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Baring it all has no age limit.
Stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, 50, Halle Berry, 56, Paulina Porizkova, 58, Jennifer Lopez, 53, Martha Stewart, 81, and more drum up significant attention when they post a nude photo on social media.
“I do what I wanna do,” Berry recently captioned an Instagram photo that showed her standing naked on a balcony sipping wine.
Body positivity experts say it’s a welcome change to see older women celebrating their bodies, but the next step is for it stop making news headlines each time they do. We’re not quite there yet.
We have an ‘obsession with youth’
Historically, women who reach 50, whether in Hollywood or not, have been relegated to lives of long sleeves, turtlenecks and portraying motherly figures. Stars posting photos like these are changing that narrative, body image experts say.
“It goes against societal messaging that youth is the most attractive way of being,” says Meghan Gillen, associate professor of psychology at Penn State Abington, who studies developmental psychology and body image. “It’s really a backlash against our cultural obsession with youth and … a nice message to send to women that this is something we should accept and embrace and we don’t need to combat it or fight it.”
Of course, major stars who have easier access to beauty treatments, trainers and plastic surgery might feel more comfortable aging than others because they have the resources to look more youthful. But regardless, experts say, their courage to challenge social norms invites others to exercise their body autonomy.
“The message most women get is that our beauty is predicated upon the male gaze,” says Ivy Felicia, a body image and holistic wellness coach. “There’s a need for us to measure up to social beauty and body standards in order to be accepted and to be considered valuable and worthy. As women age, those messages become even stronger. And because there’s the assumption that as women get older they become less beautiful and less desirable, then there’s the assumption that we should stop showing our bodies because we’re no longer desirable.”
There’s a double standard when it comes to thin vs. plus-size people
But not all celebrity nudes are created equal.
Sure, stars like Paltrow or Stewart might get praise and admiration from the public for showing off their bodies. But there’s a certain level of privilege that celebrities who in their younger years exemplified ideal standards of beauty still carry even as they age.
“When it comes to beauty standards, the closer you are to that standard, which is having a thin, white, able body, then you’re considered to be more valuable,” says Felicia. “The farther away you are from those standards, the more marginalized you become as a person.”
Though they’re in their 30s, singer Lizzo and model Ashley Graham exemplify that double standard: Both are plus-size women who face criticism and hateful comments for sharing photos of their naked bodies. And the fact that there aren’t many notable examples of women older than them who have done the same further speaks to the way culture has historically punished bigger women for existing in their bodies, which younger generations are trying to rectify.
“You know what I realized? I am (expletive) gorgeous,” Lizzo said in a video responding to hateful comments on a recent nude photo post. “I am the beauty standard. … I’m sorry that my perfect face and rocking body offends you.”
How long does this have to be a big deal?
Celebrities posing nude almost always make headlines, but the attention is often amplified when that person is older. How much longer is an older woman celebrating her body going to be newsworthy?
“I think this is something that will exist so long as we have this cultural focus on youth and beauty,” Gillen says. “Anything that goes against our cultural norms of beauty is going to be challenged and opens up the opportunity for negative commentary, but also for the opportunity for progress.”
That progress can come by way of inviting other women to “find your own value in your body” and defining “your own worth,” Felicia says.
“It’s really about our society becoming more acceptable of women being comfortable with their bodies,” she adds. “That’s what the work of people who are doing body liberation, fat liberation, body acceptance work: that’s what it’s all about. Helping people become more accepting of their own bodies and realizing that it’s OK to take up space. The more that we see that in media, whether it be via social media or Hollywood, it’ll become less shocking. That’s the goal. We want to encourage people who have different sizes, shapes, skin tones to take up space so that you can see it’s OK to be unapologetic about showing up in the world that way.”
More on celebrities and body image
Jimmy Kimmel joked about Ozempic at the Oscars. We need to actually talk about it.
Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and the pressure – and shaming – of celebrity women changing their image
More:Can we please stop talking about Adele and Rebel Wilson’s weight loss?
Celebrities who have been open about body image struggles, from Rebel Wilson to Billie Eilish
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