on the right is america ferrera (better known these days as "ugly betty") at an awards show last month; on the left is her glamour magazine cover this month:
excuse me while i choke on the irony. on all this irony.
and you know, it isn't just about the drumbeat of "Get Thin! Be Thin!! Stay Thin!!!" that we, as women, hear as the background noise of every goddamn waking moment of our lives. this is an affront: a slap in the face, a twist of the arm. because god forbid we drink too much of that self-acceptance kool-aid, right? the crazy-ass idea that we might be okay as we are is evidently far too threatening. so the media has to hit back - has to say to us:
hey ladies, please remember - no matter how many awards you win or lives you change or good work you do, you still need to be copiously "corrected" via photoshop before we can allow people to look at you. you still need fixing. you will always need fixing. you are never good enough.
glamour magazine thinks it's ok to brazenly erase a good portion of a woman. glamour magazine thinks that the ridiculously obvious nature of this erasure is mediated by the idea that this is how women "should" look, anyway. that women take this kind of shit lying down, all day, every day. well, you know what i say? fuck that. i'm going to tell glamour where they could stick their airbrush. you should too. (edited to add: oh, isn't that precious! their commenting function isn't working! rest easy, i'll certainly let you know when it's up and running again...)
and remember - real women have curves:
6 comments:
damn, that is annoying.
Ugh. Do you think she knew? She should be pissed.
The comment form has the "state" field grayed out, but won't allow comments without it. Great. Have you found another way to contact them? I could not find anything.
You know, I always wonder why women who pose for magazine covers aren't more pissed off about this . . . but I guess that most of them are probably happy both to just be on a cover, and to have the magazine help them look as "good" as possible. The problem is, of course, that it's never going to stop until more stars start speaking up. I mean, we've got Kate Winslet, Beth Ditto and . . . who else?
You'll be interested to know a friend of mine managed to get a comment to Glamour and this was their response -
Thanks so much for your letter about our October cover photo of America Ferrera. Let me assure you, we did not digitally slim her; as she mentions in the interview, she wears a size 6/8. You are seeing her as she actually appeared at our shoot in June.
That said, we deeply value your feedback, and your letter has been read by our Editor-In-Chief and other senior staffers. Be sure to take a look inside at the photos of America and let us know what you think.
Sincerely,
Emilia Benton
Reader Services Intern
Hello maate nice blog
Post a Comment