Let's talk Pamela
Pamela Anderson has become quite the heroine this week with her appearance at Paris Fashion Week sans-makeup.
The first time I saw one of the pictures of her in my feed, I went ‘wow!’ I didn’t actually know the background to it, I just noticed the naked face. The second time I got curious as to what was going on and started to do some research. By the third time, I knew, and I just couldn’t get enough of it. I kept looking for more photos.
It’s not just the lack of make-up that raised my spirits.
It’s her.
Do you know what lights up her face?
Her smile.
As soon as the corners of her lips start to lift, her entire being comes alive. That my dear friends, is where beauty begins, at any age. It’s where our radiance stems from.
I encourage you to go and look at some of the videos or pictures circulating online and check it out for yourself. It’s truly magnificent.
We like to talk a lot about our light within, well, this is how we allow it to shine — through our body and our animation of it. The way we move, the way we speak, the way we take up space. It's not about smooth skin or the pout.
There were naysayers on her posts saying she is ugly and shouldn’t go outside like that, let alone to a fashion show. And that she still bleaches her hair, so what’s anti-ageing about that. Well, these comments aren’t a reflection of her. The energy that comes from comments like that is the complete opposite of radiance, there is no light there.
When I had my chronic fatigue and was very underweight and sickly-looking, my grandmother once said to me, you still have your smile, use it. And I did, as often as I remembered.
Even now, when I need my own lift, I go to the mirror and smile at my self. Somehow it changes everything.
But, the thing that really got me about Pamela Anderson, and I have watched her documentary too, is the transformation she is demonstrating. Being in the public eye, we get a chance to see how far she’s come and what she’s had to contend with on the way. She is a far way off from the days running on to a Californian beach in her red swimsuit, although that is a part of her as well.
So it is her making peace with her entire life that we really see in these current images.
This is the type of shift and gift I believe can come with menopause and maturing if we just allow it to. Instead of all the energy going to the negativity of this phase of our life, we can chose to embody it instead.
Her life journey has got her to this place. Wisdom has come from swimming in the depths, not playing in the shallows. It has come from experience and living through it.
So this isn’t really about the make-up at all. It’s about her confidence to choose to be what she wants to be in the moment. Not trying to fit a mould or follow a party line.
In one of the interviews, she shared how she’d questioned why she’s worried about what anyone would think of what’s she’s doing and whether it was the right thing or not. Isn’t that growth and wisdom?
Beauty, in her own words, is self acceptance, imperfection and love and not chasing eternal youth.
She then calls it cliche, and then admits that she loves cliches. This is what is so lovely about her. She is just being her.
Later she goes on to say she didn’t need to be the prettiest girl in the room, but in many ways, she turned into just that.
There are so many insights here for all of us as women.
For me, what I garnered the most is how authentic she was — evident in her smile, the way she spoke in the interviews and the way she moved. Because she couldn’t display any of that without the feeling. This isn’t a publicity stunt, but a true wise, well-lived woman reclaiming ageing, or life-ing as she preferred to call it.
I’ve dedicated this week’s post to her because it is so much in sync with what I’m wishing to achieve here. For all of us, me included, to find our individual way of shining our light that has nothing to do with society’s perception and everything to do with our uniqueness and our claiming of self.
Here’s to more Pamela Anderson’s gracing our news reels. I’m up for it. Are you?
With love,
Sharon
I don’t know how to use a photo of her with permission, but here’s one of me, smile in tact.