hygiene and electric stoves, of course, but a poor housewife in sweats and no makeup is what a human woman looks like. A woman who gets up at 4 a.m. to calm a crying infant. (Don’t you love it when our ladies on screen wake up in the morning in perfect makeup?)

These human women are doing what humans (woman and men) do: working, raising families, enjoying family and friends, cooking, eating. The whole point of the princess/star/model look is to emphasize that they are not normal human women. Their faces do not look human. Their corsets or workout regimens make their bodies into something that does not look like normal human women. Their long, painted fingernails signal that they are not fit for normal human work — they float above it.

Why do we worship and envy these non-human women? Sure, they may have wealth and fame and admirers lined up around the block, but what doth it profit a woman to gain the whole world, and forfeit her soul? Do you know the pain of not being able to live as your true self? (If you are woman, I’ll bet you do know it.) Do you know how much of yourself you have to give up (usually to a bunch of men, and judgey women as well) to gain that world? Ask any celebrity or influencer and they’ll tell you it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. Fame is a curse, not a blessing.

Let’s support and applaud Ms. Anderson’s new, natural look. And let’s think about our own looks, and whether we are experiencing the joys and freedom of living as our own true selves.