Fashion bloggers are airbrushing images of scarily thin models to make them appear more healthy but the Melbourne girl whose anti-airbrushing protest prompted Cleo magazine to reconsider its retouching policy says it’s never ok to publish altered images of women’s bodies.
The Weekly reported yesterday that images of models at Australian fashion week were being photoshopped to smooth over sharp bones protruding from their unhealthy-looking frames by bloggers worried about promoting poor body image.
Editor of fashion blog Style Melbourne Sarah Willcocks told aww.com.au she was so shocked by an image of a model at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, she photoshopped the image before sharing it with her readers.
While she is generally anti-photoshop, Ms Willcocks found the image too shocking to publish unretouched.
“It was because I didn’t want my readers thinking bones are glamorous or beautiful,” she told aww.com.au.
But 21-year-old Jessica Barlow who will later this month launch her own retouch-free magazine and last year made national magazines listen up with a petition against photoshopping images of girls in Cleo, says that even when done with the best intentions, digitally altering women’s body shapes is not on.
“If I had those pictures and I was worried about them, there is no way I would run them,” she told aww.com.au.
“I see what they’re trying to do and I do commend that, but [altering the image] is not something I would do because to me that’s just introducing a whole other set of problems.
“If the model is not healthy and is not looking healthy then it doesn’t matter how fantastic the dress, it’s not right to change the image and publishing the image that is quite obviously not healthy is not sending a good message.”
When asked if there was ever a point where airbrushing is ok, Jessica said that when it came to altering body shape, she wouldn’t stand for it.
“I think when it comes to lighting and that sort of thing it’s fine, but it’s when a body or physical appearance is changed I think that is incorrect and that is something I will never ever say is a good thing.”
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