So, I've been asked a few times for my personal opinion on Venus Palermo, AKA VenusAngelic. While my view is a split one, some fans may like it and some may not. However, this is just my opinion and this blog post is not intended to offend in any way, shape or form.Ok! So, to start with I want to just say that I am a fan of Venus' videos. With this in mind I would also like to reiterate that I am not a "fangelic". I appreciate Venus' makeup videos, and in this blog I have even recreated one of her looks in my own way. I try out a lot of her makeup tutorials and find that they give me a good insight into makeup styling (even if it isn't culturally accurate) and I find it easy to use them as a starting pool for my own ideas. If it wasn't Venus doing these makeup tutorials, but someone else with the same content, I would still watch. So I'm not a babbling mess over a 'kawaii' girl who's on the internet just because she gets a ton of hype. I like her content, so I watch her videos.
I have noticed Venus uses a lot of bright lighting and filters to distort the true image of her videos and her pictures are ridiculously photoshopped. There are many examples, the most prominent of which are photos of her that do not include her nose. (Yeah, exactly...) This dispels the whole argument that Venus promotes true beauty and loving oneself.That's one thing I don't really like so much. This is also backed up whilst looking through Venus' own blog, particularly focussing on one of her posts about 'Bra shaming'. Where she says that 'accepting your body is shameful.' So, fangelics, does she really promote self love and acceptance of your natural beauty? No, of course not. The makeup, filters, photoshop and that bra post completely opposes that idea.
She is a naturally pretty girl, so it seems needless to me and it appears to pressure girls into aiming for a level of perfection that is just not reachable. Many girls look up to her as a nice person who just does what she loves, but there are issues with that too, mainly due to the fans, but also due to the fact that on a show Venus' was interviewed on she states that her mother was the one who insisted she become this "doll" like person and make makeup videos.
Venus does not have a good track record when it comes to her fans, publication and fund raising. There has been quite a bit of uproar about the issues she had with XiaoRishu, and it is publicly posted for all to see. When I first came across this I was in complete disbelief. I couldn't accept that this sweet, innocent girl could be so horrible to one person who was, in essence, trying to defend her. *tick* One more reason I couldn't idolise Venus.
Something I found out very recently was about her fund raising, which I've seen one youtuber, (who will not be named) call scams. I found that Venus had set up a fund raising plans for schooling in London and a more recent kickstarter for funding a singing career (which was cancelled). She was asking for ridiculous amounts without any tasters of what the people giving her money were going to receive, so it appeared a little pointless. I didn't actually see any proof of the schooling "scam" so I'm slightly sceptical about it, however there is still a public video on her YouTube about the singing kickstarter with the added part (Cancelled) in the title. It made me think that perhaps Venus wasn't the person I thought she was, who everyone thought she was. It left a bitter taste in my mouth knowing that I make her money by watching her videos.
Alright, I get the argument by fangelics that Venus is just doing what she loves and people are just jealous about how (artificially) beautiful, thin and rich she is. Everyone in the world just wants to do what they love and be able to live and earn money from that. Not everyone has that opportunity. Luckily for Venus, her fans make her successful and this image she has created really backs up her career and makes her money. Although I'm not a fan of her as a person, I realise I do actually promote her content by physically watching her videos. I have no problem with that, and I'm not about to stop now. What I'm trying to say is I don't really care about who Venus is as a person. I don't know her and I won't ever meet her so I can't really make a personal judgement on her as a person and even if I was to meet her, she'd have this false sweetness (if she is a horrible person) so that people wouldn't paint her as a horrible person and give her bad publicity. As I've said, I like her video contents and that's about it.
I was under Venus' spell for a little while, but I'm pretty neutral about her now. I will continue to watch her videos and try out her makeup because I like what she does in that sense. Yeah, she's not the most perfect person in the world and has done some nasty things (only a few of which I have vaguely mentioned here) but then again she is doing what probably most people in the public eye do. Shit on those below to make it to the top. Let's admit it, it's working for her. But what I will say is I don't condone any of her bad behaviour and I am always mindful of it and I can understand why she does have haters, I just think a lot of it is ridiculous when its like "stop trying to be Japanese!" or "why are you talking like that?!".
So, basically, I think of Venus of just some girl who makes makeup tutorials for me to use and nothing more. I don't think she's a good idol or role model but I like her makeup techniques and ideas and frequently use them in my own makeup. If people want to idolise her, fine, it doesn't affect me at all, but I won't be going in that direction anymore.
I did have a lot more to say, but I cut it down quite a bit. I like Venus' videos and that's pretty much it.
Thank you for reading everyone, and if you see this Miss Palermo and Mama Palermo, I hope it doesn't offend you and if it does, oh well c:
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