Celebrities Are Just As Ugly As Us, According To This Tumblr

Jul. 2, 2012

By Chelsea Fagan info

Chelsea Fagan is a writer living in Paris. It's less pretentious than it sounds.

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Tumblr has provided us with many novelty pages, from dogs texting their owners throughout the work day, to Ryan Gosling’s seductively feminist soundbites. And while on the surface, the Tumblr Celebrity Close-Up can seem like just another shallow excuse to laugh at celebrities’ flaws, it’s hard to not find it at least slightly refreshing. Instead of pointing out that so-and-so has gained weight, or might have an eating disorder, or has kneecaps that are way too wrinkly (an absurd accusation that is actually lanced at aging starlets), it just simply shows the people we’re used to seeing under hours of makeup and photoshop in a more honest light.

This is what thick, well-applied foundation looks like up close. This is what sun damage can do to skin. This is how wrinkles develop as you age. This is what these people look like when not put through the beauty-ideal destroying process of photo editing. It’s an acute reminder that the people to whom we are often looking up as the paradigm of physical appeal, the people who are often referenced as “the sexiest people in the world” are simply flawed, normal human beings. Even if they’re better-looking than average when stripped of the pomp and circumstance, it still doesn’t make them demigods of aesthetic perfection, completely immune to signs of aging or the effects of stress and partying on complexion.

At the end of the day, none of us look good in extreme close-up. Not even supermodels. I think we can all take a deep breath and relax, because we’re all in the ugly boat together, depending on the lighting. TC mark

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image – Yury Prokopenko

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  • Mike

    Celebrities wear make up? I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS REAL ANYMORE.

  • H

    The reason they have bad skin is because of the thick make up. Vicious circle. No normal person wear foundation like that.

  • http://twitter.com/kkasie19 kkasie19 (@kkasie19)

    You forgot the :

  • Val

    What’s Keanu’s excuse?

  • Narcissist

    Yea, I look better then all of those idiots.

  • http://gravatar.com/telavivrayve telavivrayve

    Hmmm… loved the post till I realized 1) the link in the post is wrong and 2) most of these celebrities still look great up close.

  • Guest

    It makes me sad that looking at closeup photos of celebrities with subpar skin, smudged makeup and wrinkles is seen as “slightly refreshing.” It’s terrible that a website mocking the appearance and closeupsphotos of celebrities allows us to feel more confident in our own skin. At least on Facebook we can choose to “detag” the photos we deem to be unattractive but these celebrities have no control over what is being posted or how a simple zoom can make a seemingly normal photo look completely different when its a closeup of their face.

    I wish that others can just simply embrace who they are. Its sad that we live in an age where we constantly are being told what is beautiful yet at the same token find pleasure in bringing others down.

    Not so much mocking your particular piece Chelsea, but I logged onto to Tumblr you provided and was completely taken aback that people actually find pleasure in viewing these photos (most of which weren’t even terrible…most notably James Marsden and Stephen Colbert…they will always be sexy in my eyes, no matter how closeup they are).

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    [...] I certainly feel better now, Celebrities Are Just As Ugly As Us, According To This Tumblr. [...]

  • Lez

    They still look better than me up close… ha.. ha..ha
    I’m just going to down drown myself in a tub of peanutbutter and embrace my bad skin. Yayy

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