Why Amal Clooney's Vogue Cover Really Matters

Wasn't sure whether or not to post this, but in the absence of any George Clooney news . . . 

My thoughts on the below: it's specifically one woman's response to the cover and I think the title would have been better rephrased as 'Why the Cover Matters for Some of Us' but perhaps I'm being picky.  

Secondly, and here I really am being bitchy, although it's been a few years since I was last in Beirut, Lebanon was always the middle-eastern home for plastic surgery and the country abounded with bottle blondes with unnaturally retrousse noses and large boobs. It may have changed (I hope so) but if ever there was a country in search of a new beauty ideal, Lebanon is it.  While this author took comfort in finding some influencers who express their own beauty, I think she could just as easily have found many or more who still don't.

Finally, IMO while Amal may not have given in to the - absurdly unattainable for most of us, no matter where we're from - western beauty standards of lightened hair and a nose job, I don't think that in general she's a great role model in terms of embracing your own looks. When I see how she's bought into this whole 'skinny is perfection' thing, I worry.

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[size=36]Why Amal Clooney's Vogue Cover Really Matters[/size]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]May 11, 2018by MICHELLE CHAHINE SINNO

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Vogue's May 2018 issue features Amal Clooney on the cover.

As a Lebanese-American woman, I find this worth noting for many reasons. First, a Lebanese woman is on the cover of a major global magazine, being profiled in a positive way as someone to look up to. Second, a woman other than an actress or a model is being highlighted, and thus a career route other than one in the movies or fashion is being celebrated — young girls pay attention to these things. Third, a different kind of beauty is being represented on a large scale.

I didn't truly understand how important the last was until I experienced the soft, subtle ways we react to our surroundings and behave based on what we are exposed to.

Two Springs ago, I wanted a change. I wanted to feel different, look different, be different. I didn't want to feel like a mess, like someone who's career wasn't going well, who was feeling alone, lost, and less physically beautiful than I wanted to be.

The world pressures us to be thin and well-dressed. I wanted to lose weight and get better clothes and have gleaming hair that I actually styled every day like so many of the "polished" women surrounding me in Santa Monica and Brentwood, CA, where I lived and worked at the time, home of Hollywood stars, executives, and the wealthy in general. (Can we pause for a moment to consider the word "polished" as it applies to women? Stylists and magazines will describe more "polished" looks we can go for . . . like we are shoes.)

"I was angry at myself for not leaning into my own unique Middle Eastern beauty and angry at the world around me for telling me that I needed highlights to be polished."

I wanted to look more "polished," and my hair was the easiest place to start. It would only take a few hours and relatively little effort. At the time, everyone in the office where I worked was a woman — a rare and wonderful thing, to be sure — and all of them had perfectly placed streaks in their hair that made them look so shiny and put-together, whether their base was naturally blond, light brown, dark brown, black, red, etc. All the pretty fashion bloggers (many of them based in California and New York) that I followed on Instagram shared this trait, as did most of the women on cable news channels I watched nightly, be it the journalists, pundits, or guest speakers.

That was the example I was seeing all around me: highlights made you look (perhaps feel) better.

I went to a salon on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice to get my own perfectly placed streaks. That seemed to be what you did, especially when approaching 30 years of age. When I got to the office the next day, there was a stream of compliments directed at my new coloring.

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Admittedly, I had a lot of fun playing around with getting balayage and partial and full highlights for a few months after that. This was the first time I had experimented with any of that on my long brown hair, which I usually just let fall loosely over my shoulders. Then Spring and Summer passed, and I went to spend the Winter holidays with family in Lebanon.

Back then, I edited an online website and worked in social media, and so I had explored the world of Instagram bloggers extensively. When I was in Beirut, I was curious about who the Beiruti bloggers were and what the online scene there was like. I did some research and found several popular blogs — mostly food and especially fashion and beauty. I followed a bunch, and then over the next few weeks, gradually unfollowed a bunch when I returned to California. But three stuck even when I was back in LA: nouraridaofficial, karenwazenb, and jessicakahawaty, all of whom were nearly exactly my age.

All three of them had long brown hair at the time. As I followed the really well-curated fashion blogs of these three Lebanese women — one based in Lebanon, one in Dubai, and one in Australia — I found myself mourning for my trademark brown hair. I was angry at myself for not leaning into my own unique Middle Eastern beauty and angry at the world around me for telling me that I needed highlights to be polished. Highlights which, I suddenly understood in something like a small epiphany, were made of bleach to make my hair more blond and take out its natural color. Because, as the magazines and TV shows and news anchors and movies show us, some well-placed highlights lighten and brighten up the whole face. And that results in a more beautiful effect. (More beautiful than what?)

A couple of months after following these three Lebanese fashion bloggers, I returned my hair to the color of my roots. When the dye was rinsed off and my hair dried, I looked into the mirror and was shocked to find just how much more like myself I felt. And more beautiful too. Not more than anyone else. Just more. I didn't need a change after all. What I needed was to embrace myself, just as I was, more.

Now you might be thinking it's totally on me. I was easily influenced and shouldn't have been. But it wasn't easy, actually. It was slow, over a decade in the making. You might also be thinking that magazines and magazine covers shouldn't have so much power over a person. We should each make up our own minds about what beauty means. But whether we like it or not, that isn't the case. What we see around us, validated daily as beautiful, has an impact over time.

This Vogue Amal Clooney cover is one great step toward celebrating all kinds of beauty, all kinds of careers, and all kinds of women, much like Michelle Obama's first Vogue cover in 2008. (Without in any way diminishing the important work of Michelle and Amal, who have inspired millions of women, it's worth pointing out here that there are a lot of women that still need to be celebrated and highlighted who aren't married to, or have the last name of, a famous man.)

The worrying thing is, you often don't realize the problem is that your unique kind of beauty isn't being represented — you often think that the problem is you.

While walking through a large — even for the stores' usual standards — Barnes & Noble in the Los Angeles area, I first spotted the Vogue cover featuring Amal Clooney from a distance and began to walk toward it immediately. That's my hair. Those are my eyebrows. That's what my eyelashes look like with light mascara on. That's how I apply dark eyeliner on my lid, like so many other Lebanese and Middle Eastern women. That's my type of beauty being celebrated prominently on a shelf in a crowded bookstore and likely on newsstands everywhere.

And that really makes a difference.

That's an interesting article, Katie!

We tend to believe that we have to look in a certain way to be loved and adored because 'the medias' (I actually don't like these generalisations because not all of them publish the same beauty ideal) say that that's how you get there.

Amal certainly sometimes highlights her hair and is very slim, but if she's ever had a rhinoplastic surgery, it didn't change her look completely. She's got wrinkles and sometimes looks tired and exhausted - just like we all do. I wouldn't combine the word 'polished' with her appearance, and that's something I like.

Different cultures and different times have different standards of beauty. There was a time when many cultures thought fat women were most desirable while others like tattoos or piercings. But I think what a society finds attractive is what perpetuates the survival of that group.Ex: If Chinese men favored African women, what would happen to the population of China?

This author is a transplant from a country with one standard of beauty to another where not only is the standard based on a different cultural ideal, but to a place (LA) where meeting that ideal is an obsession. She's also young. I'm glad she's beginning to be more confident in herself.

Katie - I totally agree with you about the weight issue. I wonder if Amal is encouraged to stay so "slim" by her designer friends who often think their clothes look best on hangers and are ruined when worn by actual women.

I think that there is an assumption that when she was first seen she liked her weight.

 It is possible she wasn't happy had gained weight as we all do and at this time in her life it was time to lose the weight. 

Also she is 40 years old not some impressionable teenager, I think she  has lived in her body no one else has and she knows what she wants to weigh and how she feels at her best.

She can simply like the way she looks and that is what makes her happy.

Just as George doesn't like being too heavy.

If she gained weight there would be those who called her fat.

Annemarie - You're very defensive on Amal's behalf. She was thin when she first started dating George and to me she looks even thinner now. I don't know how she feels about her weight or if she's this thin on purpose.  I was just wondering if the designers she works with or the show biz people around her might be an influence. I do know that she'd have to put a hell of a lot of weight on before anyone could call her fat.

There's nothing wrong with fat.

I always thought that her bone structure meant that her frame was pretty narrow anyway. Mine is the same. Small boned. Hers looks as if she inherited that from her grandmother rather than her mother. You can see it the original pix of the family

A true sign of anorexic type symptoms is when the rib cage shows

Not defensive, simply, suggesting another reason for her weight changing if it has.

Your right ladybug there is nothing wrong with being fat and there is nothing wrong with being skinny, or slim It is simply

what we are each comfortable with.

Women come in all shapes and sizes. We as women should accept that fact instead of being so judgmental, especially about looks. There is this notion that only women with curves are considered ‘real women’,  men don’t like skinny women, not sexy, too boney, etc. It’s total Bullshit!   There is fat-shaming and there is definitely skinny-shaming.   Both are wrong and hurtful to us as women.  Most slim women are slim because they want to be.  There is nothing wrong with that. Slim women are just as healthy and strong.  As a culture women obsess about each other’s physical flaws instead of focusing on what’s really important ... the substance of who we are.

I'm really sorry, didn't mean to start up the conversation about Amal's weight (again).

I'm of the opinion that she's on the scary side of skinny.  No idea if that's natural skinniness or not, and it's none of my business either way.  

I also haven't met a woman yet who's truly 100% happy with her body - whether it's weight, nose, boobs, bum, tum, hips, strech marks, foot size, hair type etc etc etc.  The beauty industry wouldn't be making billions every year if that weren't so.  Most of us learn to accept ourselves and get on with what we've got, but we all have moments of self-doubt, top models too.

Getting back on topic (more or less), I think this article defines how short we are of any kind of role model (for want of a better word) who isn't an insta-celeb who became famous for selling sex (literally or otherwise).  While Amal's accomplishments are respectable, and she's a good public speaker, the way some media commentators single her out as exemplary just says to me how much we're longing for something a bit more meaningful in our public figures.  Amal's well educated, has had a good career, is trying to make a change in the world, is intelligent . . . for once isn't it nice to see someone on a cover who didn't get there for shaking her backside around?

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Okay, I'm just going to pile on this dead horse, and since it's Mother's Day, I'm allowed, and you're required to listen.

I also think Amal is too thin. That's her choice. Obviously. Let's not attribute it to her bone structure or her grandmother. She was not this thin when she first came into the public eye. The issue I have with it is that it's not functional. She doesn't need to be thin for her career (e.g., she's not an athlete or movie or TV entertainer), she looked fine when she was heavier, and anthropologically speaking, a mother of small children naturally maintains a level of weight post-birth as a protective mechanism. So it bothers me that she seems to have bought into the whole "Look how fast I lost the baby weight" phenomenon, which is a ridiculous fantasy world Hollywood construct.

I think there is a measure of pressure because she is part of Hollywood -- and don't bother with the "she's an international attorney" argument. She does red carpets better than most pros, so save it. Also, designers choose models whose bodies do nothing to distract from the patterns/seams/hang of their clothes, and Amal sure fills that bill, so she gets to indulge her fashionista whims on a large scale.

My point is, yes it's fine if she's skinny, but call it for what it is: an ego-driven choice, which we all make and from which Amal is not exempt.

Of course it could be that she's having a really great sex life.......

At least Amal didn't lose her weight immediately after giving birth, in thepics from Laglio last summer she looked pretty normal for a woman who's breastfeeding.
I do remember how shocked I was when Heidi Klum walked the red carpet as a Victoria's Secret Angel in a bikini less than a week after giving birth to one of her kids - I think it was the first one.
No idea how they did that ...

I remember walking up a small incline up to the red carpet of the Venice Film Festive.... there was a girl just ahead of me stooped to chat with her companion .... I remember thinking how very thin she was, very much like my relative who is also fragile.... fragile she looked fragile.... she was talking and they sounded giddy with excitement.... I would have estimated she was 19 or so ....she seemed tall but was wearing high platform shoes...she seemed to walk with a bit of a wobble up the incline to the Lido....and she was wearing a large hat like mine....

I have a confession to make....many many times since Amal came on the scene.... I’ve wondered, the thin long girl with the long dark hair.... mmmm..... Was that her at Gravity Premier in Venice ???


If it was she was as slim then as now...

Can't think of a better way to stay thin myself Pan.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Having seen George close up - and although sitting down! - I thought he looked incredibly tall and slim. Probably inherited from his mother.

Amal reminds me at times of George's aunt Betty and she too was thin, certainly thinner than her sister Rosemary

PAN - It's funny you should say that. When I saw him on the "Monuments Men" red carpet he looked slimmer than on screen but shorter than I expected. Maybe that was because he was standing next to John Goodman, who is a rather large man.

party animal - not! wrote:

Of course it could be that she's having a really great sex life.......

                                                                          PROOF


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party animal - not! wrote:

Of course it could be that she's having a really great sex life.......

If that were the case, I know some rather thick women who should be skeletal by now...

Just a passing thought... no secret I am not a big fan of Amal, but ........

What if this weight thing is part of Camp Clooney's image control?   She was average wt before George, or at least when we first met her.  Then -

He introduces her to Wintour- De La Renta does the wedding gown, McCartney the pant suit.  She's not getting her every-day-wear at Sears any more.  All designer.   When she was pregnant- we saw early baby bump shots, but when she was really pregnant- except for the French gig- all we got was her refection on his sunglasses. No more strolling down the street shots, etc.                                                                              
Yeah she lost the baby wt fairly quickly- maybe "hey honey- you want the designer clothes and all that publicity.. lose the fat honey buns."                                                  
 I'm not saying George is a bully or task master, only that he/Stan and his possee would be on top of her image thing.   Think I'm exaggerating?? Okay- go back and look at some of her early photos before the engagement.  Pretty typical, maybe a bit awkward ( she's not used to it).  Now- she poses like a pro, even seeks out the camera.  Think she learned that on her own.  Hells bells no!  George George and more George.

have at it ladies...

Don't think so WWHS. Gravity Venice was early August 2013 and she was in Cairo working on the Judicial Review into Egypt's Law processes for the International Bar Association

But you never know......

Another thought re weight........she would have got her figure back pretty quickly through breastfeeding (something I never achieved) - and there were two of them. I hear from friends that it happens really quickly with two: and you end up feeling great!

ladybug.. jmho- you've crossed the line.

PigPen wrote:ladybug.. jmho- you've crossed the line.

What do you mean?

Ladybug George has dated an African American woman, she wasn't fat and i'm sure if he liked a fat woman
he would have dated her.

George chose the women he dated  no p.r team involved he has always dated whomever he liked.

 The p r person who introduced them happened to be a friend who knew they would like each other and had a lot in common.

If George and Amal hadn't fallen in love and connected they would not be together.

That's good to know Annemarie.  Stan (   ) would not be able to do anything about it.  

 

ladybugcngc wrote:

PigPen wrote:ladybug.. jmho- you've crossed the line.

What do you mean?

It means that you sound like you equate Black women with being fat, AND that either or, God forbid, both of those are unacceptable states of being.

Ladybug - Just go back to what you wrote and read it again. How does it sound to you?  Do your own thinking instead of asking others to find all the answers for you.

Way2Old4Dis wrote:

ladybugcngc wrote:

PigPen wrote:ladybug.. jmho- you've crossed the line.

What do you mean?

It means that you sound like you equate Black women with being fat, AND that either or, God forbid, both of those are unacceptable states of being.

I'm so sorry,  It was not my intent to make an offensive comment or offend anyone.  My thoughts were if George Clooney dated an African American there would be a lot of talk about the racial difference.  And if he dated someone that was considered a plus side there would be talk about her size.  

The comments about how George Clooney's PR team in reference to Amal I found interesting.  I remember Sarah Larson talked about the best ways to handle herself on the carpet.  I could understand why a PR team would extend ways to best handle red carpet and beyond appearances.  Note:  I don't think Stan would want to kill anybody;  however can you imagine the PR surrounding a high profile inter-racial George Clooney relationship?

Race relations in this country has a very long and contentious history.  What I've learn is love at it's core transcends everything we see and experience on the surface.  I'm an Black American who fell in love with a White American.  The fight against that relationship came from every side imaginable for various reasons.   The length and the breath people have gone through to stop the evolution of that relationship still boggles my mind.

What I believe is regardless of race, body weight, social status,... love at it's core is strong enough to withstand anything that comes against it.

LizzyNY wrote:Ladybug - Just go back to what you wrote and read it again. How does it sound to you?  Do your own thinking instead of asking others to find all the answers for you.

Lizzy, 

PP's opinion was I crossed the line.  I had no idea what she meant by that.

Ladybug - Do you understand what she meant now?

LizzyNY wrote:Ladybug - Do you understand what she meant now?

I don't understand where she thinks I crossed the line?

PigPen wrote:ladybug.. jmho- you've crossed the line.

Thanks PP for putting me in check.

Ok, enough folks.  Can we stick with reality of who George is married to and/or the subject of the thread?

Thanks

Katie

George is married??????