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Culture January 31, 2017
It’s easy to feel flawed, fat or like some freakish monster after watching a Hollywood awards show. Seeing all those “perfect people” on the red carpet, you can think you’ll never be as good, as pretty or as famous as them.
I know I do. Obsessing over the celebrities at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards was really depressing. But I’m not alone.
New York based psychiatrist Dr. Marianne Gillow says, “I have many patients who tell me how depressed they are after awards shows. It’s more common than you think.”
She explains, “We’re already inundated with photos of beautiful young women and men in magazines and on social media and in fashion ads. Many of them become famous just because they are attractive – Instagram has helped with that. So when they become 3-D and are on your tv set at an awards show, they step out of being paper dolls and into a fantasy of ‘the real world.’ And they are in your living room.”
Clearly it’s easy to get it in your head that you are the only person on the planet of normal weight, who can only work out only a few times a week, at best – who actually eats – and yes, carbs – who doesn’t wear obscure designer clothes (ok, I wear non-obscure designer clothes – but they aren’t next season!) – and who isn’t in the derm chair, hair stylist chair and nutritionist’s chair once a week.
Most of us will never give a big self-important speech for all the world to see. Most of us will never have the whole world writing about our dress and drooling over our bodies. But I’m closer to it than most…
It might make me sound shallow and utterly celebrity-centric but I have watched and scrutinized every single awards show and its subsequent red carpet arrivals – professionally, that is – since 1992. That’s because I’m a red carpet journalist – or “Hollywood fashion reporter,” as we like to call it in the media biz.
And I’ve covered them all for every kind of publication can you think of – digital magazines (like Entity), glossy magazines (Bazaar, W, WWD, Cosmo, People), social media, television (ABC News, GMA, Today Show, CNN, BBC, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood) – the list goes on and on. And 98 percent of the time, I’ve been on that red carpet, smushed to death by other reporters (who aren’t nearly as well dressed as I’ve attempted), screaming my lungs out, begging stars like Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Jennifer Lawrence to come and tell me about their gown. And mostly, they have.
And my outfits, often borrowed – or at least, very well planned out – never, ever, live up to what the actresses wear. How could they??
I’m not saying I like red carpet reporting. Sure, it’s my job – and it’s better than waiting tables. And it has, and does, provide a real shot of adrenaline, glamour and high drama into my otherwise normal life. Well, that’s not exactly true anymore – it’s just not working these days. Finally, I’ve OD’d on the red carpet. Just like every other addiction, you can definitely have too much of it. Too much cake and candy will make you want to puke. So will too much glamour.
Why the awards show red carpet disdain? On top of the crowds, claustrophobia, losing your voice due to shrieking, there’s another effect, far more insidious to the viewer, pro or non-pro, or being a red carpet fashion watcher: comparing ourselves to these perfect looking celebrities.
After all, if all you see on television or film are those so-called “perfect people” (who were born attractive, and get all the more so via constant plastic surgery, hair extentions, trainers, all-protein diets, professional hair and makeup, derm maintenance, laser eye surgery, laser hair removal and lasers God knows where else) – and the greatest free clothes in the world. They have expert stylists and tailors who make sure they look perfect coming and going. They are even wearing layers of Spanx – even the guys.
It’s pretty rare to see a “real person” on a screen big or small – they don’t photograph well, and are always character actors who play moms or bad guys or biker babes. Anything above very tiny features – outside of lips – looks unsavory when a face is many feet high in a close up.
It’s hard to watch these stars on TV. Particularly if you’re downing Ben & Jerry’s “Chubby Hubby” while watching them. And you get it on your old nightshirt that’s ripped on the side.
Gordon L. Flett, a professor of psychiatry at Canada’s York University, calls this a perfectionist syndrome: in a 2014 report, they found that perfectionists suffer depression and even suicidal thoughts, even more than those who suffer from regular depression.
Mindfulness is a good tool for combating Post Awards Show Trauma (PAST), according to various meditation and yoga teachers. It turns out I’m not the only one with PAST – pretty much all of Hollywood has it today. Including the actors.
Remember: many of these stars just got out of rehab, are in the midst of divorces, breakups, haven’t worked in years, and are 20 years older than they say they are. They feel highly competitive with all their colleagues, and have been rejected more times than a guy who’s five foot two.
Sure, they’re ALL smiles out there on the red carpet, telling Guilliana Rancic how excited they are, how appreciative, how much they owe to God – when the day before, they found out their significant other was cheating with someone 20 years younger – and 20 times richer.
Does that make you feel better about your own situation?
Now, a few days after the SAG Awards in Hollywood. I’m still on a diet. I’m always on a diet. I didn’t eat many carbs today – but I’m not sure what discipline, if any, tomorrow will bring. I’m wearing a vintage dress that cost $25 – and even got a few compliments. I’m not having a great hair day – but I’m having an ok one. My teeth need whitening. I probably need some Botox refill. And while I felt pretty crappy watching the beautiful people prance on the carpet, by now I’m in a better state. Having just written this story put me in a better mood. It feels good to be surrounded by normal people and to remember that the red carpet is a fantasy – and that awards season will soon be over.
