Pamela Anderson turned heads at the Met Gala 2025, debuting a new micro-bob and wearing a glorious Tory Burch gown embroidered with crystals. Obviously, she looked incredible. That didn't stop one tabloid from describing the Last Showgirl star as “frumpy” and “worlds away from Baywatch glory days”.
I shuddered when I read the headline, not least because I'd basically forgotten the word ‘frumpy’ exists. A quick Google search defines frumpy as “dowdy and old-fashioned (typically used of a woman or her clothes).” Ah yes, old-school sexism at its finest.
While some people shamed Pamela for her Met Gala look, most were defending her. “Leave her alone. She's still beautiful and is ageing gracefully!” wrote one X user, while another added, “She looks beautiful, fresh and chic. Let women age.”
It's a classic case of ‘Women Just Can't Win'. If Pamela Anderson decided, as is her right, to wear a tight, skimpy gown to the Met Gala, she would be castigated for not ‘dressing her age’ or, as we in the UK like to say, being ‘mutton dressed as lamb’. Gross, we know.
But the endlessly brilliant thing about Pamela is that she does everything on her own terms, from her activism to her fashion choices and makeup-free beauty looks. This is something that she's truly had to fight for over the years: first with an intimate video of her being leaked and sold without her consent, and again when the incident was dramatised in Hulu's Pam & Tommy – again, without her consent.
In her latest film, The Last Showgirl, Pamela portrays Shelly, a performer who powerfully reckons with how sexism and ageism have shaped her career choices. Apt, don't you think? Indeed, in an interview with Dazed, the actor reflects, “Shelly is very different from me, so this was creating a character from scratch, but I had a lot of empathy for her because I've been in similar situations.”
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In her Woman of the Year interview with GLAMOUR, Pamela reflects on the intense media scrutiny she's endured throughout her life. “Even when I hear my name, I don’t like it,” she says. “I have a negative connotation with it. I still have a stereotype of myself almost. And so it’s been hard work to try and get rid of that because I’m a woman.”
She continued, “I’m finding I feel more comfortable in my skin now than I probably have in the last 30 years, but I didn’t realise it until now.”
The Met Gala is one of the biggest celebrations of fashion in the world, and women should be able to get creative and express themselves accordingly, without worrying about sexist, ageist headlines.
Pamela Anderson controls her image – not the people who stole her intimate images without consent, not the people who still have posters of her character in Baywatch on their walls, not the media, not anyone.
It's worth returning to Pamela's thoughts on her character Shelly in The Last Showgirl: “She’s a very strong lady to be in this business for so long, she’s no pushover.”
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
She’s been a world-famous sex symbol, an icon of pop culture since the '90s – and now Pamela Anderson is also honoured as one of GLAMOUR’s two Global Women of the Year. Here, she opens up to Emily Maddick about her new era, past mistakes, the lasting impact of the sex tape scandal, what she feels about Donald Trump and how finally at the age of 57 she feels more confident about her appearance than ever before.
