Earlier this week, The Debrief covered the inspiring Instagram post by Zendaya Coleman, in which she took a strong stance against photo manipulation done on a shot of herself for Modeliste Magazine. Aside from colour adjustments and other picture ‘enhancements’ the retouching included drastically slimming down Zendaya’s waist and thighs. When you place the before and after images next to each other, as she did in her post, it’s easy to compare them and realise just how much crazy editing has taken place.
I have to say I think the fact that this happened in the first place is insane. Not unexpected… but insane. This is by no means the first time that attention has been drawn to Photoshop misdemeanours. The internet is crawling with editing mishaps that have caused reactions ranging from laughs to outrage - from overlooked erased limbs to extra limbs to drastic changes in skin colour. And you have to ask, where does it end? The habit of routinely performing a digital nip and tuck on every photograph that passes the retoucher’s screen has become far too ingrained. I’m not saying it’s purely a retoucher’s fault, they do what they’re paid to do, but how many people now actually get to see images as they actually appear, before the inches get sliced away. I’m not even sure what the magazine editors see. Do they get the two side by side to compare? Do they realise the extent before it’s pointed out in stories like this one?
Looking at the photo in this particular case, I can’t understand who took an airbrush tool to this image and actually thought they’d improved it. She looks incredible in the original! So the day was a little greyer than you’d like, fine, tone up the sky. The wisps of hair that got the digital chop, I’m fine with, nothing you couldn’t have replicated without the breeze I’m sure. But who looked at this girl and thought she could do with losing a few inches?
I think women like Zendaya are setting a great example for others that will hopefully begin to cause a ripple through the industry and have a real effect on body image. And there are others, like Kate Winslet, for example, who has included in her contract with cosmetics giant L’Oreal that they aren’t allowed to retouch the images used in her Lancôme campaign. I think this is admirable and actually very courageous – but there’s also the voice in my head (who’s been looking at these editorials for years) thinking ‘Well that’s fine for them… they already look amazing.’
As a person I know I can be particularly hard on myself – but it annoys me that the self-conscious voice doesn’t really get the point of this issue. Yes, Zendaya and Kate Winslet and all the other Hollywood/Fashion Week/YouTube stars gracing pages and smartphones do look incredible – they’re models – but it has to start somewhere. I think it’s completely human to want to look nice, or attractive, or well-presented or whatever it is that you’re aiming for. If you’re posing for a magazine and wake up on the day of the shoot with a giant pimple, I would hold nothing against you for wanting to magic it away and to be honest wouldn’t consider this a huge problem. But then there’s all the people who struggle with their skin (me included, by the way) who see those images of young women like them, only they have nary a pore and the hair wisps you’d expect on that breezy rooftop are nowhere to be seen – and is that then just as bad as a digital slimming down?
Personally I struggle to reconcile what even I would want realistically versus idealistically. Realistically, I would want to look thinner and more toned and have better skin. Idealistically, I would be confident and principled enough not to care. But then if we’re talking ideals I would still want to be thinner, taller etc…
The point of it is - we have an incredibly long way to go before these small acts of reality actually filter down into the Average Jane’s subconscious. I’m hoping it’s not too late for me at almost-25 but I’ve had a whole lifetime of unrealistic body expectations that I’m gonna have to bash away at before the new wave of body-positive role models can start to take hold. I’m grateful to anyone in the industry who decides it’s time to pick up a hammer and make a start.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.