Photographer Shows What It Would Look Like if Male Celebrities Were Photoshopped as Much as Women

A photographer with Photoshop expertise is shedding a light on the unequal treatment of men and women in the modern media. We’ve all been guilty of comparing ourselves to a billboard, magazine cover or Instagram post of a female celebrity in her 50s with perfectly youthful skin and wondering why we don’t look the same. We’ve also all been guilty of seeing a similar photo of a male celebrity and noticing how ruggedly handsome he has gotten with age. That is because, as Caroline Ross notes, men are encouraged to age naturally while women are not.

Ross is a Canadian commercial photographer who uses her TikTok platform to call out some of the more troubling parts of her industry. She has been pointing out that we’ve become so accustomed to seeing edited version’s of women’s faces that we have become increasingly critical of the aging process. Meanwhile, we so rarely see Photoshopped men.

“Have you ever wondered what it would look like if we photoshopped men who are around the age of 50ish the same way we photoshop women of that age?” Ross asks in one video. She shows a series of photos of men like Pedro Pascale, David Beckham and Ben Affleck, forehead wrinkles and all, and then switches to photos of those same men with perfectly smooth, wrinkle-less skin.

@caroline_in_thecity I definitely think about this everytime i see a cute little wrinkles on ‘silver foxes’ and smoothed doll skin on women the same age. #pedropascal#maybeitsphotoshop#photoshop♬ Makeba – Jain

“Have you ever wondered what it would look like if we photoshopped men who are around the age of 50ish the same way we photoshop women of that age?” she writes in the caption of the post. Commenters were thankful that, finally, someone was saying what we’ve all been thinking — or worse, not thinking because we’ve been social conditioned to think it’s normal to never see women with pores or wrinkles!

One user wrote in response: “I’ve just realized why I’m convinced my husband is getting more attractive with age while I go downhill. I’ve been conditioned!” Another added: “Yes!!! ‘Men age better’ just equals- ‘we’re used to seeing men age.'”

In another video, Ross specifically calls out a pose male celebrities often do in their photoshoots. “Do you ever notice that women are expected to look like babies in their late 40s and early 50s? And men are allowed to look like mature adult beings with expression lines and a little bit of a brow furrow?” Ross asks. She notes that we would never see a woman furrowing her brow for the camera.

@caroline_in_thecity Thisbisnoiterally the reason I get forehead botox. I always notice womens amooth foreheads in media. #maybeitsphotoshop#photoshop#bopo#40plus#greenscreen♬ original sound – Caroline In The City

“Male celebrities are intentionally asked to raise their forehead and create these expression lines in their face because having wrinkles and looking older is not seen as unattractive on a man according to societal beauty standards,” she adds.

Ross’s points probably don’t come as a surprise to many of us. Unfortunately, we’re all keenly aware of how rarely we get to see celebrations of female aging but it never hurts to call it out.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity women who showed off their natural gray hair on the red carpet.