Rumer Willis is the latest in a string of high-profile women to speak out against the practice of heavy-handed photoshop, following her appearance in the latest issue of Vanity Fair.
Willis — the eldest daughter of actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis — posed for a portrait series of famous siblings alongside her sisters Tallulah and Scout.
While the shoot was intended to depict the closeness between the siblings, the actress’ attention was quickly drawn to something else: the fact her jaw appeared significantly smaller than usual.
Rather than sit back and accept it, the 27-year-old took her umbrage straight to Instagram. In a post yesterday, she slammed the photographer for editing her appearance and asked her fans to stop sharing the image.
“I find it really offensive for anyone to try and change the way you look so drastically. I love the way I look and I won’t support anyone who would feel a need to change the way I look to make me beautiful,” Willis captioned the photo.
“Whether or not they realise it, it is a form of bullying, which I won’t stand for.”
Many of Willis’ 575,000 followers rallied around her and shared messages of support.
“Good for you. It’s also reinforcing unrealistic image ideals for young girls. So tired of that shit,” one wrote. “This Photoshop being the norm BS has to stop. Nothing is real anymore!” posted another.
Watch: We asked celebrities to act out their favourite movie line. (Post continues after video.)
However, others contested the actress’ description of photoshop as bullying.
“I’m sorry the artists’ vision for this shoot included features being altered… but this is not bullying,” one explained, while another posited, “It’s his/her job to make you look ‘better’. It’s not bullying, it’s a product that the photographer needs to be able to appeal to the majority of people.”
The photographers behind the image have since responded to Willis’ comments. Mark Williams and Sara Hirakawa told New York Magazine‘s The Cut the only retouching undertaken was to “resolve some distortion” that had resulted from the camera lens they’d used.
“We used a wide angle lens, and it might’ve made Rumer’s chin look smaller from the higher angle that we shot the image. We did correct for the optics of the lens slightly, as people’s heads get distorted through the wide angle lens,” they explained.
Rumer Willis pictured in March this year. (Getty images)
"We certainly did not intend to change the way she naturally looks... It saddens us that Rumer feels the way she does about the image and hope she understands that there was never any intention with it to alter her appearance."
Williams and Hirakawa also mentioned the image she took issue with was an outtake that hadn't been published in Vanity Fair or on the magazine's website.
This isn't the first time Willis has spoken out against retouching. In 2014, the House Bunny star told Us Weekly a fashion brand had photoshopped her to appear thinner in their look book, without her consent.
"I think I would have felt very differently if I was a model who was hired to be a part of the brand... But, if you're hiring me to be a representative of your brand and you’re changing who I am — like drastically changing how I look — I just thought it was odd, you know?" she explained. (Post continues after gallery.)
Celebrities who have responded to body shaming.
"I was like, 'Well, that's fucked up.' Then I immediately called my manager and said, 'You know, this is unacceptable, because that’s not what I want to put out in the world and what I want to represent, anyway.'"
In the same interview, Willis also mused on how the prevalence of photo alteration and retouching would impact young girls who were growing up with those images.
"This idea that how you are is not okay [should] not [be] the case. You should be able to feel beautiful with no makeup on, completely naked, and feel totally stoked about how you look and no one should be judging you for anything," she told Us Weekly.
Where do you stand on photo alteration?
Featured image: Getty images.