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All the Ways John Kerry Can Address Plastic Surgery Rumors
New York Magazine ^ | 9/20 | KAT STOEFFEL

Posted on 09/21/2013 2:42:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Secretary of State John Kerry has been looking a little different lately. His face is a bit fuller, a bit wider. It’s no big deal. It could be anything: allergies, some new medication, a classic combination of crying and stress eating. (I know I would be!) There are plenty of YouTube commenters who lean toward the clone/double/Illuminati reptilian shapeshifter theory. Really, who’s to say?

People only noticed because Kerry’s been in the news so much lately. But because he was in the news so much on account of pressing business in Syria, it didn’t seem like the best moment to bring this all up. According to the Boston Herald, that moment is over.

“It’s time to face up to the rumors, John Kerry!” announces today’s headline. The rumors, according to the possibly credible plastic surgeons interviewed, are that Kerry’s had some work done. Some fat grafting, perhaps, or a little Botox or Juvederm.

“No. End of story. That’s not a denial, that’s a fact,” Kerry’s spokesman Glen Johnson told the tabloid.

Fact though it may be, the media’s treatment of aging female celebrities suggests it is never the end of the story. Tabloids have spent decades speculating about Demi Moore's surgical rap sheet, for example. But, lucky for Kerry, that means these women have developed many strategies for handling such touchy accusations. We offer him the plastic surgery rumor playbook, free for the cribbing.

Blame Puberty Teen idols Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears shot down rumors they’d gotten breast implants by drawing attention to the to very creepiness of those allegations, reminding the public that they weren’t done growing, and perhaps their pituitary glands were responsible for the improved cleavage. If no one will believe Kerry’s still a growing boy, he could sympathetically play up the cruelty of aging. I barely recognize myself either, fellas, and it’s frankly terrifying! What kind of jerk makes fun of an old guy's face?

Blame Photoshop Remember when everyone said high rates of plastic surgery in South Korea had turned Miss Korea into a creepy clone beauty pageant? It was later revealed to be the work of an overzealous photo editor with a very specific type. In "before" photos, the contestants displayed an array of face shapes and features. Photoshop is powerful stuff. It won’t explain away news photos of Kerry, but when official portraits are used to bolster the rumors, as the Boston Herald did, Kerry can just say some Adderall-popping State Department underling thought it patriotic to remove his nasolabial folds.

Cite Health Reasons What Kerry needs is a deviated septum excuse for his jaw. No one begrudges Jennifer Aniston or Cameron Diaz their nose jobs, because they admitted they got them done under the guise of a medical procedure to improve their breathing. In fact, Kerry knows this firsthand: In the seventies, he had jaw surgery to correct a bite problem (“malocclusion”) that also improved his appearance, according to the Washington Post. What Kerry needs is a second deviated septum excuse for his jaw.

Blame Contouring Make-Up This strategy involves bargaining: would you be willing to trade rumors you had plastic surgery for confirmed knowledge you wear makeup? Julie Chen confessed to getting eyelid surgery as a career move, but she firmly denied allegations she’d also had a nose job, chalking it up to the contouring skills of her makeup artist. This trade may be less attractive for male politicians. Even though they all wear makeup, they must never be seen wearing makeup.

The Small Confession Celebrity plastic surgery only becomes newsworthy for its “gotcha” element. You were pretending to be a supernaturally hot person, but all along you’ve just been an abnormally hot person. That doesn’t mean Kerry needs to walk back his “no” and send the Washington Post his medical bills. (Although radical honesty works for his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, who admits to regular Botox sessions and once said, of plastic surgery, “When I need it, I get it.”) Even a minor or incomplete confession is enough to take the sport out of it. Gwyneth Paltrow says she’s willing to try anything, and even admits to dabbling in Botox but hating it, thereby making it not at all fun to accuse Gwyneth Paltrow of having had work done.

The Big Problem If Kerry wants to shoot for the moon, he will pull an Ashley Judd. Appearing on ABC’s Missing last year after an acting hiatus, bloggers observed that Judd "had work done" to make her face look fuller. Judd responded with a long op-ed in the Daily Beast, blaming the change on prescription steroids and weight gain, but mostly condemning the media dialogue that “is constructed so that [women’s] bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others — and in my case, to the actual public.” It didn't convince me she didn’t get fillers, but it did make me ashamed for entertaining the thought. Plus, Judd's essay left the door open for Kerry to continue the conversation, from a man’s perspective. “[B]oys and men ... are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood,” she wrote.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: conspiracy; cosmeticsurgery; johnkerry; justagigolo; mrteresaheinz; soskerry
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To: a fool in paradise

*snicker*


61 posted on 09/21/2013 3:55:08 PM PDT by hummingbird (Don't be afraid of the big words.)
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To: nickcarraway

His face is a hack job just like Kenny’s and Waynes.


62 posted on 09/21/2013 4:02:00 PM PDT by Old Yeller (Who am I to judge homosexuals? That's what the Tony Awards are for.)
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To: Paladin2

....and now he is “cockeyed” to boot. Reminds me of Richard Pryor’s “Cockeyed Junior”....


63 posted on 09/21/2013 4:03:24 PM PDT by StraysDaddy (I've fought the wars, hired the whores and done the chores..and am completely fed up!)
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To: USARightSide

What amazes me is that a male (I use the term lightly) could be so vain, so feminized, and so panicked about losing his looks (which he doesn’t have in the first place) that he would “get a little work done.”

Where I come from, such a thing would not even occur to a man.


64 posted on 09/21/2013 4:04:23 PM PDT by CatherineofAragon (Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

I suppose Jon Cherie does not see the irony in his wearing a wristband in honor of a proven charlatan, cheat and liar.


65 posted on 09/21/2013 4:04:55 PM PDT by KevinB (A country that would elect Barack Obama president twice is no longer worth fighting for.)
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To: LucyT

66 posted on 09/21/2013 4:10:42 PM PDT by eartrumpet
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To: nickcarraway

I couldn’t care less what he looks like. I never watch tv to see him. But I can’t stand his pompous-ass voice.


67 posted on 09/21/2013 4:12:45 PM PDT by stevio (God, guns, guts.)
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To: nickcarraway




68 posted on 09/21/2013 4:14:00 PM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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To: KevinB
In fairness to Ghengis John, that photo was from the 2004 campaign when people still had their heads in the sand about Sheryl Crow's BF. Heck there were some FReepers who were defending Lance right up to the time he admitted to doping.

Anyways, what can you say? Birds of a feather and all that...


69 posted on 09/21/2013 4:15:41 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: nickcarraway
Perhaps the real John Kerry has quit and left the country, and all of these appearances are being done by an impersonator.

That idiocy with the Obama administration and Syria was so embarrassing I would have resigned on the spot.

70 posted on 09/21/2013 4:19:12 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: eartrumpet

Thanks! Cracking up laughing, again.

Threads like these are lots of fun.


71 posted on 09/21/2013 4:20:02 PM PDT by LucyT
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To: machogirl

Those are “drunken-brows.” I call his eyebrows, and that Williams guy on NBC “Concern Brows.” He looks perpetually concerned.


72 posted on 09/21/2013 4:31:16 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (It's hard to accept the truth when the lies were exactly what you wanted to hear.)
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To: Cyber Liberty

Brian Williams does have brows like that. Wonder what those brows would look like on Michelle O? She has that “snarky arch”.


73 posted on 09/21/2013 5:05:58 PM PDT by machogirl (First they came for my tagline)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Thanks nickcarraway.
Secretary of State John Kerry has been looking a little different lately.
Yeah, because he's going to run for POTUS again, what a surprise. We'll see Gore, Kerry, Clinton, and Kucinich running, with Biden shooting off inappropriate remarks as he feebles his way to political oblivion, or maybe another stint as VP.


74 posted on 09/21/2013 5:05:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: machogirl

hummm michelle’s are shaved off and drawn on...everything about the person is phony...

darn bangs just grew too fast!!! that made me L O L...


75 posted on 09/21/2013 5:10:35 PM PDT by haircutter
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To: eartrumpet
Someone on another thread said that with all the Botox, Kerry now can only move his lips, and has become the old "Clutch Cargo" cartoon character.


76 posted on 09/21/2013 5:11:16 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: SunkenCiv

I BELIEVE BIDEN KNOWS HIS TIME IS LIMITED... he seems hidden away from the public for a reason...


77 posted on 09/21/2013 5:12:14 PM PDT by haircutter
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To: COBOL2Java
Someone on another thread said that with all the Botox, Kerry now can only move his lips, and has become the old "Clutch Cargo" cartoon character.

We have a winner!

78 posted on 09/21/2013 5:12:28 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: eartrumpet

I don’t think he is breathing or maybe I’ve seen too many reruns of Weekend with Bernie.....


79 posted on 09/21/2013 5:12:40 PM PDT by Toespi
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To: Cyber Liberty

Looks like death warmed over.


80 posted on 09/21/2013 5:14:20 PM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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