This magazine cover caught my eye the other day.
No, it wasn’t the screaming headlines of “Sexy Abs & Butt” or “Quickie Sex.” It wasn’t the bright orange of the magazine’s name. And it wasn’t even The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting’s hair or trademark smile.
It was her bare midriff. More precisely, it was her waist. Something just didn’t look right to my eye.
It seems to me that her waist looks unnaturally small and awkwardly out-of-proportion to her upper body. I get the feeling that her chest is now competing with her face for my attention. Maybe my “optical confusion” is caused by the relationship between her pose and the angle of the camera.
Still, I couldn’t help but mutter, “That’s been Photoshopped.”
For decades, photos have been retouched to remove blemishes, even out skin tones, and to overall enhance the image. That’s okay by me. No one wants to sport a big red zit in their graduation or wedding picture!
But with today’s photo editing software it’s so quick and easy to completely change a person’s appearance as reported last year on ABC News. This has been an ongoing issue for years such as in this 2009 New York Times story and this recent report involving Australian model Meaghan Kausman and swimwear company Fella Swim .
So how does all this influence women’s body image?
I think we already know the answer to that, don’t we Divas?
In the face of all this crap, we have to remember that our wrinkles, age spots, wild hair, and other so-called “flaws” are physical traits that enhance our inner beauty.
