health

Cameron Diaz has been photoshopped to look fatter. Because that's where the fashion industry is at now.

Well in the latest case of Hollywood being insanely cray-cray, superstar actress Cameron Diaz has been photoshopped to look larger. Yes, that’s right everyone. LARGER.

It seems the pendulum has swung so far in this crazy world of attaining ‘perfection’, that now the very same media who first pressured women to be unhealthily thin, are now having to Photoshop some flesh onto them.

Yup. Even the ones like Diaz, who we are constantly told are already ‘perfection’.

Rather than simply airbrushing out cellulite, stretch marks, pores, and you know – any sign of being a living, breathing person – it seems some magazines are now also having to apply ‘reverse retouching.’ What does that mean? It means that they’re taking digital measures to hide the unhealthy and ‘sickly’ looking appearance of models who rock up to photoshoots scarily thin. And why do they show up being scarily thin? Because the media and the fashion industry told them too.

It’s like some crazy messed up advertising version of the circle of life.

And you know what? I can’t feel the love tonight.

The editor of US health and fitness magazine Self, has conceded “we retouch to make the models look bigger and healthier”.

These before and after shots of Cameron Diaz reveal the extent of manipulation needed to stop models from looking frighteningly thin. Take a squiz:

 

The following description published by The Telegraph, reveals the extent to which this image has been manipulated:

Face: Cheeks appear filled out

Bust: Levelled

Thighs: Wider in the picture on the right

Hip: The bony definition has been smoothed away

Stomach: A fuller, more natural look

Arms: A bit more bulk in the arms and shoulders

It always astounds us here at Mamamia that the same industry that has told actresses like Diaz, and more recently Jennifer Lawrence, to lose weight, is now going to extraordinary lengths to digitally amp up the curves on those same actresses’ very slim frames.

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Now this may seem shocking and extreme but the reality is, it actually happens all the time. Every image we see in advertising, in magazines, on television, and even on Instagram (I’m looking at you Miranda Kerr), is retouched. And most of the time, nobody takes the time to tell you that this is the case.

So then, how do we as readers ever find out the extent of this manipulation without it having to be exclusively revealed like in the above comparative picture of Diaz? Isn’t it important for us to see how harmful this mythology that extreme thinness is best can be in terms of our health?

If magazine editors never disclose this information, then we are left never being able to see the shocking effects of being underweight – the protruding rib bones, hollow cheeks, translucent skin. And that’s just as dangerous as being obese.

The industry needs to revamp itself. Stat.

Fashion and media organisations can’t have it both ways. They can’t simultaneously be telling actresses and models to unhealthily diet – sometimes pushing them to eat tissues just to feel full – and then also be photoshopping them to appear ‘fuller’. It makes absolutely no sense.

This isn’t about body shaming. It’s not about fat versus slim versus normal versus real versus skinny. It’s about calling out the unhealthy ideals already promoted by Hollywood and the ridiculous way in which they are now back tracking and hoping we just don’t notice.

Because guess what Hollywood? We noticed. And we’re not impressed.