Artist Photoshop"s Celebrities To Look Like They"ve Suffered Domestic Violence

Not everything that happens in private should stay there. The reality of abuse in relationships and all of the different but similarly ugly forms it takes is something that we’re steadily learning to deal with. Even if we don’t have all the answers on how to eliminate domestic violence, it’s something we as a society are taking seriously and something that can no longer simply exist in the shadows.

But it wasn’t so long ago that the common response to domestic violence was to sweep it under the rug. Even if people didn’t approve, it wasn’t something they wanted to interfere with because it was a private matter.

But as more and more courageous people spoke out against it, the issue became public. By the 1980s and 1990s, people started to see the issue explored in the media with movies like The Burning Bed and What’s Love Got To Do With It. And now, it’s internationally recognized as part of what the United Nations describe as a “global pandemic” of violence against women.

The way to keep people focused on addressing the problem is to continue the conversation, and that’s exactly what this “Life Can Be a Fairytale, If You Break the Silence” campaign by aleXsandro Palombo aims to do.

In recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, he has launched an awareness campaign that involves editing photographs of female celebrities to show stark signs of physical abuse. The campaign has received some backlash from Kim Kardashian-West and Kendall Jenner, two of the women depicted, but Palombo intends the campaign to encourage victims of abuse to decry their situation. He says that “the biggest accomplice of violence is the silence,” so he spread these images and their accompanying message across social media to break the silence of abuse and “use the antidote of culture” to keep the issue public enough to stimulate real change in eliminating the root of the problem.

And so, these are the images this message was attached to. These celebrities and animated icons are depicted as victims of abuse to demonstrate that even what people think of as a fairy-tale lifestyle can have a monster of abuse lurking beneath it. 

1. Madonna.

It’s important to note that these images are entirely the work of Palombo and did not feature any participation from the women depicted. Yet Madonna’s inclusion in this series is particularly relevant, given the abuse that occurred during her marriage to actor Sean Penn.

2. Gwyneth Paltrow.

There’s no record of abuse in Paltrow’s history, so her inclusion likely has to do with her position as an identifiable person who has “everything” and can afford to live in the kind of “fairy tale” Palombo’s series uses to juxtapose his raw images with.

3. Kristen Stewart.

There are a couple of possible reasons for Stewart’s inclusion in Palombo’s awareness campaign. It could have to do with her previous efforts to speak out against sexual violence, or it could be the potentially abusive relationship at the heart of Twilight, the series that made her a household name.

4. Emma Watson.

A large degree of the publicity surrounding Palombo’s series concerns his inclusion of Emma Watson. Her status as the UN’s Goodwill Ambassador for Women and her famous speech in support of their HeForShe campaign certainly make her a provocative choice.