By now, it’s no secret that editing and retouching is rife in the celebrity imagery we see every day.
We know that many, if not most, of the commercials and magazine covers that surround us are manipulated with a liberal splash of “creative license” (i.e. Photoshop). It’s also becoming increasingly apparent that even the social media images our favourite celebrities take of themselves aren’t always as au naturel as they seem.
As a result, not a week goes by without a story emerging of a celebrity being Photoshopped. Right this minute, there are two of these stories playing out in tandem — and they have two very different narratives.
In one corner, we have Meghan Trainor, the US pop star who’s all about “that bass” but not all about having her appearance edited without her consent.
In the other we have Khloe Kardashian, who has been forced to defend herself after her followers accused her of heavily editing her own images on Instagram.
Let’s break this down.
A still from the Me Too video that has since been taken down. (Image: Vevo)
On Friday, the colourful music video for Trainor's song Me Too was released, but was swiftly yanked down by the singer. She explained the decision in a Snapchat video.
"Hey guys, I took down the Me Too video because they photoshopped the crap out of me and I’m so sick of it and I’m over it, so I took it down until they fix it," she told her fans.
Trainor — who posits herself as an advocate of body positivity — went on to explain she hadn't approved the video before it dropped, and was "embarrassed" by what she saw.
“My waist is not that teeny, I had a bomb waist that night, I don’t know why they didn’t like my waist ... The video’s still one of my favourite videos I’ve ever done, I’m very proud of it, I’m just pissed off that they broke my ribs, you know?” she said.
She's far from the first famous woman to speak out against unauthorised image editing.
Just last week, Rumer Willis slammed photographers for editing her jawline to look smaller in the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine, a claim they have since denied. The actress argued that drastically changing someone's appearance to look more beautiful is "a form of bullying".
Then again, not everyone agrees that using editing software to alter an image is problematic. Khloe Kardashian is one of them.
Back in February the reality TV star shared a post-workout mirror selfie on Instagram, which is fairly standard Kardashian fare.
Watch: Behind the scenes of Khloe Kardashian's photoshoot with Complex magazine. (Post continues after video.)
However, her followers were quick to accuse Kardashian of 'shopping the photo, pointing out that the door frame behind her right thigh appeared warped (a common indication of editing).
