Film star Emma Watson has criticised the fashion industry’s projection of women as “dangerously unhealthy”.
She said that “airbrushing and digital manipulation” can project an “unobtainable image”.
The actress, who starred in the film Noah, recently retweeted a picture of herself ahead of the movie’s premiere in New York and said “I did not wake up like this”.
Pressure
23-year-old Watson, who has been in the public eye from a young age, told The Sunday Times that she has felt the pressure of looking perfect in the past.
“As a younger woman, that pressure got me down, but I’ve made my peace with it.
“With airbrushing and digital manipulation, fashion can project an unobtainable image that is dangerously unhealthy.
“I’m excited about the ageing process. I’m more interested in women who aren’t perfect. They’re more compelling”, she added.
Values
Watson is not the first actress to lament the pressure on women to look perfect.
In November, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence – also 23-years-old – slammed the constant demand for women to look ‘like airbrushed models’.
In an interview with Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, she said: “What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That’s just dumb.”
Lawrence, who has been vocal about promoting a positive body image, also slammed American television programmes such as E!’s Fashion Police that “judge” people and “put values in all the things that are wrong”.
Unattainable
In March, Girlguiding UK launched a new body confidence badge to challenge pressure to look ‘perfect’.
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts partnered with Dove to design the programme.
Statistics from Dove found that close to half of 11-14 year old girls are avoiding speaking up in class and opting out of activities such as swimming because they dislike their appearance.
Laura Ede, national chair of Girlguiding’s peer educators who will deliver the programme, said: “Young people today are under constant pressure to conform to impossible and unattainable standards of beauty in a society obsessed with image and appearance.”