Lately, several people have asked me if I run across many women who have had breast augmentation surgery. They’re always surprised to learn (as am I) that in the three years since I began this project, I have not met one. Every fit-tester and fit model applicant grew into her size naturally.
This puts the women I meet in good stead if they want a Hollywood career. According to reporter Laura Holson’s article in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, “It took years for Hollywood to create the perfect woman. Now it wants the old one back.”
Sande Alessi, who helped cast the “Pirates of the Caribbean†movies, said she offers to photograph actresses in their bathing suits, telling them they can keep the photo for their audition books.
Professional courtesy? Not exactly. Moviemakers prefer actresses with natural breasts for costume dramas and period films. So much so that when the Walt Disney Company recently advertised for extras for the new “Pirates†film, the casting call specified that only women with real breasts need apply. By taking a photograph, Ms. Alessi said, “we don’t have to ask, we will know.â€
If I were someone who had invested in surgery to make someone else happy (a boyfriend, an employer, the world), I’d be pretty upset right now.
But it’s actually a good thing that there’s just no pleasing everyone. I don’t know about you, but my eyes have begun to glaze over at the uniform images of beauty in the media. Mr. Campbell and I loved the British version of Life on Mars, but we couldn’t stand the American version. Its main characters looked too perfect–more like a model or newscaster than the gritty police officers they were supposed to portray.
I’d like to see more interesting-looking people in the media. I think that might be part of the reason for Christina Hendricks’ appeal that Sadie wrote about yesterday. Yes, she’s drop dead gorgeous, but she’s also the only one who looks like her.
In Sunday’s New York Times Style Magazine, a reporter interviewed Justin Gelband, a trainer to top models in his gym, Great Jones Studio. He says that “it takes 12 weeks to form the foundation and get a girl in shape to shoot a Victoria’s Secret catalog.” Twelve weeks with Gelband wouldn’t make me a Victoria’s Secret model, but I’d love to have a trainer with his philosophy:
“The one thing I’ve tried to instill in the girls is that your body is your body,” Gelband says. Teenage girls with fat-free, no-bosom bodies mature and disappear from the business. Curvy women take their place, only to be replaced by flat-chested clothes hangers once the cycle revolves again. In every case, Gelband says, “the problem is that the fashion business, and the culture, is promoting these impossible beauty ideals. It sounds corny, but I’ve always been about woman power. What I tell my girls applies to everyone and not just models: Look at what you are and what you have, and use that to the best of your ability. It’s all a matter of how you exploit what’s there naturally. Take what you’re given and do the best with that.”
It may not always feel that way, but we full-breasted women have been given a great foundation to work with. This blog will keep giving you ideas on how to do your best with it.
