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She looks completely different standing side-by-side. | Credit: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com
Big news: Seventeen finally agreed. After 84,000 signatures, Julia and all her online supporters have made a huge difference. Girls fighting for girls, yay! Who says feminism is dead?
In my previous post about Julia I wrote about how I wondered if Photoshop was really all that negative. (I’m not saying it’s right, either.) We all know it’s fake. No one is poreless and glowing. Although, I still thought/think what Julia did is amazing. Starting a conversation about how women and young girls are forced to buy into this idea of “perfection” is powerful.
Photoshopped
Credit: WENN.com
Un-photoshopped
Credit: WENN.com
I know that many of you agree that the fashion and beauty industry, with all its crazy images and advertisements, sends “hidden messages” of impossible standards to women. This is completely true. Nevertheless, photoshopping makes people look so far from human that I honestly don’t know how anyone is fooled.
Yes, the message is negative because it suggests: we’d like you girls better if you’d like this. However, everyone seems to be aware of how absurd it is that I can’t imagine it affects girls’ body image the same way only having thin, mostly Caucasian women featured on covers of magazines does. There’s nothing fake or elusive about that.
What Julia did was a massive win for girls and women everywhere. It will drive the discussion about how magazines give young women a negative self-image and impossible ideas of what beauty is.
I am dying to know what you girls think! Let us know in the comments!
Idk why you’re all complaining because at the end of the day when you see pictures of those women without make up they are still VERY pretty and that hurts my ego a little lol because if I stood next to them I would be a plain piece of paper and they would be the 50 shades of grey book{hot and raunchy} (excuse my horrible comparisons) but anyway yeaaa.
It’s soo stupid! They are already beautiful celebrities!
First it makes the girls reading the mags body consious, I mean imagine They work out, eat right, wash their face before they go to bed yet they still aren’t as pretty as the front page!?
Second I imagine the celebrities might feel a little bad two! They work out, eat right, wash their face before they go to bed yet they still aren’t pretty enough to BE the front page without photoshop.
For a photo to be un-photoshopped but why I don’t get is why Seventeen magazine did all of that in the first place?? But seventeen magazine still hasn’t stopped photo shopping. So when is all of this going to go through!!
I think what Julia did is great. The problem is our culture is so entrenched with an unrealistic body-image that we don’t really see the problem. We think because we know it is fake it doesn’t make a difference. But it does. If we constantly see flawless images, regardless of whether we know it is fake or not, we will start to believe these images. Getting Seventeen to run raw photos is just one step closer to fix the problem. Yes magazine covers are supposed to be artsy and creative, but I don’t think trimming ten pounds and boosting bust size counts as artsy. Being as young girls are the main demographic of Seventeen I think it is healthy for girls to see that these women have pores and freckles and moles and blemishes and *le gasp* skin, not plastic. I don’t think most people think about the fact that its all photoshopped .They just see a flawless woman and think why can’t I look like that. I know I do. I have a broomstick figure and I’ve noticed even the stick thin models are photoshopped to have more defined breasts and derrières. I’m glad Seventeen has agreed to run some un-photoshopped spreads, but I don’t think it is enough.
I think is amazing! I sometimes see normal girls on Tumblr with perfect faces and all, and it kind of freaks me out because it’s like not natural,not real,not from this world.
I don’t agree with this article. I think it’s great what Julia has accomplished and I do think that having more unphotoshopped pictures in such a popular will help girls to feel better about themselves. I don’t agree with the line, “…photoshopping makes people look so far from human that I honestly don’t know how anyone is fooled.” because we have been fooled. I’m an African American and Panamanian girl with a medium sized frame and delicious curves lol. All my life it’s been hard for me to accept the features that I have as a woman of color, and all I wanted was light colored eyes and long silky hair. I know the media has plenty to do with that. Maybe if I’d seen more girls that looked like me growing up, it wouldn’t have taken me so long to become the mostly confident gal that I am today.
I’m not saying this is the case with all girls of color, nor am I saying that the media is completely to blame for the body image issues I had growing up. I just don’t think it’s cool to say that everyone is aware of the absurdity of beauty standards for women because a lot of girls are influenced by mostly that.
I agree with u. I’m African American as well and I always felt that way. When all u see is girls with light colored eyes and long beautiful hair, that’s the only thing u think is really beautiful and feel bad that it’s something so unattainable. So, my problem is not only with photoshopping, it’s with the fact that almost all models used in the magazines only fit society’s opinion of beauty.. which is usually a tall, pretty white girl with colorful eyes and long, flowing hair (which I am pretty much the exact opposite of). So I feel that for the most part, the magazines, not only Seventeen, tend to forget about the diversity of their audience. They need to not only be honest about photoshopping, they need to work on the diversity of the models so that every girl can find women they can identify with and know that they are beautiful too; no matter what figure they have or what color their skin is. And, honestly while I’m at it, I think Gurl could also work on this.. That’s just my opinion.
I really don’t think photoshopping makes that big of a difference. Sure, the photo-shopped and non-photo-shopped look totally different, but thats kind of the point. It’s a magazine cover people! It’s SUPPOSED to be all artsy and crap. I keep seeing all these posts about how horrible photo-shopping is, but I really don’t think it’s as big of a deal as you guys make it out to be. People with eating disorders and self-image problems DID NOT get their problems from magazines. It’s not the magazine’s fault that they want they’re magazine to look good. And lets face it, chances are you wouldn’t buy a magazine with what you call ‘normal’ people on the cover!
You do know that the photos you labelled as unphotoshopped are, in fact, photoshopped? Each celebrity has an agent to do the dirty work – retouch photos and make sure all are perfect before published…But professionally done makeup and hair can make a difference, plus a multi-thousand dollar cam.
They’re red carpet photographs, taken by a third party source (paparazzi). It’s highly unlikely that they’re photoshopped.
i like the non photo-shopped alot because although we know that most girls dont look like that, knowing that even celebs have faults helps us to feel less insecure. now i want a teen magazine that has girls who are all bigger than a size 5!
I don’t think Julia is really a hero. I’m 14, and I personally don’t want to look at pores and lard when I buy a 5 dollar issue. Photoshopping isn’t sexist? If the message is that men should stop considering girls should look like they do in 17,…. wait, guys DON’T READ 17? So what’s the problem? Even the photoshopped models are never perfect. Seeing the same old same old just depresses me.
I’m just saying I doubt a girl w an eating disorder finds it absurd know what I’m saying? See how that can come across as offensive.
Yes awesome job. I disagree with the article writer though and found her statement ” However, everyone seems to be aware of how absurd it is that I can’t imagine it affects girls’ body image the same way only having thin, mostly Caucasian women featured on covers of magazines does.” To be rather close minded and honestly a little offensive.
I think its absurd and unacceptable that only thin white girls that r photoshopped r put on covers of mags…. I’m a white girl … I think its wrong to set high standards for women…. On the contrary, these magazines are geared towards young teenage females and therefore should reflect that…. Simply put if you don’t like an image something portrays don’t engage in it… But how can you not? I’m not thin. I am white. I have always felt uncomfortable with my body because its been engraved into my head that the idea girl is taller than 5 6 weigh next to nothing…. Usually blond … I’m none of those things…. It took me a long time to accept myself for who I am …. And o do not think I’m at all alone or absurd for comparing myself to models…. Good job girl i love what you did I hope it catches on but i doubt out will… Sad
I think filters/saturation/etc are fine, even I use them. They make colors pop. But I do have a problem with making people slimmer, boobs bigger, or noses smaller.
When are they going to stop the photo-shopping?