The skinny on incest + fashion
November 27, 2009
Screenshot while reading NYTimes online
I continue to challenge myself to read The New York Times online with complete ignorance of the advertisements; however, I am weak. My eyes are drawn to the sexy images, flashy fonts, and familiar brand names.
While online, I was fully engrossed in today’s article. How could you not be intrigued by the emergence of love & marriage amongst first cousins? But my attention was yanked away by a thigh: A thigh belonging to a leg of a model in an advertisement promoting shoes for Jimmy Choo.
I couldn’t help but notice the unrealistic proportion of the model’s leg. I get the fact that skinny is apparently always in. I know there is currently a fight against our culture’s obsession with skin & bones. We are currently losing.
Regardless, I’m still irritated by two elements of this ad:
1.) If this model’s thigh truly looks like a child’s upper-arm, it’s repulsive. Someone should give this woman help instead of a paycheck.
2.) If this image was edited with Photoshop, and the model is actually a healthy thin woman, why does the fashion world still need to create this absurd falsification of a body image?
Yes, this ad was successful in that it caught my attention. Congrats. I never did return to my incestuous article, unfortunately.
More importantly to me, this ad was an absolute failure in our society’s struggle against eating disorders. Send me screen shots that irritate you.
November 29, 2009 at 12:56 pm
It is sad that fashion says one thing and does another. We as consumers probably should do more to embrace this change to healthy models.
December 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Agreed. Here’s a positive article though. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/fashion/03Boyer.html?_r=1
We need a plan to make the change. Strategy session?
December 7, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I completely agree. I have a feeling it’s a mixture of photoshop an already very thin model. One website that really broke the mental hold that these images had on my self esteem was iwanexstudio.com. He is a professional retoucher, and you can see all the celebrities he has retouched if you go to the portfolio tab. The grossest is Eva Longoria. She is so grossly skinny in her before photo that he actually has to plump up her arms, legs and buttocks, but still manages to take an arm’s width off her waist. I think that recognizing these lies will set us free.
December 7, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Thanks for the website reference. I can’t get over the changes. Beyonce had some normal love handles in her actual photo. I would love for her to be bold enough to go without airbrushing.
I’m not opposed to the artistic quality of the retouching in a few photos; however, I do believe the professional retoucher should receive credit just like the photographer. Here’s a positive article … http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/fashion/03Boyer.html?_r=1
January 14, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I think this is the case of really bad photo-shopping. How this photo ever made it to print is beyond me. The leg just doesn’t look right. The calf seems to be more shapely than the thigh!
I’m really bad–I actually didn’t notice the leg right away because I was distracted by the shiny overpriced booties :/
January 14, 2010 at 4:28 pm
You would think Jimmy Choo would be able to afford a Photoshop extraordinaire! Anyway, I like your website, Skinny Dip. Thanks for sharing it.
Kira