Sometimes, I can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy at the sheer amount that 16-year-old Tavi Gevinson has already accomplished (if you’ve been living under a rock, check out her personal style blog and online magazine). And if her impeccable sense of style and engaging writing style weren’t enough, I tend to nod along with her feminist musings…on my laptop…in public spaces. But I digress.
So, it comes as no surprise that Gevinson pretty much put into words everything we were thinking about Photoshop and Seventeen.
“I don’t know…that Photoshop makes a huge difference with the kind of models they use, or that there aren’t other parts of the magazine that contribute to the same issue,” the style maven rookie explained to Racked, a prominent fashion blog. “It took me a little bit once middle school started to realize that if I didn’t read Seventeen, I didn’t feel obligated to watch what I eat. Language is powerful, along with photos.”
Though I’m a huge advocate for honesty in photos (as in, don’t slice your models’ thighs off), publishing is a business. So, don’t expect to see dark circles under cover girls’ eyes anytime soon.
The real problem with Photoshop arises when it’s used improperly –and unfortunately, it’s used this way quite often. How does it make you feel when you click on a promotional image of an obviously white-washed Beyoncé? Or a facially-distorted Demi Moore? Or Adele with Princess Jasmine’s barely-there stomach?
In Bossypants, funny lady Tina Fey penned a few short ‘n sweet sentences about her cover shoot with BUST.
“Feminists do the best Photoshop…They leave in your disgusting knuckles, but they may take out some armpit stubble,” she wrote. “Not because they’re denying its existence, but because they understand that it’s okay to make a photo look as if you were caught on your best day in the best light.”
FYI: She looked amazing on that cover.
Tavi’s astute point is that the misuse of Photoshop is one part of a huge and profitable industry that is largely focused on promoting a so-called “ideal” young woman –at the expense of young girls. You usually don’t have to look further than the supermarket magazine rack for images of starving models and headlines seemingly designed to make women feel bad about their bodies and embarrassed by its functions.
According to Planned Parenthood, magazines’ go-to models can weigh an average of 23 percent less than the women flipping through the pages of these glossies.
“I don’t know that they changed anything,” Gevinson said of Seventeen. “They said in their ‘treaty’ that they vow to never change girls’ body or face shapes, but then say, ‘(Never have, never will.)’ To me, that sounds like they just published a self-serving statement that made them look good, but they’re not taking into account the intentions and concerns that were really behind the petition.”
Clearly, we have a long way to go before the industry thinks twice about churning out content that promotes negative body image. But at least a prominent young voice within that industry is unafraid to take a stand. Props to you, Tavi G!
Images via The Style Rookie and BettyConfidential.
I hate miss use of photoshop! There is a picture of Zooey’s face next to this mascara at my walmart, And they did something so weird to her lips, it doesnt even look like zooey,
I wouldnt of known it was her if they hadn’t of put her name on it, I so mad,
Because they took Zooey’s beautiful lips and did something weird to them
Making her look not as pretty D: and made her look like a completely different person!
http://www.modeldash.com/wp-content/uploads/zooey_deschanel_rimmel_lipstick1.jpg
Now that I look at it again, it is a very pretty photo, but it just doesn’t look like her to me, something is different, or maybe I’m just crazy? lol
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Seventeen has never used language that made me body conscious, and never used models that would look any different than the girls I went to high school with. In fact, reading Seventeen helped me get to the 215 pounds I hover around today, (though today I am also 27 years old) because they tried so very hard to make everyone proud of their body. And to that end, it’s not okay, because I am absolutely not healthy, and it’s not cool to be unhealthy, even if you like how you look.
I am conscious of my size now, because I am overweight, and the obesity epidemic is a real thing, and I’m part of it. (according to the medical community, I am, in fact, obese.) I would also submit that while there are definitely underweight girls out there that suffer from very real body dysmorphia, the percentage of girls and women who are overweight is far, far higher than the percentage of girls who are underweight. There is a lot that goes into body dysmorphia and when I’ve had bouts of it, it was always my peers (and imagined, not real), not the media, that caused me to feel inadequate. Always has been.
Seventeen focuses on fashion, but that doesn’t mean they promote a bad body image. Fat people wear the same clothes. I wear skinny jeans (AND YES, I ROCK THEM, at 215 pounds)! What kind of magazines am I supposed to look at? There is a reason 215 pound girls are not models. Shall we promote obesity to fight this? No. I will likely die of a heart attack in middle age if I don’t lose weight. As a fat girl, every time I read these things I just shake my head in confusion. It’s not Seventeen that makes me fat, it’s how much I eat, weigh, and don’t exercise. Do I want to look like the girls in the magazines? I’d rather look like them than the way I look, but I have a goal weight to get back to, and it’s not based on Seventeen. There are magazines out there whose models are quite small. Teen Vogue, for instance. Seventeen models look like the girls I went to high school with. If they do happen to be 23% smaller, you can’t tell.
If you’re going to call out magazines, at least call out the magazines that are guilty. If you’re going to call out magazines for not showing women of all sizes, don’t. I do not want girls thinking it’s okay to be 215 pounds, because it’s not.
I have to disagree with you on the whole “fat girls shouldn’t be models thing” because I’m fat and i know I’m beautiful. Maybe I misunderstood your post though.
I’m fat and I know I’m beautiful too, and that’s not my point. I am also not healthy. Most people of my size are not. I have sleeping problems, heart problems, muscle issues, and feminine health issues, all related to my size. I do not want to promote looking like me as a healthy body image, because I do not have a healthy body.
So she dresses like a 70′s chick ? how does that make her a style guru ? sorry but shes not as great as you’re making her out to be..
She’s awesome!