My chest constricts at the state of the world. It’s so full of evil I can’t even watch the news most days. Yesterday’s upset came when I saw the cruelty in the comments made by Zellweger bashers.

I Googled “the cause of cruelty.” A Psychology Today article popped up that explained “the spirit of abstraction.” It’s a mental trick that allows some people to see others as objects. Slave owners thought of their slaves as possessions. Hitler manipulated the Germans until killing Jews seemed fine. And the Internet runs amok with a viciousness that still shocks me.

Hello! Renee Zellweger is human. Humans have feelings. Mocking her publicly is bullying. Yes, I’m sure she’ll be fine — she has a lot of money and can go to therapy or use a plethora of human vices to cope. But many A-listers I interview say they don’t read the comments about themselves because it would be debilitating.

At the base of the cruelty lurks jealousy and self-hatred. “Stars have all that money, they are so lucky. I have a shit job.” The average citizen is far from beautiful and will never have fans. Oh, boo hoo. Grow up, will ya?

There’s plenty of proof that nobody’s life is easy. You know why? Because nobody is immune to reality, not even stars.

Why do people even care whether Zellweger had surgery or not? A lot of the tweets about her were laughable. Posts compared her looks to 10-year-old photos. Yo! I bet your face and your skin looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago. And, there were multiple posts mocking her wrinkle-free forehead. I have news for you, I’m older than Ms. Zellweger, and I don’t have forehead wrinkles yet. Not every face ages the same.

Now let’s get back to not caring whether she did or didn’t have plastic surgery. I’m not good at math, but I can see a problem here. Look at the salary differences between genders. If you were in Hollywood, you’d probably be having plastic surgery, too, with so much at stake.

According to Forbes, the highest paid actors in 2014 were:

1. Robert Downey Jr. $75 million
2. Dwayne Johnson $52 million
3. Bradley Cooper $42 million
4. Leonardo DiCaprio $39 million
5. Chris Hemsworth $37 million
6. Liam Neeson $36 million
7. Ben Affleck $35 million
8. Christian Bale $35 million
9. Will Smith $32 million
10. Mark Wahlberg $32 million

And here’s Forbes’ list of the highest paid actresses in 2014:

1. Angelina Jolie $30 million
2. Sarah Jessica Parker $30 million
3. Jennifer Aniston $28 million
4. Reese Witherspoon $28 million
5. Julia Roberts $20 million
6. Kristen Stewart $20 million
7. Katherine Heigl $19 million
8. Cameron Diaz $18 million
9. Sandra Bullock $15 million
10. Meryl Streep $10 million

Wait, there’s more. Here are some stats about gender inequality in Hollywood from Indiewire:

Women directed 4.7% of studio films from 2009–2013

Women represent a total of 30% of characters, 29% of speaking parts 15% of protagonists/leads.

Women are younger than men onscreen. The majority of women on screen are in their 20s and 30s, while men are in their 30s and 40s.
Males over 40 make up 55% of all male characters, while females over 40 make up 30% of all characters.

Look at these dismal facts from USA Today Network:

As female movie stars get older, their compensation dips rapidly on average, unlike their male counterparts, a study says.
Female movie stars make the most money per film when they are 34 years old, but their earnings quickly decline after that age.

Male movie stars peak in their earnings per film at age 51, and their compensation steadily increases over time.

 “We are such an appearance-based society,” Timothy Judge, a management professor at the University of Notre Dame and leader of the aforementioned study, told USA Today.

Researchers suggest roles for older female actors are limited, creating more pressure on female stars to maintain a youthful appearance.

“Men’s well-worn faces are thought to convey maturity, character and experience,” the study went on to say. ” A woman’s face, on the other hand, is valued for appearing young.”

BOTTOM LINE

It would help if they didn’t pair actors with actresses who are at least 20 years younger. For women to have a long-term career, plastic surgery should not be pooh-poohed. For goodness sake, don’t people have better things to worry about?

Here’s a great video that says it all:

The post Enough Already! Shut the Hell Up About Renee Zellweger’s Face appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.

Samantha Shaw from South Dakota is 7-years-old and was born with deformed “cup” ears that stick out. Additionally, her right ear had a malformation called a “lop” ear that flopped inward in a curl. Children have made fun of her and called her Dumbo and Monkey Ears.  “Adults are the worst,” said her Mom, “right in front of her they’ve called her ears gross. I’m worried about bullying and her self-esteem.”

ABC News “Good Morning America” aired an emotional segment about Samantha’s mother contacting our nonprofit organization Little Baby Face Foundation (LBFF). We provide free plastic surgery to children like Samantha whose families cannot afford treatment. LBFF raises donations for the child, plus one parent, to travel to New York City and we cover all medical-related expenses. Our team of gifted plastic surgeons operate on the children free-of-charge at Lenox Hill Hospital, one of the world’s finest facilities.

Good Morning America‘s show covered the topic of plastic surgery as a viable answer for kids born with deformities. Children with birth defects tend to be ostracized and become the butt of cruel jokes. This can create emotional scars that greatly damage a child’s self-esteem. Plastic Reconstructive Surgery is one way to protect deformed children from being bullied.

The founder of LBFF, Dr. Thomas Romo, III, is a world-renowned facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has assembled a talented team of specialist doctors who donate their time to provide surgical services to LBFF patients.

One of our many dedicated LBFF Medical Advisory Board members, Dr. Steven Pearlman, provided Samantha’s surgery pro bono. She underwent two related procedures. First was a general surgery called an otoplasty. Dr. Pearlman said, “We set back the ear and make it look more natural and normal.”  The other procedure was on her right ear to straighten it and prevent it from drooping. Both surgeries have a very high success rate.

ABC’s TV video instantly went viral on the Web. It spread rapidly throughout top news sites including Huffingpost.com, Yahoo.com and the Daily News and appeared on countless blogs. Within two days the video was viewed at least 30,000 times. Visits to our website skyrocketed. There was an inpouring of applications from parents of children with birth defects. Most of these families cannot afford the necessary surgeries and many insurance plans refuse to cover what they deem “cosmetic surgery.”  Little Baby Face Foundation’s mission is to help as many children as we can raise funds for. With this new avalanche of applications we will need to work even harder raising donations and grants.

LBFF is unique because instead of sending doctors to patients, we bring the children here. This way we have more doctors available to provide free surgery and it can be done in the highest quality facility. Our main areas of focus are cleft lip/cleft palate, facial palsy, hemifacial microsomia, microtia, otoplasty and hearing restoration. To learn more please visit littlebabyface.org. Help us help them!

The post I’m very pleased with this article I wrote this morning for the Little Baby Face Foundation blog. Hope you like it too. appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.