Comedian Dawn French has said the current beauty standards of “impossible” perfection have “buggered” women’s chance for equality.
The 64-year-old actress said the need for fake lips, “orange skin” and “Kardashian [body] shapes”, makes her concerned for her daughters and other young girls who are under pressure to look flawless.
Speaking on the Joe Black Meets podcast, French said she doesn’t get modern beauty trends.
“I cannot entirely love perfect people. I cannot understand why people only want to show us [how perfect they are],” she said.
“It makes me sad actually, especially with young people. I feel for my own daughter and Jennifer’s [Saunders] daughters – and all the daughters – feeling like they’ve got to have the big lips and they’ve got to be orange and that they’ve got to have lashes on all the time.
“And that they’ve got to have Kardashian shapes. Impossible stuff. Whereas their flawed real beauty is just heavenly – it’s bliss. It’s bliss. I would love us to creep back to that.
“And after all the fights women have had to be anywhere near equal [to men]. We’ve kind of gone and buggered it all up at the last minute by becoming Jessica Rabbits.”
The Vicar of Dibley star is known for being open with her fans on her own body struggles and recently took to social media to reveal “something weird” that she’s noticed since ageing past 60.
On Thursday, June 16, French shared a photo of her feet alongside the caption, “Warning. Something weird happens in your 60s. You wake up one day… and you no longer have ankles. Who nicks them?”
Fans were quick to sympathise with French, sharing their own experiences as to how their bodies changed with age.
“I lost my waist in my fifties! Woke up one morning and there was nothing between my ribs and my pelvis,. It went from there to gone. Amazing. Sorry, going to check if I still have ankles,” one fan wrote.
“I’m not even 50 and mine are already gone.”
“At least I can’t see any varicose vein’s like on mine you lucky lady,” wrote another.
English composer and television presenter Jools Holland was able to relate to French’s condition, simply claiming, “I’ve got them”.
One fan even offered some advice on how to handle swollen ankles.
“I’ve bought an ankle chain to define and remind me where they were,” the fan wrote.