In the August issue of Seventeen Magazine, editor-in chief Ann Shoket has made a promise to her teen readers. The promise comes in the form of a “Body Peace Treaty,” vowing to “never change girls’ body or face shapes” with photoshop or airbrushing. Pinned side by side were two nearly identical pictures detailing in red ink the exact changes made to a photograph before it reaches the glossy pages of Seventeen magazine: clearing a loose hair or two, removing a visible bra strap, smoothing clothing folds and changing the color of a drape in the background. The entire page is signed two X’s, two O’s and a single, friendly A for Ann Shoket, as though the entire thing was passed between friends through folded notes over an Elementary school desk.
Julia Bluhm, the fourteen year old girl who inspired this promise with her petition and mock photo shoot, is claiming a victory for girls everywhere, and few, including myself, are going to argue with her. And now a new set of girls, seventeen year old Emma Stydahar and sixteen year old Carina Cruz, are following Bluhm’s momentum and asking Teen Vogue to take a similar promise with a very different response.
After they held a mock runway featuring real and diverse teen girls outside of Teen Vogue’s office, they reportedly were given a short meeting with the editors of Teen Vogue, where they were handed issues of Teen Vogue littered with Post It notes designating diversity as they believed it; mostly skinny african american models. The girls were then sent away with their homework.
It’s the industries little open secret; the glossy fantasy we see in the pages of magazines and advertisements everywhere is only slightly more achievable as a CGI dragon. That super skinny celebrity you saw on the cover doesn’t really have skin that clear, her hair is not always that perfect, and no, she does not actually that skinny. For good measure, the editors shaved five pounds off of her sides with a computer program before sending it to the press, for thousands of people to sigh at, never wondering where she must keep her kidneys.
According to Seventeen Magazine, that has never been an option. Body and face shape alterations were always ethically out of line, which might explain why they were so receptive to Bluhm’s complaints. But according to Teen Vogue, body shape alterations have never been an option either, at least when it comes to the non-models and readers they regularly feature in their magazine. That has to mean something? Right?
The use of photoshop to alter weight and body shape, lighten darker skinned models and erase features in an attempt to uniform beauty are unquestionably wrong in my opinion, especially when it deals with younger readers, like those Seventeen and Teen Vogue inevitably reach. But the real question doesn’t rest in those issues, since cooperative or otherwise, both magazine have said that they do not alter body size.
Julia Bluhm’s petition included a request for one, unaltered, non-photoshopped spread per issue. That request was denied. Both girls have requested diversity within the magazine, including different races and body sizes besides that of the typical model. Those requests, it seems, have been skimmed over. And looking through one of my sisters issues of Teen Vogue, out of the easily hundred women featured within, there were no more than ten non-white models, and only one body shape.
To be fair, not all blame can be placed upon the magazines. Designers enjoy the ideal presented by the photographer, and as a result, they usually only send the smallest sizes of their clothing samples. Unless designers start sending more realistic sizes, bigger models are not only unwanted, they are useless.
Magazines like these exist to present a fashionable fantasy, where people wake up each day with obedient hair and perfect complexions. And people pay for these magazines for that fantasy, right? These magazines never promised to show non-fiction, and they never warned us they wouldn’t.
So where do we draw the line?
Is photoshop okay for loose hair and bra straps, or is that the same as digital liposuction? And what constitutes diversity and what is fair of us to expect? And who do we blame?
Comment below with your opinions.
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Astley, Amy, ed. Teen Vogue Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web.
Fleming,
Olivia. "'We're Being Unfairly Accused': Teen Vogue Dismisses
14-year-old during Meeting after Anti-photoshop Protest." Daily Mail. N.p., 12 July 2012. Web. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172781/Were-unfairly-accused-Teen-Vogue-dismisses-14-year-old-girls-meeting-anti-Photoshop-protest.html?ito=feeds-newsxml>.
Intern Lauren. "Seventeens No-Photoshop Pledge: Will Teen Vogue Be Next." Bust Magazine. N.p., 6 July 2012. Web. <http://bust.com/blog/seventeens-no-photoshop-pledge-will-teen-vogue-be-next.html>.
Shoket, Ann. "Hi from Ann." Seventeen Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web. <http://http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/07/05/ann.august.editors.letter.pdf>.
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