Contrary to the “out there” and “over-the-top” glam looks you typically see at the annual Met Gala event, actress/model Pamela Anderson arrived wearing what People magazine described as “a structured, long-sleeve gown (that) featured a wide neck and (which) was completely embellished with blue, red and silver crystals.”
More notable about Anderson’s look were the bob haircut, baby bangs and minimal makeup, a subdued look that was at odds with the beauty queen many remember from her mid-1990s Baywatch days and her time as the wife of rock star icon Tommy Lee and, later, Kid Rock.
Anderson is now 57 years old, and during her TV series/glamour girl years.
Time and life experiences age us all, of course, but when you’re a woman who has worked in Hollywood most of your life as a “bombshell” with long blonde hair and an enhanced curvy figure, it would seem that you’re expected to maintain that look as long as you can whether by surgery or injections in order to have “worth” and “respect” in the industry and beyond.
But as Anderson’s understated Met Gala appearance indicated, she’s chosen a different path, one that young girls who are inundated daily with filtered and digitally altered magazine covers and Instagram photos of women looking “perfect” should consider.
While Anderson earned praise for her fashion decisions and simple cosmetic choices at the swanky event, some social media netizens were unkind, with some suggesting she should retire if she couldn’t keep up with current beauty trends. Others declared her “past her prime,” saying she “let herself go” because Anderson dared to walk away from the botox and plastic surgery on her search for inner peace.
On the other hand, the applause was noteworthy, as well.
Actor Lorenzo Lamas, for instance, said this about Anderson’s look:
“(She) is strong, independent and stunning. As a father of five daughters, she is the woman I would want my daughters to emulate,” Lamas noted.
“Above all the false narratives of what makes women attractive, authenticity and integrity are sorely ignored in my opinion,” he also wrote.
Former Miss America Erika Harold wrote, “She remains a beautiful woman who has the audacity to age and still appear in public. May we learn to stop shaming people for aging, and instead save our criticism for those who refuse to grow up.”
What’s struck me the most about Anderson’s appearance in recent months is something men and women alike should all strive to do: be comfortable in our own skins.
Anderson has never looked more radiant, more confident and more genuinely happy than she does now. And she’s doing it without the endless touch-ups, the special lighting, the 10-person hair and makeup squads, the carefully crafted pose angles and all the rest.
It’s an unstated but understood societal expectation that women, in particular, are supposed to look and act 25 forever (especially true if you work in the entertainment industry) and that if they don’t, they somehow lose their value.
That harmful, unrealistic “standard” needs to be torn down brick by brick, something Anderson is doing brilliantly and in her own way.
No matter what you do in life, there should be no shame in aging gracefully, no shame in showing gray hair and wrinkles and an imperfect figure. Hats off to Anderson for being willing to set this example regardless of what her small-minded critics have to say.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
