When news of J Law's leaked photos, along with other A-List Stars, dominated the social media, I, as a fan, felt conflicted about whether or not to look. On one hand, I'd get to see her naked! on the other, would I want people to see my naked photos if they ended up online without my permission? But I was desperate, I ended up looking at these private photos that were never intended to be seen by my eyes, or anyone else's for that matter. The result of my prying was however surprising. I was expecting to see a perfect body, flawless skin and well, just perfection. Instead, I saw an ordinary woman who is actually no different from you or I. If I didn't have in mind that I was looking at a photo of a high profile celebrity, I would have thought that I was looking at a random pretty American girl posing naked. But that's besides the point. What exactly prompted my brain to expect how J Law's body should look like is an idea which the media instilled into my mind. Over the years, society has been held with an expectation to look like the celebrities that are featured on famous magazines. And just like the rest of the society, I was also drawn to what the media define as "perfect" that when I took a good hard look at J Law's naked body, I was amazed how "normal" and "ordinary" she looked, different from that seemingly perfect woman portrayed in magazines. What I didn't realize is that photos of celebrities featured in magazines have undergone significant amount of editing to ensure that they are "perfect." It is refreshing though to look at J Law in her "raw" form with no make up and no incredible photoshopping.
Looking at a naked photo of someone whom I look up to and greatly admire made me realize that J Law is actually no different from the rest of us, and for that reason, she is more special to me. Not only did it change the way I look at myself but also the way I look at celebrities. Sometimes, we just try so hard to attain "that" perfection defined for us by the media that we fail to see that we are actually trying to become someone we can never be, like chasing for something that was never there. We tend to idolize celebrities to the extent of putting them on this pedestal of perfection that we forget they are also human beings. Just like us, they also take selfies, eat foods, sleep, fart, shit and just like any other human being, they are also capable of feeling all sorts of emotions.
As a fan, I fully understand that Jennifer Lawrence is neither perfect nor a god, but a normal person just like myself, who happened to be a celebrity, admired and awarded for her outstanding performances as an actress, and for that, I respect her.
