To celebrate their 70th anniversary, Glamour recently did a piece honoring American women (and one Belgian). The connection there is tenuous, but nevertheless they chose to honor the women by having young celebutantes pose in their images: Alexis Bleidel as Rosie the Riveter, Camilla Belle as Mary Tyler Moore and yes, Emma stone as Carrie Bradshaw.
The effect is kind of creepy -- the actresses and models, mostly much younger than the women they're representing, have a plastic sheen and beatific smile. Like Barbie, the ever-present archetype. It's an insult to women like Amelia Earhart and Brandi Chastain and a corruption of what they stand for. Hayden Panatteire and Elisha Cuthbert seem like nice girls but what have they ever done for the world or for women?
Would anyone care about the story of Dolores Huerta if there wasn't a pretty starlet posing as her? Fighting for migrant workers rights isn't pretty or stylized. Why not show pictures of the actual women? Once again the media is telling women that, "Sure! Do whatever you want as long as you're pretty doing it. Also, if you were just pretty (like a model!) you could just pretend to do something great."
When women are told "You can do anything," as the subtitle to this slideshow does, should we be thinking of Carrie Bradshaw? Aside from the fact that she's a fictional character whose made up life could only exist in fantasy, she represents values -- materialism, vanity and a singular focus on romance -- that only hurt us.
Glamour's "American Icons" only serves to muddle the meaning of what it means to be a great woman.
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