What Happens When You Photoshop Serena Williams
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Serena Williams listened to her fans and made a huge statement for body image. Not to call the Queen of Tennis fallible, but Williams' fans called her out on Instagram for posting a photo from her People Magazine photoshoot for its annual "World's Most Beautiful People" issue that appeared to be severely Photoshopped. Fans called it unrealistic and said that it looked like a big part of her waistline was missing. You can see that her waistline does appear to be much smaller in this screenshot from the Daily Mail than in real life.
Daily Mail - co.uk
After backlash in the comments, Williams took down her first post and replaced it with a picture closer to her actual body shape.
She didn't make any comments about the change, but it was obvious that Williams listened to her fans and they appreciated it. They praised her curves and her willingness to stand up for the body image of athletic thicker women.
Instagram/Serena Williams - instagram.com
However, of course, there were some trolls who tried to tear Williams down.
Instagram/Serena Williams - instagram.com
This is the type of unfortunate body-shaming Williams has endured throughout her career, but she's had some famous supporters defend her. J.K. Rowling shut down a man who tweeted insulting comments about Williams' body with one devastating tweet.
In July 2015, The New York Times saw backlash for an article about Serena Williams' physique.
The article didn't seem to intentionally shame her body but the language used to talk about her implied that her body type was less beautiful than other thinner tennis players.
Body image for women is a serious issue, and women like Serena Williams are important role models for healthy, beautiful bodies that don't fit the fashion world's current beauty standard. About 91 percent of American women diet because they're unhappy with their body image and only 5 percent naturally have the thin body type commonly seen in the media and fashion magazines, according to Dosomething.org.