Smith, L: Media Analysis

Lindsay Smith

Jamie Lee Curtis: Taking One for the Team

In 2002, a highly successful actress decided she had had enough with hearing about women’s body insecurities and decided that posing untouched for More magazine would give women the confidence boost they needed by seeing that celebrities are not perfect either. Now, at age fifty, Jamie Lee Curtis has agreed to pose nude for the cover of AARP Magazine because she “is trying to portray a truthful image of herself” (Oprah, 2008). Thanks to women like Jamie Lee Curtis who are not afraid to tell the truth, women, specifically older women, everywhere can start to breathe easier knowing that the charade is beginning to end. Jamie Lee Curtis’ decision to pose unretouched in More magazine and subsequent decision to pose nude for AARP magazine has given feminists a reason to celebrate: finally, someone in the spotlight who will speak up. Through analysis of the iconic photographs, interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis about the pictures, and feminist texts, it can be seen that she has at the very least attempted to single-handedly help change women’s views and self esteem in regards to their own bodies and the aging process.

In the first famous photograph, published in More magazine in 2002, Jamie Lee Curtis can be seen “traipsing around a whitewashed Los Angeles photo studio in nothing but a sports bra and tight spandex briefs” (More, 2002). Two photographs are presented in the article that changed feminine beauty standards: one of Jamie Lee completely unretouched- no makeup, no hairspray, and very little clothing. She’s smiling triumphantly as her love handles hang over the top of her briefs and her breasts sag further down than any of her fans had ever seen. Her bright red hair and fair skin glow in the flash of the unforgiving light of the camera bulb. In the subsequent picture, Jamie Lee is surrounded by three beauticians who are waiting on her hand and foot… literally. From tousling her highlighted hair to strapping on the sexiest shoes imaginable, it is evident that a whole crew of people is necessary to make this woman look as incredible as she does when she is in the spotlight. The second picture portrays the Jamie that the American public has grown to know and love- the glamorous celebrity who, even at age forty-something, looked like she was in her early thirties at the oldest. She sports a black frilly dress and flawless makeup with the facial expression that can either be construed as “I am woman: hear me roar” or “I am pissed off.” Though she looks more glamorous (according to today’s society) with retouching, makeup and clothing covering her curves, it has to be noted that she looks immensely happier without it. According to More, Curtis’s reasoning for wanting to do such a photo shoot was nothing short of a miracle: “she wants to feel at peace with her flaws, her genes” (More, 2002). Very few women today are open to simply feeling at peace with themselves as they are, but would rather change how they look to become at peace with what they want to look like. What women do not understand is that the models in magazines, celebrities on the red carpet, even local broadcast news anchors are done-up, made-up and retouched to the point that many would be unrecognizable without it. In Curtis’ second famous photo shoot, she appears on the cover of AARP magazine from the shoulders up in a pool- completely topless. According to People magazine, Jamie Lee Curtis is trying wholeheartedly “to convince women that they will be their most beautiful if they take care of their bodies and age naturally.” In this photo, Curtis’ red hair has grayed, but her confidence has boosted exponentially. Curtis commented that after a long fight with aging and beauty, she believes she has “finally found what… beauty is” (People, 2008).

Curtis was happy to participate in several interviews regarding her infamous photo shoots. She makes several comments throughout these interviews that would make feminists beam and beauticians cower. In More, for the original shoot in 2002, Curtis bares all- and not just physically. She chastises her thighs, breasts, stomach and fat. This kind of self-criticism is typical for many American women, even expected of some (remember the scene in Mean Girls?). However, when Jamie Lee talks about her flaws, she is not doing it to criticize herself, but rather to point out that she believes she has flaws just like everyone else believes they have flaws. The difference is that Curtis revels in hers. What she does chastise herself for, though is “perpetrating [the fraud]” (More, 2002) of perfection. Curtis makes it a point to say that she doesn’t “want the unsuspecting 40-year-old women of the world to think that [she’s] got it going on” (More, 2002). Jamie Lee Curtis even admits that she’s had “little plastic surgery. [She’s] had a little lipo. [She’s] had a little Botox. And… none of it works. None of it” (USA Today, 2002). The famous photos began Curtis’ crusade for healthier living. She lowered her cholesterol and blood pressure by giving up white flower and sugar, as well as gave away her uncomfortable shoes and most of her jewelry. This reinforces the fact that Curtis is not promoting eating and doing what you want because it doesn’t matter how you look, but rather eating right and exercising in order to stay healthy, regardless of how you look. A big part of physical appearance in Hollywood (or New York, or London…) is fashion. Jamie Lee Curtis told Oprah recently that fashion is “the least interesting thing that a woman can pay attention to... [She is] so much more interested in what's going on in the world today and what we're thinking and how we're feeling.” Anti-feminists and fashionista’s everywhere are cringing. Finally.

Although I could not find any articles or blogs criticizing Curtis for her choice, I cannot help but imagine that there has to have been some sort of backlash. Perhaps not outright, but backlash all the same. Since 2002, and perhaps since even before then as Jamie began to age, she has been called upon for significantly different roles than she had been in the past. She went from star-studded roles like the sexy aerobics instructor in the movie Perfect to more domestic roles such as the mom in Freaky Friday alongside young Hollywood sex symbol Lindsay Lohan, a stark contrast. In addition to having different roles, Curtis may also have fewer altogether, now that people can see that she is not as glamorous as they once believed. When Curtis did the first photo shoot, she admitted she was “scared” because she was not so financially independent that she didn’t need to continue making money. In addition to the change in or lack of work, it is hard for me to believe that she was not at all criticized for her choice. Although it is not publicized, I’m sure there was a lot of buzz around Hollywood when the pictures came out. I can hear it now- something along the lines of “she gave out our secret!” Now older actresses everywhere are in fear of being discovered, and not in the good way.

Abra Fortune Chernik discusses society’s obsession with physical appearance in her essay “The Body Politic.” She discusses how she was “applauded” for suffering from anorexia, “applauded” for “shrinking” because “society preferred [her] this way.” She was even titled “blue ribbon winner” of the week for being five foot nine and only ninety-nine pounds: a tremendously disproportioned number. Where did she learn to hate her body so much and embrace looking like a girl? “I learned… from fashion magazines, Madison Avenue and Hollywood.” She was encouraged to be anorexic from the very stereotype that Jamie Lee Curtis is trying to dismantle. Naomi Wolf, feminist author of “The Beauty Myth” places a direct connection between physical beauty and female entrapment within their own bodies, struggling for the power that they externally already have. She notes how disgusting it is that beauty is linked to sexual, business, and evolutionary advances. Wolf also notes that cosmetic surgery is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing medical specialties and highest expenditures for women in the past few decades. This is yet another phenomenon that actors, like Curtis, are trying to dispel. Naomi Wolf quotes early feminist Virginia Woolf who in 1855 said “it would be decades before women could tell the truth about their bodies.” Not only was she correct.. she may have even understated it. It is currently the year 2008, and women are still chastised for showing their real bodies the way they were meant to be without alterations, without diets, without makeup, without hair products and without concern for outward appearances.

Thanks to actors like Jamie Lee Curtis who go above and beyond their call of duty to serve simply as well behaved role models for their fans, women young and old can now begin to accept their bodies for the way they are. When women read fashion magazines, they often do not consciously realize that the “beauty” they are looking at does not truly exist. However, when a highly esteemed actor is posing unretouched on those same pages as the fake women, they can consciously make the distinction between realistic and unrealistic. Many kudos, Jamie Lee, for showing America what real beauty is.