Badass Women Who Called out People for Photoshopping Them
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Famous people are frequently Photoshopped for magazine photoshoots and modeling campaigns, and many argue that this perpetuates a negative body image in our culture. In some cases, women who have been Photoshopped have spoken out against the practice for altering their appearance and promoting unrealistic body image standards as a result. Here are some examples of people who have called out their bad Photoshop jobs.
1. Lorde
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Two years ago, singer Lorde tweeted two photos of her performance in Chile to highlight the juxtaposition between a Photoshopped image of her skin compared to an untouched image of her face, which had acne on it. Lorde tweeted these images to send the message that "flaws are OK":
"[I] find this curious - two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real," she wrote. [R]emember flaws are ok :-)"
A few months earlier, Lorde made news for posting a selfie of her face covered in acne treatment cream:
2. Kate Winslet
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Actress Kate Winslet, who has said that she is "lucky" to have curves, called out GQ in 2003 for airbrushing her on one of its magazine covers:
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"The retouching is excessive," Winslet said at the time, according to Hello! magazine. "I do not look like that and more importantly I don't desire to look like that. I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot … I can tell you they've reduced the size of my legs by about a third. For my money it looks pretty good the way it was taken."
Winslet has said for years that she embraces her body. In 2015, Winslet told Bear Grylls during an episode of his NBC show, "Running Wild With Bear Grylls," that she always reminds her teenage daughter, Mia, that they're lucky to have curves.
"I stand in front of the mirror and say to Mia, 'We are so lucky we have a shape,'" Winslet said. "'We're so lucky we're curvy. We're so lucky that we've got good bums.' And she'll say, 'Mummy, I know, thank God.' It's paying off."
3. Zendaya
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During the fall, Zendaya made headlines when she called out Modeliste magazine for heavily editing images of her cover shoot for the publication's upcoming issue. Zendaya posted a side-by-side of the touched and non-touched images on Instagram to confront the publication:
"Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19 year old hips and torso quite manipulated," she wrote. "These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it?? Thank you @modelistemagazine for pulling down the images and fixing this retouch issue."
Modeliste swiftly addressed Zendaya's concerns and thanked her for highlighting the "very important issue" of Photoshopping in our culture. The publication also pulled its planned November issue to release Zendaya's untouched photos instead.
4. Ronda Rousey
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Last week, Rousey shared an image she was given to promote her appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," but she went on to share a follow-up post several hours later stating that the initial image had been airbrushed without her knowledge. Rousey's second Instagram post shows the airbrushed image next to the untouched image:
"I have to make an apology to everyone — I was sent a picture to share on social for Fallon that was altered without me knowing to make my arms look smaller," she wrote. "I won't say by who - I know it was done with severely misplaced positive intentions - but this goes against everything I believe and I am extremely proud of every inch of my body. And I can assure you all it will never happen again. I could not be more appalled and hope you all forgive me."
Rousey famously coined the phrase "Don't Be A D.N.B." ("do nothing bitch"), which means every muscle in her body serves a purpose, so it makes sense that she would criticize others for distorting the appearance of her body.
