Cindy Crawford And The Eternal Fascination Of Celebrity Flaws


Cindy Crawford: one of the original supermodels, a successful businesswoman, a beloved wife, and mother of two. And now, thanks to British journalist Charlene White, inspiration to the many women who seek flaws in celebrities so that they can feel good about themselves.

Unless you’ve been tucked away in a cave this past week, you will be hyper-aware of the leaked photo of Ms. Crawford which White claims was from a recent Marie Claire photoshoot (although, as CNN reported, it has since been revealed that this particular photoshoot with Cindy was all the way back in 2013 – what’s a year or two?). Either which way, the picture in question shows the supermodel in some seductive black lingerie in less-than-perfect physical condition. The thousands of women who saw it on Twitter uttered a collective digital and literal ‘Hoorah!’, sending it viral.

Before her deception was revealed, Ms. White claimed the un-photoshopped image of Cindy Crawford showed the real beauty of a woman – a beauty attainable by every woman out there.

“Women come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. I think it’s important to see all sorts of body shapes on our screens and in our magazines so that people have a true reflection of what people look like.”

Nevertheless, how can it be a true reflection when the picture is itself dated? Indeed, although Cindy has yet to comment on White’s publishing of a photo of her without permission, Ms. Crawford’s husband, Rande Gerber, shared an image on Instagram of his betrothed in a bikini by the poolside over the Valentine’s weekend. As reported in OK! Magazine, somehow the supermodel looked far more perfect in a seemingly normal family snap than in the historic Marie Claire shot of Crawford.

Perhaps it’s the supermodel’s healthy lifestyle. Ms. Crawford has recently set up Cindy’s Essentials, a clean-eating company, with Neka Pasquale of Urban Remedy. Given the amelioration of her torso from the leaked 2013 picture to the hottie snapped by her husband this last weekend, sin-free living certainly seems the way to go. For the thousands of women who gave a sigh of relief at her cellulite in White’s leaked photo, will the bikini shot likewise inspire them?

The female form in the media is a catch-22 position. Celebrities are reviled for either losing baby weight too quickly post-birth or seemingly reveling in their fuller figures like lazy beached whales. Similarly, given that Cindy Crawford is a mother of two approaching the later middle years of a woman’s life, there are the factions who will see the black lingerie shot as showing Cindy’s beauty within the frame of real life and those who will see it as a supermodel losing her touch, and Crawford falling into comfortable motherhood.

Given Gerber’s Instagram of his wife’s perfect body lounging in the sunshine (perhaps a kinder light than that of a photographer’s studio), what will women on mass think now? Given the public’s eternal fascination with celebrity flaws, will their ‘Hoorah!’ for Cindy Crawford’s ‘natural’ body be quite as jubilant? After all, imperfections become perfection in an imperfect world.

[Image courtesy of Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

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