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beauty standards

Pop Culture

Fans had the best response after Emilia Clarke was mocked by gamer for sharing candid selfie

The comment sparked a bigger conversation about how we react to women aging.

Fandom.com, @MillerStream/Twitter

An innocent selfie became the subject of harsh criticism.

Emilia Clarke is best known for her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s fantasy series “Game of Thrones.” Clarke was 24 years old when she took on the iconic role, and during the filming process, she survived two life-threatening brain aneurysms. The actress has since become an advocate for other survivors of brain trauma, not to mention a fabulous role model for relentless optimism.

It is now 12 years after “Game of Thrones” premiered. Understandably, Clarke does not look the same way she did when she was a younger woman (after a lengthy stint in the makeup chair and under well-curated lighting, no less). And yet, a candid selfie that was posted to her Instagram received multiple remarks lamenting that her face looked different than it did over a decade ago.

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via Global Democracy

A video created by Global Democracy in 2011 shows how a female model with a normal, healthy body can be quickly transformed into something physically unattainable with just a few mouse strokes.

The video was part of a campaign to have mandatory disclaimers on all airbrushed photos of models because of the negative psychological effect the images have on young girls.

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Hollywood has long put unrealistic body expectations on women, especially when it comes to pressure to be thin. However, men also deal with unrealistic expectations. As Hollywood produces superhero movie after superhero movie, men are exposed to bulky bodies like Thor's (who's literally a god). Yet, few physiques come with a "don't try this at home" disclaimer. Kumail Nanjiani recently posted a photo of his ripped body on Instagram, acknowledging the work it took to get there. Nanjiani is starring as Kingo in Marvel movie The Eternals, hence the suddenly cut abs.

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Meet Sophia Hadjipanteli.

She's an Instagram phenom with over 180,000 followers and a model who's been covered by everyone from Vice to Vogue(she first appeared on the magazine's Italian webpage six years ago, at 15).

Were she to compete on one of the endless cycles of "America's Next Top Model," Hadjipanteli would likely win — or definitely make top three. That's not just because she has charisma and a smize that would make Tyra Banks beam with pride but because the 21-year-old is uncompromising in her beauty.

ONE UNIBROW TWO UNIVERSITY DEGREES 🤑

A post shared by Sophia Hadjipanteli ☠️ (@sophiahadjipanteli) on

She may dye her hair, she might switch from a day to night look, but this model has said she's never getting rid of her unibrow.

Here's the thing: Hadjipanteli understands the fashion and beauty industry. She understands that beauty standards — especially in the West — are incredibly narrow. And her refusal to remover her unibrow (something a modeling agent might tell her to do) is a way for her to not just stand out but change the way the mainstream conceptualizes what "beautiful" is.

"It's like a movement," Hadjipanteli told Vice in a interview. "If it's going to be gradual, I hope to speed up the pace."

But the beginning of that movement doesn't come without some pain.

Hadjipanteli speaks openly about the fact that she was bullied when she was a teenager. It was her mother who gave her the confidence to be herself, telling her that her brows looked gorgeous just the way they were. Hadjipanteli listened and soon after stopped shaving her brows. She now shows the hair between her eyes proudly — inspired, she's said in interviews, by her family and Greek heritage.

If her unibrow had a name, she told The Cut, it would be Veronica. And she'd be a "no-shit bitch."

Hadjipanteli has said she never expected her unibrow to have such an impact, but it's certainly changing the way we think about beauty.

And Hadjipanteli's changing for no one.

Though the model's received hate and death threats for her look, she has said she's not going to change her look for anyone but herself. If she doesn't like Veronica one day, she'll wax her off. Until then, though, Hadjipanteli is standing up to everyone who says there's only one way of looking good.

Spoiler alert: There isn't.

And with more celebs like Christina Aguilera (who went viral for her no make-up photoshoot) and Demi Lovato being more real and open about how beauty standards take a toll on women, Hadjipanteli is in very good company.

"I have a unibrow because it is a preference," the model recently posted on Instagram. "I'm who I am because I want to be this way. When you judge others for wearing makeup, dying their hair, altering parts of their body or inner self, JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T, makes you just as toxic as a lot of societal norms and pressures we are constantly faced with. AT THE END OF THE DAY just do you cuz imma be doing me whether you like it or not."

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