I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies, but while waiting in line at the supermarket or other places, I see celebrities on the covers of magazines near the check-out, and it seems to me that a lot of female celebrities look alike, to the point where I almost can’t tell them apart from each other. (Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe I mean that each one’s individual appearance doesn’t really stand out to me.)
Most of these female celebrities are white, with perfect skin/hair/teeth, and no glasses. Maybe makeup has something to do with it too.
One sees this a bit with male celebrities as well, but there seems to me to be a bit more variety in males. Though maybe this has to do with me not being romantically attracted to women (not that I have a crush on any male celebrity.)
I find this to be more true with male celebs than with females, and I’m a hetero female. I can’t tell Ryan Whatever-his-name is from Zack So-and-so. The only one I can identify is that Pattinson guy, and that’s just because he’s so goddamn ugly. I think the females are a little easier to tell apart, but I still get Selena Gomez mixed up with Justin Bieber all the time ;).
In my case it’s just from aging out of the “cares what celebrities are doing” population and not being a moviegoer. They’re all interchangeable to me: The women look like bobbleheads and the men look like JC Penney underwear models.
I agree with you, EmilyG, I think a lot of them have the same bland, generic look. Not individual faces. Makes me think of the Twilight Zone episode where everyone had to choose from about six or so different faces and figures to have forever. No variety or individuality. Boring and unmemorable.
Along the same lines, I rarely venture into radio territory that plays girl pop singers, but, when I do, I find it hard to distinguish most of them. They sound the same. One of the reasons I like Adele is that she has an unmistakeable, distinctive voice.
I wonder how much might also be due to overdone retouching with Photoshop.
It’s especially bad for television reality/reality stars, I think. I can’t tell you if a picture of someone is from a comedy actress, someone from Bachelorette, etc. OTOH I generally can tell apart movie actresses; there’s a more varied look among them, plus they tend to be higher profile enough that I’ve learned to discern whatever is left after the make-up, lighting, and digital manipulation.
Male actors I can rarely tell apart, but I chalk that up to my disinterest in men’s looks in general.
Part of the problem is the definition of “celebrity”…that used to mean someone that most everyone knew, so it was less likely you would confuse Rita Hayworth with Joan Crawford or Marilyn Monroe with Jane Mansfield, etc. etc.
Now, it seems like every clown who had a single word to say in some crappy “Housewives Of [fill in blank]” is trumped up to be a “celebrity”, as well as some young pretty actress who may have had a supporting role in a film that went straight to DVD. Add to that the “supermodels” (there are no models anymore, just supermodels), and pretty young things that had one pop hit song, and tons of actresses who had minor roles in niche TV channel shows/small films - and well, suddenly you have thousands and thousands of faces that are unrecognizable to the average schmuck who has never seen that person in their life, but can still get their picture on the front of a magazine.
Making it even more difficult to differentiate the faces, most of these wannabe celebrities have stylists - people who ensure they have the current style of hair, makeup and clothing - so they look like every other celebrity out there.
We are fans of Fashion Police - a very funny show, thanks to Joan Rivers, that comments on celebrities and fashion. I have no idea how those four panelists know ALL of those “celebrities”! Geez - some have had one hip-hop song, or appeared on some reality show on a network I have never even heard of, or are the spouse of some actor or athlete I have also never heard of, or were a model in some magazine that is only published twice a year in Bolivia or wherever.
I guess the joy of cable TV, DVD, Internet and supermarket rags is that pretty much anyone can be the celebrity of the moment - which apparently means .000001% of the population might possibly have glanced at their face somewhere, at some time, and actually know that person.
Generally I tend to agree, I can never tell the difference between Scarlett Johansson and Charlize Theron for instance.
However in a majority white country ‘white’ is redundant; very few singers of Mandopop and Cantopop are non-Chinese, and no-one accuses Chinese of being racist for promoting their own.
Still, there are the wild outliers such as Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, the ultimate Rock Chicks. The wisdom of the former’s vast experience and her willingness to expose the pain of love sets her apart from the vapid and makes her this generation’s Edith Piaf.
Unless there’s an implication that the manipulators of popular culture have an unfair bias to white, I see no other point there. They are pretty well bound not to select poor-skinned, lank-haired, snaggle-toothed specimens of whatever race.
And I’ve seen beautiful actresses in glasses: when they want to look intellectual.
I think that part of it is casting/producers seeing that someone has had success and using them as an indication of what will work. Even if the first few instances are random, it can be self-reinforcing.
“People really like actress A. Well then, when we’re choosing an actress for this part, having actress A-like looks will be a positive factor.”
“People really like the look of actresses A and B and they look similar. It seems like that look is sought after. We’ll give a lot of weight to having that particular look when choosing the actress for the next part.”
You find the same thing among first person shooters where a lot of the big releases look and play very much the same.
There are far more ways of being ugly than of being beautiful. That’s all.
Well, that and the fact that we are less interested in and so less likely to notice the nuances and minor differences of beauty in the sex to which we are not attracted. So (straight) women will be more likely to see the female celebs as all the same, and (straight) men will see it more in the male celebs.
This, mainly. A face that’s beautiful is a face that tends towards the population’s average in shape, is symmetrical, has clear smooth skin and so on. It’s an ideal, and so everyone who is close to that ideal looks similar.
Beat me to it; this subject made me think immediately of that. Especially that montage picture.
I do a lot of work in Photoshop, and someone should teach the retouch artists that too much of a good thing is too much. They don’t have to smooth over every pore and wrinkle and give everyone flawless skin. What they wind up with is skin that makes people look like mannequins or burn victims.
