Anyone who knows the difference between Beano and Marie Claire will know what airbrushing means. For those who don’t know, it’s the magical digital manipulation of an image, usually completed by the steady hand of a Magazine Art Designer.
Whether it’s Vogue’s decision to paste Sienna Millers head on another picture of her body (front cover, 2007), staged photos of abuse by British soldiers in Iraqi prisons (Piers Morgan lost his job over that little doozy) or that of Kate Winslet. Photos of the recent Golden Globe winning actress, which appeared on the front cover of GQ in 2003, are only well-known because they took an actress famous for speaking out on weight issues, and (mis-re) presented her as a twiglet! http://media.museumofhoaxes.com/2003winslet_gq.jpg
Airbrushing is rife in the magazine industry, and there are so many reasons it shouldn’t be allowed to happen willy-nilly, a main priority should be the mental health of every woman in the country.
Nothing makes you feel worse than seeing the perfect dewy looking complexion of the latest starlet staring back at you from a glossy magazine… I know the reason is to aspire readers to be like them, we buy the magazine because we believe we’re buying into the image. ‘Look at me clutching my Vogue, now I’ve duped you into thinking my Primark boots are really Miu Miu haven’t I?’ but why do you think the ‘Circle of Shame’ so helpfully provided by the delights of weekly mag Heat, is so popular? We, Joe public like to see Celebs looking normal, with a hint of puffy eyes, stubborn under the skin spots and just-been-caught-in-the-rain frizzy hair.
Scouser shopaholic, Coleen McLoughlin, has chosen to take this fight on too. The latest battle is a search for a supermodel. Coleen wants to introduce the girl next door to the heady heights of fashion, she wants women who are naturally gorgeous, no airbrush required!
With this in mind, I would go as far as to challenge the leading monthly mags to follow in the footsteps of the popular Dove Campaign and have their cover girl go natural! I don’t want to be mean and tell them to wear no makeup… but to just have bear minimum and have no hint of the air brushed about them.
Surely, the use of clever lighting, good make up and application should be enough. At least then, we know we have a shot (a long, never in a million years shot) but a shot still the same.
And that’s just make up, don’t get me started on lingerie shots… what was that? Right. It’s one thing to look longingly at a models smoky eyes and wonder how she didn’t end up with stray black flecks all over her cheek or looking like a doe eyed panda who’s just lost 2-0 to Tyson. We are bombarded with images of size 6 models prancing around in Agent Provocateur delicates with little to no imperfections to boast about. By imperfections I mean no creases in their skin, all limbs are the same perfect colour, with no dents or even character about them! Jenny Medcalfe (Mercedes in Hollyoaks), recently quoted in Heats celebs with no makeup page ‘I don’t let them airbrush all my freckles out otherwise you just end up looking like a clone’
They even airbrush out beauty spots, freckles and birthmarks! It’s a bread crumb trail to perfection gone wrong, very wrong indeed!
Though, I feel since the birth of Facebook, we are all guilty of slight Vogue like behaviour. My friend’s a photographer and as such, she offered to ‘touch up’ my pictures… with my profile pic in mind I jumped at the chance, am I just as bad?
I like to think not, if you keep clicking, there are plenty of pictures to contradict the retouched one.
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