“WAH! Kate looks simply fright-ful in this ghoulish Halloween mask.”The Sun screams at the bewildered reader, “From the pale skin, puffy eyes and bags, Mossy's enough to scare small children without her slap.” A quick look at the image and it is nothing to be scared of (OK so it is Kate Moss), but simply a female without make-up. The Sun goes as far to target “celebrities” such as Natalie Portman, Mel B and Fern Britton simply because they are not wearing make-up.

What can I expect from the “gutter press” as the tabloids are less pleasantly known as, and an expression I am contemplating using more often, considering the attitudes they are taking. These days’ celebrities are made within a few hours, a cameo on some reality TV show seems to be the easiest way in the 21st Century fame culture, and if you are a good looking female then you are nothing more but a sex object plastered across the “lads’ mags” and newspapers like, ironically, The Sun and The Star, whom lead from the forefront in this respect. The woman is there to sell copies and appeal to the “Male Gaze”, a term coined by feminist Laura Mulvey, basically an object of desire in today’s patriarchal society. It seems in our image obsessed culture, if you are famous then you cannot venture outside your own house without plastering your face with the necessary beauty products that, in an interesting twist, celebrities themselves are looking to cash in on.

Look, for example, at Kelly Brook. She was one of those females pictured without any make-up, The Sun cringed and milked a rather worthless story for all its worth, but hey presto, a few days later and she is launching her own fragrance as The Sun brands her with “Men want to marry her and girls want to match her sexy style.” Double standards? Kelly Brook, it seems, is only sexy if she is wearing a lot of make-up and the best clothes money can buy. In our consumerist society, it should be expected that this usual fragrance will be given characteristics beyond its creation, Brook calls her fragrance “fun, sexy, demure and sophisticated”. Sorry love, but how can, effectively, a smell but demure (wonder how many Sun readers understood that) or sophisticated. It simply cannot be those things, just shameful advertising which, surprisingly, many “plastic girls” will buy into, humanising products to appeal to their apathetic target audience. Of course in this Capitalist society we cannot expect Brook to advertise her own products, she flogs more products!



If I could give any advice to anybody out there, it would be not to buy crap like the Sun, Mirror, and Mail et al. But do not take these types of articles seriously, girls should feel comfortable in their own skin without a layer of manufactured slop over their face, and should not feel pressurised into buying the latest beauty products. It would be naive if I said none of us conformed, because we all do, but if we all ignored the double standardising, advertising, almost intrusive nature of the tabloids beauty section, and magazines alike, society would be a better place to live in.