What’s acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to airbrushing has long plagued the magazine world.

Celebrities, already beautiful, are made to look younger, thinner, almost alien-like in their perfection on the covers of fashion magazines.

Now, in a brave move by the mainstream and highly influential fashion mag French ELLE, April cover girls Eva Herzigova, Monica Bellucci, Sophie Marceau, and Charlotte Rampling will appear not only without their professionally done make-up, but also without the assistance of any photoshopping or retouching whatsoever.

I think it’s about time we started seeing real women on the covers and start celebrating natural beauty. These women still look amazing. They also, still all look human.

Another recent mag cover has been receiving a storm of photoshop controversy. The latest edition of Harper’s Bazaar features Halle Berry looking ever so slightly re-touched (and by ’slightly re-touched’ i mean almost unrecognizable).

Dubbed the “Age Issue”, the person holding the photoshop mouse on this one kindly left in a slight shadow under the eye, but that doesn’t distract from her near-white skin and perfectly smooth, wrinkle-less face.

The 42-year-old actress looks younger than me!

This sort of thing happens ALL THE TIME. Just look at Britney Spears recent Candie’s ads. Sienna Miller’s September cover of American Vogue was so airbrushed that UK journalists were quoted as saying she was photoshopped “within an inch of her life”.

Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at gorgeous pictures of gorgeous women. But when the standards are set that high, how can any of us normal people ever possibly imagine of living up? It’s crazy and dangerous.

Perhaps the most shocking case of photoshopping came last year when Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign was found to be a farse.

“Real” women, dressed in nothing but their underwear were released to show that true beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes. Females rejoiced!

That was until photo retoucher Pascal Dangin blew the lid off the whole ugly operation, claiming he kept everyone’s face and skin looking fresher, younger and more beautiful. Dove denied the claim, but who are they fooling?

That whole campaign got under my freckled skin a little.

I remember driving down the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto and seeing a larger-than-life digital billboard that had a picture of a gorgeous, curvy woman. The question posed on the board said “Fat or Fabulous?”.

People could log on to a web site and vote whether they thought the model was fierce or just plain fat.

The counted vote would then appear on the billboard much like a score at a baseball game. And, when I saw the shocking ad, it wasn’t looking good for the fabulous vote.

It’s no surprise that those for a little, or a lot, of retouching are those that make their livings selling said magazines and ads. I’m sure Anna Wintour wouldn’t turn her nose up to a little technological nip and tuck if she were featured on the cover of Vogue.

And maybe that’s where the problem lies. Actresses, singers, models demand their photographs be retouched before appearing on the cover of magazines.

We are what we eat. And right about now, we’re consuming unattainable perfection ’till we’re blue in the face.

Although thanks to photoshop, the blue comes off as a youthful pinkish hue.

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Tags: Fashion & Beauty //