Not Even Emma Stone’s Pores Have Any Privacy

We've noticed the tabloids turning especially nasty recently, particularly when it comes to beauty. There was the plastic-surgery spectator sport surrounding Kylie Jenner's lips. Then, there was the whole Solange debacle, which isn't even worth explaining. Earlier this week, a photo of Emma Stone looking slightly over-powdered made the rounds.

In the photo (which we have consciously chosen not to run here, because we don't think she deserves to have it blasted across the Internet), Emma's face powder is visible because of the paparazzi flashes. This is not an uncommon phenomenon for celebs: Angelina Jolie had a similar experience earlier this year. The editors at Us Weekly felt the need to publish it and run a story about it. It didn't stop there: They also have a "helpful" zoom feature, which basically put Emma's pores under a microscope.

Look, makeup malfunctions happen. When you're wearing a lot of camera-ready cosmetics, as Emma was for a television appearance that day, the probability of something slipping up on film is even greater. While most of us can delete the Instagram or Facebook snaps of our not-so-shining (or, indeed, quite shining) moments, stars like Emma have their "oopses" splashed across front pages for the world to see — and, in this case, inspect, zoom in on, and rip apart gleefully.

To quote Us Weekly, stars really are "just like us": They don't always look perfect. This sort of mistake-spotting tabloid fodder is harmful, though: There's nothing funny or cute about publicly dissecting a woman's looks. We know hope that the intention is to show the cracks in the flawless publicity armor celebs have, and to humanize them by showing their minor shortcomings. But, in this instance, it feels cruel and demeaning to Emma as a human being.

Let's talk about that zoom feature, too. While we appreciate advanced technology in the beauty space — it allows you to see the details of a particularly complex makeup or nail look — in this case, like with Kylie, it's being used to pick someone apart, bit by microscopic bit. You know how you feel when you look at your face in those magnifying mirrors at hotels? Imagine people having the ability to do that to all of your pictures, inspecting every last pore and unplucked brow hair. Yeah, kind of scary.

We'd really like to see this media trend just stop already. This whole "waiting for celebs to slip up and then shouting it from the rooftops" thing is getting tired. More positivity would do us all a whole lot of good.