Renee Zellweger, the discussion

Well, everyone with an internet connection heard yesterday that there was quite a lot of fuss about Renee Zellweger. Renee appeared for the first time in five years on the red carpet of the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards in Beverly Hills and was quite, eh, unrecognizable. Not because she was wearing a mask (or actually yes) or had chosen a heavy makeup look, but because her face looked nothing like the face she had five years ago. Virtually all editorial offices headlined with “WHAT HAPPENED TO HER FACE” and forums, blogs, and social media were flooded with similar reactions.

Our editorial team was also quite busy with it in the WhatsApp group, to be honest. And, her face really is very different and it is indeed quite shocking to see what has been done and it is also a fun game to discover what has been done. Or better, what hasn’t been done. But as is the case with everything on the internet, the first counter-voices are already being read. An article in The Guardian headlines with “Nothing is wrong with Renee Zellweger’s face. There’s something wrong with us.”

“Nothing is wrong with Renee Zellweger’s face. There’s something wrong with us.”

And they have a point. The gist of their article is that it is actually ridiculous that we, the whole world, are just a bit loudly having an opinion about her face. “Our obsession with famous people had birthed a strange phenomenon: the bodies of total strangers are considered collective public property to be casually evaluated, critiqued and discarded.” They go on to say that as a female actress in Hollywood, you can rarely do it right. Those who get too old and develop wrinkles without doing anything about it are constantly told and read that the years are really taking their toll, and those who try to rein in those years are told that they have been tightened, “we’re all a bit confused as to how women – in Hollywood or otherwise – are supposed to age.”

I must say that yes indeed, it’s never good, but maybe Renee has just really gone a little too far. The question remains, what gives us the right to collectively laugh at and judge someone so harshly. I find that a difficult one, because I myself also regularly feel guilty about that so through such a Guardian article, I do feel quite addressed. Live and let live? Write and let write? What do you think?