skin deep

I hesitate to put this up, because the comments at the link are appalling. Don't read them. But the link itself is really nice, and we've been talking about beauty standards, so: celebrities without makeup.

Yes, some of them are in fact wearing some makeup--think of it as "celebrities without celebrity makeup," if you must. But it really is a lovely collection of candid pictures of women of all ages, women whose faces you know, looking like--well, looking like women you know. Many of them are beautiful, a couple are average-looking, most are above average (after all, these *are* women whose livings depend in part on their looks). It's a nice reality check nonetheless: these are women whose *jobs* are to present images of extra-human beauty, and what we usually see when we see them is: them working. When they're not working (at their job of looking amazing) they look like . . . real people.

Which is to say, they look great. Not ugly, not plain. Great. Just like all of us.