Sandra Bullock Rails Against Dishonest Selfie Culture

The celebrity Instagram is the bread and butter of online media. Chrissy Teigen posts a photo of her baby bump and inspires a hundred news stories. Kate Bosworth uploads a getting ready picture before a night out and suddenly she’s the belle of the Golden Globes red carpet. Armie Hammer’s daughter Harper seems like the best behaved baby in the world. We could start talking about Taylor Swift and all her squads and goals, but it’s Friday and a 5000 word essay is not on the agenda.

The lives of the stars can seem blessed, the ultimate in luxury. Which is something we can well believe – it is Hollywood, after all. Making people believe is the number one goal.

However, not every star wants in on showcasing their daily life as aspirational fodder. In an interview with the Times of London, Sandra Bullock decided to let her thoughts on this culture be known.

?We’re not representing our lives truthfully,? she said. ?Like when you’re yelling at your child, you’re not taking a selfie of you being a horrible parent. No, you’re waiting for the perfect selfie. ?Do I look thinner now? Do I look great?? It’s this false projection . . . Hollywood has now gone global. Everyone’s Hollywood . . . How do you unravel that when it’s being pushed hard??

It’s refreshing to hear someone of Bullock’s Academy Award-winning calibre speak out. And it’s mentally comforting to be reminded that smokescreens of happiness are just that – a small act of pretend. Yes, we’re sure these people in their big houses with their financial security are happy, but it’s a filter, a semi-performance.

Sandra Bullock, whose next movie Our Brand Is Crisis hits Irish cinemas January 22^nd, has been using her position as one of the movie industry’s most high profile actresses to speak out more and more often. Late last year she spoke about the sexism that continues to blight Hollywood: ?We’re mocked and judged in the media and articles. Really, how men are described in articles versus women, there’s a big difference. I always make a joke: ?Watch, we’re going to walk down the red carpet, I’m going to be asked about my dress and my hair?while the man standing next to me will be asked about his performance and political issues.?

Bullock has also become a patron saint of mothers of adopted children after she posted a passionate Facebook response to people who say she isn’t a ‘real? mother to her children. (She adopted daughter Laila in Decemeber.)

?I’m tired of hearing from everyone that he is not my child, that he is not my blood. That I am a so-called ?Adoptive Mother?. I am a Mother. I need no other label or prefix,? she wrote of her relationship with her son Louis.

I know I’ve adopted him and I am proud of it. He may not have my eyes, he may not have my smile, he may not have my skin tone, but he has all my heart.A mother is a person who raises, loves and provides for the child. It doesn’t matter if you share the same blood or not? He is, in every way, my son.?

Via The Times