Recently, body extortion has been a focal point of the media’s attention. The case of the iCloud hacker- who obtained private, obscene photos of celebrities and displayed them online for public access- has brought this to light. Many people were shocked and sympathized with the women who were affected by this, but in today’s society body extortion of celebrities is nothing new or uncommon. In fact, it’s a part of every day life that has been accepted by our culture. Many of us just don’t realize it.
Women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour sell millions of copies every day that display images of young, beautiful and famous celebrities. These highly sexualized images entice women to purchase publications, featuring articles with titles such as “what her secret to looking great is,” and “how she keeps it hot in the bedroom.” The feature stories allow the readers to delve in the intimate details of their personal lives (or at least the parts they want to represent) and promote them as role models for a wide range of females.
What most women don’t realize is although these images and articles may not be marketing a specific product, when images of celebrities and models are photo-shopped they are selling a life style. How are women supposed to feel good about their bodies or looks when their “role models” are painstakingly doctored by make-up artists, hair stylists and photography professionals, leaving them edited and enhanced to the point that look like a completely different person? If editors feel the need to add or reduce body parts of supermodels such as Kate Upton and Victoria’s Secret models, how are women supposed to feel comfortable in their own skin when they are constantly inundated with ads and images that promote unobtainable standards of beauty? Tina Fey, actress and comedian, discusses this issue in her book, Bossypants.
“Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old-boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as well all know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”
As we can tell from this photo above, even Kimmy K is photoshopped to slim her curves and airbrush her skin.
In reaction to this, several celebrities such as Beyonce, Kate Winslet and Lady Gaga have fought back and spoken out against having their images for magazine covers and advertisements altered without their consent.
“The retouching [on a cover of GQ] is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly I don’t desire to look like that. I can tell you they’ve reduced the size of my legs by about a third. For my money it looks pretty good the way it was taken,” Winslet said.
Co-stars Ashley Benson and Troian Bellisario, from ABC’s Pretty Little Liars, responded to a promotional poster for the show by posting it on their personal Instagram accounts with these captions.
“Way too much Photoshop. We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It’s not attractive,” Benson wrote.
“I couldn’t agree more… aren’t we attractive enough women as we are? Why can’t we just look like us. Once,” Bellisario wrote.
Lady Gaga has been an avid speaker on positive body image after publically revealing her struggle with an eating disorder for several years and body image issues. Responding to a cover of Glamour magazine she wrote,
“I felt my skin looked too perfect. I felt my hair looked too soft. It is fair to write about the change in your magazines. But what I want to see is the change on your covers… when the covers change, that’s when culture changes.”
Here are some other photoshopped images of celebrities: