It’s Barbie Bi**h!: With Barbie’s 60th birthday approaching on the 9th of March. London based artist and illustrator Phaedra Peer has captured what Barbie would like today if she was a real woman.
Phaedra has created this painting as a way of dispelling the myths of celebrity and model perfection. She highlights with this piece the fake and unrealistic representation of perfection within our society. A representation that has become more prevalent with the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram. Let’s face it who hasn’t used Face Tune to iron out last night’s mistakes in Heaven…
We all now seem obsessed with the concept of being “perfect” but this concept isn’t realistic. “Perfection” is unattainable and that isn’t a bad thing. Phaedra emphasises that we should celebrate natural beauty and diversity, not just the blonde, tanned and blue-eyed doll.
Now you may be thinking what has Barbie got to do with the predominantly male readership of THEGAYUK?
“…increasingly men are being put under the same pressure of being “perfect”, as our female counterparts. Whether you’re gay, straight, bi or anything in between, this pressure applies.
Well to put it bluntly for every Barbie, there is a Ken and increasingly men are being put under the same pressure of being “perfect”, as our female counterparts. Whether you’re gay, straight, bi or anything in between, this pressure applies. If I scroll down my Instagram feed now, I will be swamped with pictures of fitness models and influencers with Adonis-like bodies and flawless skin.
Now the fact is, these people don’t look like this in real life. By no means am I bashing fitness models or influences and I’m not saying they are not attractive people. What I am saying though, is that the perception of these people given through social media is highly edited. Working in this industry, I know that these photos are edited and the images are composed in a specific way, with specific lighting. This is all done to create the desired effect for the shot and portray a specific and often unrealistic representation of reality.
So, what should we take away from this representation of Barbie?
We should remember that beauty comes in all shapes and forms. That there is no such thing as “perfection” and we should all really aspire to be people not because of their looks but for their actions.
If you would like to see more of Phaedra’s work, check out her Instagram.
