MIRIAM GIOVANELLI: "I had to deconstruct the concept of beauty to understand it as I do now"

If we think of Miriam Giovanelli, countless successful series like Physics or Chemistry, Velvet or Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso come to mind. A self-made woman who knows very well what it is to deal with fame and aesthetic standards. Today, less than a year after giving birth to her second child, the actress is very clear that in terms of beauty standards imposed by society, "the day it becomes a constant to see that we not only represent that canon , it will be easier to accept diversity in all its breadth”.

Miriam is a strong and self-confident person who perfectly represents the values ​​of Cotton, the new line of basic cotton lingerie from Intimissimi, which claims naturalness and comfort, caring for and loving each body just as it is. That is why there is no one better than her to talk about beauty in all the magnitude of this concept.

What is beauty to you?

A subjective sensory appreciation of the world around us. For me, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and not in what is being looked at.

Is it a concept that has evolved over time for you? I mean, when you went to school did you think the same?

Absolutely. I have had to deconstruct the concept of beauty that I had then to understand it as I do now.

In how many previous interviews have you been asked "what would you highlight about yourself physically and what is your biggest complex?" Do you think these are inappropriate questions?

I find it more uninteresting than inappropriate. I don't know if all of them, but many of us have parts of our body that we like more than others. I don't understand what's interesting about knowing a person's tastes on his own body.

Do you think the media still standardizes female beauty or are we learning to accept all beauties?

The problem is that the representation of beauty in the media is not standard, it does not represent the common and in many cases represents the exception. Which makes me think that it is more about including than accepting and not only in terms of feminine beauty but also in terms of expressions. For years, the media only portrayed the woman with the broad smile, and that's changing.

Has the rise of feminism helped women to accept us more as we are?

I think feminism is helping to try to eliminate the concept that we are a body. The day we see it as the map of our experiences and the vehicle to live them, and not as another reason for pressure or stress, we can even delete the term acceptance linked to it because we will have reduced our relationship to what is most important: feeling good because our body responds to physical needs that are not aesthetic.

There's been a lot of talk about diversity lately. Of diverse beauty. Do you really think that we are open-minded enough to accept diversity in all its breadth?

Beauty is one thing, the beauty model imposed because it generated benefits is another, and the aesthetic canon as the hegemonic model of beauty is another; light skin or westernized features, slim but curvy, tall but not towering, straight, shaved, etc. The day it becomes a constant to see women who not only represent that canon, it will be easier to accept diversity in all its breadth.

Another thing I think we should do when talking about diversity is redefine some terms and reverse their pejorative meanings. An example: the use of euphemisms to avoid using the word "fat" has ended up excluding other women. We are all real women.

Cartoons are essential. How else would we know how to eat corn on the cob?

— Jim Ruland Wed Jun 23 03:12:55 +0000 2021

This collection of Intimissimi garments is based on the motto "the beauty of being natural". Do you identify with that concept?

The beauty of being natural is a motto that lies in care and self-love. A concept in which I would like to stay and live.

Is being natural a seduction weapon these days?

I don't know if it is a weapon of seduction but, of course, it is something that we should not be afraid of, nor should it pose a problem or cause of stress.

After being a mother, you look in the mirror, and what do you see? Where does your beauty reside now?

I see the same thing I saw before I became a mother: a woman with wants and needs. My concept of beauty resides in building my life listening to both.

Do we have to educate our children more about the concept of beauty (exterior and interior)? In what direction?

Fortunately, the future belongs to the new generations and, without a doubt, if someone is going to learn from the other in relation to the concept of beauty, it will be us from them. I see the youngest as more open-minded, more inclusive and less slaves to that hegemonic model of beauty that my generation has much more entrenched.

We have more information than ever thanks to social networks and the internet, but it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand they express diversity but on the other they impose the law of the selfie and photoshop. Do you think that the new generations will be freer when it comes to thinking and expressing the concept of beauty?

The democratization of access to information that the Internet has brought about is something extremely powerful that is on the way to changing that of: "the devil knows more because he is old, than because he is a devil." If the internet seems to me to be a tool for infinite knowledge, social networks seem to me to be a tool for infinite frustration for the new generations. The dictatorship of the like, being exposed to the constant approval of others and that continuous stream of information that does not always correspond to reality, without a doubt seem to me some of the obstacles that the new generations face and that can influence time to express yourself freely.

Do you have beauty references? Who would you like to look like as you get older?

Any woman who has embraced and coddled her aging is a beauty model I would like to be like.

We know you're a big art lover. Is there any work, with a female presence, that you find especially beautiful for what it conveys with its aesthetics?

The use that Francesca Woodman makes of her presence and, also, of her absence, her ability to blend in with her surroundings, to interact with them, her curiosity to explore, and the halo of gothic romanticism and psychoanalysis in her works, I find them movingly beautiful.