Celebrity Headlines Without Blatant Sexism? Here’s What They’d Look Like

The title of this post almost seems like an oxymoron, right? There’s no such thing as a celebrity or tabloid headline without some form of controversy, otherwise no one would click on them. There’s clever media marketing, and then there’s blatant sexism. Unfortunately it has become somewhat of a trend and almost an institutionalized way of doing things in gossip-driven media.

*Sigh*

But here’s where feminism comes in, and shows yet again why it is relevant and how it serves a greater purpose. Take note, Shailene Woodley, it has nothing to do with disliking men…

Vagenda, a feminist magazine based out of London whose sole mission it is to challenge the mainstream media and what they are peddling to women. They came about in 2012 after “calling bullshit” on all the “sardonic crap” they were reading in the magazines that were available for women, and decided they wanted to create content that would not only satisfy a REAL woman, but that would challenge what society thinks we want to see.

One of their pieces which has gone viral (ah-ha! Their plan is working!) is all about challenging stereotypes in celebrity headlines. Far too often tabloid gossip calls attention to a celebrity’s (whether male or female) appearance, weight, muscles, body etc and it only fuels our own insecurities and body obsession in an unhealthy manner. As you can see from the pictures below, the majority of do-overs are targeting the Daily Mail in the UK for their exorbitant use of descriptions.

Headlines such as “Lena Dunham shows off her body in unflattering shorts as she films hit show” has been transformed/vagenda-ized into “hugely talented writer continues work on hit TV show”. Can we get an “Amen!”

This little doozy “Um Thurman cuts a lonely figure on her 44th birthday as she steps out in mustard hat and yellow blazer” becomes “woman doesn’t need company to leave home”.

Don’t worry, men aren’t exempt from the vagenda-ization (we are seriously loving this new term we came up with). “Anne Hathaway looks downcast while husband Adam Shulman shows off full head of grey hair during gym run” magically becomes “couple get pissed off when they spot camera wielding man in bushes”.

It may be hilarious and awesome, but at the same time it goes a long way to show how ridiculously made up some of these headlines are! Whose to say Uma Thurman wasn’t just running out to get a bottle of milk on the morning of her birthday, and celebrating with family and friends later? As if Anne Hathaway would be pleased to see the paparazzi hiding in the bushes as she exits the gym she goes to regularly? Also, does anyone actually care that her husband has grey hair?

Does anyone judge Lena Dunham for a pair of shorts she is wearing, or are we more interested in finding out clues on what’s going to happen on the next season of ‘Girls’?

Perhaps tabloids ought to get a little more journalistic and report something real. We all love a good celeb headline, but we also want to know more than just what they look like. We don’t need a colorful and yawn-worthy description. We have eyes, we can make up our own opinions based on the photos. We’d like to know something we don’t already! Isn’t that the whole point of journalism, hmmm?

We think this fun project is starting an important social conversation and encouraging consumers to challenge what they see and hear in the media. Put yourself in that headline and imagine what you would want them to say about you? There are far too many celebrity news stories and headlines which we can’t actually believe were published, and are even categorized as “news”. But that’s just us, and Vagenda, and clearly a whole army of fed up world citizens out there.

Bravo to this group of femmes for publishing probably the most exciting piece of celebrity journalism in recent history! Here are more of their awesome re-worked headlines: