Glamour "shots"

Of all the reactions I expected when I began this blog, the one I wasn’t prepared for was criticism of my photo. A couple of readers, all of them friends and all of them, I’m sure, with my best interests at heart, emailed to ask why I picked that picture and didn’t I have a better one? Truth is, the photo came from the point and click camera on my cell phone and it was kind of an afterthought. That’s not false modesty—if I had a magazine-cover-caliber picture you can bet I would have used it. But we needed one ASAP and this generally looks like me so up it went.

I’m just a girl with a blog that (hopefully) some people read every week, and yet even “nobodies” like me get a little of this pressure. (Although I do wonder if Arron and Brian got any comment on their CS blog photos.) I can’t imagine how women in the public eye wrestle with it. So I loved Nichole Nordeman’s brutally honest article in the latest issue of CCM Magazine in which she writes about the paradox of Christian artists “trying desperately, through our music, to point to the liberating love of Jesus while packaging that music in a way that points to … well … us.”

She interviews 13 other people in the industry (men and women), including Bethany Dillon (age 18) and Amy Grant (43?). They admit to eating disorders, struggles with self-esteem, and lots and lots of airbrushing. “It’s all smoke and mirrors,” says Grant, a comforting reminder to women like me who wonder HOW she looks that way after four children.

The fact that the question has crossed my mind reinforces the point—we want Christian artists to be “authentic,” but we also expect them to be thin, polished, and every bit as good-looking as their secular counterparts. It’s like the guys who claim to want a woman with “natural beauty”—do they know how many products it takes to achieve that?

CCM published this article in their April issue for a reason—several of the musicians mention that the pressure to have the perfect “look” is especially intense during GMA week, the Gospel Music Association’s parade of concerts, interviews, and awards that happens each spring. “When GMA week and the Doves roll around, I find myself seeing people I love and admire, yet comparing myself,” says Natalie Grant. “I notice how thin she is or what she is wearing, or how great her hair looks. I hate that about myself.”

It’s likely that I’ll be one of the many media people interviewing artists during this year’s GMA-palooza, and it will be interesting to see them up close (and un-airbrushed). It will also be interesting to see how many of them are “authentically” gracious or “authentically” rude. As grandmothers the world over remind us, “Pretty is as pretty does.” But I still got an overpriced haircut today, and I still plan to look better than my blog photo.