In Defense of “Puffy” Ashley Judd: Are Female Screen Faces Getting Less Real?

In the light of Ashley Judd’s fiery response to criticisms of her “puffy” face, I was interested to see how notions of beauty in leading ladies’ faces have changed over time. These are screenshots, mostly, of the female lead in one of the top grossing movies of each year.

1970 – Ali McGraw falls hard in Love Story

1975 – Goldie Hawn in Shampoo

1980 – Debra Winger plays in the surf in An Officer and A Gentleman

1980 – Sally Field hits the road in Smoky and the Bandit II

1982 – Sigrid Thornton finds a cowboy dreamboat in The Man From Snowy River

1985 – Lea Thompson flirts with her own son in Back to the Future (awkward!)

1990 – Demi Moore getting romanced through clay by a ghost in Ghost

1990 – Julia Roberts showing her teeth and her heart of gold in Pretty Woman

1995 – Nicole Kidman in Batman Forever

2000- Thandie Newton Kicking Heinie in Mission Impossible II

2000 – Connie Neilsen all dolled up for Gladiator

2005 – Naomi Watts is the beauty to King Kong’s beast

2010 – Gwyenth Paltrow in Iron Man 2

All of these women are lovely. They’re all thin and young and beautiful. It seems to me, though, as the years go on, all faces start to look more like each other: Big eyes, visible cheek bones, puffy lips. The faces from the ’70s and ’80s just seem more …real.

And don’t even get me started on Megan Fox.

What do you think?