Jezebel 
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New York, 5:57 AM
Wed Nov 25
57 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/10/09
11/10/09
11/10/09
GET FUCKING TINY!
How to Photoshop yourself
into someone that
even your guy
won't recognize!
You're not skinny enough. #kellyclarksonself
11/10/09
Plus, right next to it on the newsstand I can pick up Shape, which always features the same bikini-clad body thigh-high in water with a different celebrity's head pasted on, and what's not fun about that? #kellyclarksonself
08/14/09
08/14/09
That makes no sense.
Bring her into the studio, select a great, flattering outfit from the wardrobe department, do her hair and makeup to perfection and hire a great photographer to light her in the most flattering way and take 200 pictures, 1 of which, will be her personal best. That will be the beautiful image of how great Kelly Clarkson can look. That's aspirational. Making her taller and thinner is just fiction. No one would suggest that the cover of the magazine has to be an untouched picture of the bare faced, messy-haired, just got out of bed, Kelly Clarkson. She should look her best. That photo is simply not her best, it is someone else's.
08/14/09
08/14/09
So I ask you: What’s the big deal? You argue – as you have been for years - that these images perpetuate an unrealistic standard of beauty, and subsequently make women feel inadequate. But if women KNOW that these images are digitally manipulated and enhanced – that the kind of beauty they portray, like that of a painting, can’t actually be attained in everyday life – wouldn’t they be more inclined to just appreciate (or revile) them for what they are? I’d like to think most of you would know better than to legitimately judge yourself against, essentially, a work of art.
Self’s Kelly Clarkson cover might be digitally enhanced. But I’ve already talked to several Self readers who think it’s beautiful, interesting, inspiring, or fun - as you yourself argue all covers should be.
08/14/09
OK, you make some good points. And maybe you should be right in what you're saying. But I only speak for myself when I say that yes, I compare myself to airbrushed, Photoshopped images CONSTANTLY. You know the photos are "worked on" when you see them (not to mention that most of the raw files are images of people with supernatural DNA anyway).
But images are powerful. And the pragmatic part of your brain that tells you it's impossible to look like these images kind of shuts off. You want to look like them anyway. I seriously stare at my face and am disturbed to be able to see my pores. I feel bad about the fact that my thighs have some dimples on them, despite regular exercise.
But enough about me. Because maybe I can be written off as one crazy. I mean, I do keep a cat. But what about men? I believe more men than admit it compare "real" women to these images and find them wanting. That's a whole other issue, not unrelated.
Finally, I think these "worked on" images serve an important purpose: They undermine readers' self-images (maybe not your little sampling, but most of us), and put them in a mind-set to consume products and services aimed at changing themselves. I mean, if we looked at pictures of REAL people all day, with wrinkles, pores, dimples and split ends, we might just feel less scared about how imperfect we are. And that would mean a LOT less business for a lot of industries.
08/14/09
You don't even have to just believe it. There are studies that have documented that it happens.
Columbia did one of the first ones. Horribly depressing stuff.
08/14/09
With IN STYLE magazine, I expect a traditionally attractive and stylish cover and a model that is recognizable as herself. A VOGUE cover I expect an image that is more high fashion and maybe somewhere between IN STYLE and RS in terms of reality.
With Kelly on the SELF cover, she's just standing posed in pants and a purple top, an outfit many women might wear out and a setting (or lack thereof) that is more realistic. I think women know an artsy cover when they see one, and this isn't meant to be that. With a magazine titled SELF it’s just totally disingenuous to present a human that is NOT her self.
08/14/09
08/14/09
Knowing that an image is not Kelly Clarkson is not the same as seeing the real Kelly Clarkson on the cover of the magazine. The message remains, that this is how women are supposed to look, and there is a paucity of alternatives. And although the average Jez reader may know that magazine covers are altered, many do not. I certainly didn't when I was a teenager. That's why it matters that Jezebel is calling them out. BTW, The Faith Hill scandal was broken by Jezebel. It was a big embarassment for the magazine, who try to keep the real images under wraps to maintain an illusion.
I'm one of a huge segment of women who has literally never not worried about gaining weight. Frankly, you, as a man, have no idea what it is like to grow up surrounded by messages that your value is in your looks, your body, your usefulness to men, and how whatever else you may do in life, your looks are always up for evaluation. Why are men's magazines and women's magazines filled with pictures of women? The message to men is "Enjoy looking at this hot woman" The message to women is "Fix yourself so men will want you like they want her" Women have a double consciousness in which they self objectify, in anticipation of men.
If you want us to stop giving a shit about the cover of Self, you can do more than harangue us about it. You can stop objectifying women and stop consuming media that does. You can call out your male friends when they do. You can listen to discussions among women and ask questions without assuming we are being naive or silly to care about someting you don't care about.
08/14/09
08/15/09
Also, I suspect by your last paragraph that you might not be here just as an observer. You "talked to several Self readers"? Dude, I don't even KNOW several Self readers, and I'm their target demographic.
08/14/09
I also loved how in this interview they kept referring to the cover as a "poster." Call it what you will, but what you did was still wrong.
08/14/09
I wish Kelly Clarkson would say something about this whole thing. Like, how she feels about them drastically changing her size and essentially saying that the way she is (and is happy being) isn't good enough, about her *true self* being a lot thinner. Her silence makes me wonder.
08/14/09
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08/14/09
Not saying that's how it is with cover testing. Just sayin'.
08/14/09
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08/14/09
Anyway, The Vogue Italia Black Issue broke records for sales. Women were clamoring for more.
08/14/09
08/15/09
The only lady mag I still read is Elle, and that's because it has E. Jean, great book reviews and interesting features. It's certainly not because Jennifer Aniston was on the cover this week.
08/14/09
5. Medicine/Medical.
a. the act of removing a fluid, as pus or serum, from a cavity of the body, by a hollow needle or trocar connected with a suction syringe.
b. the act of inhaling fluid or a foreign body into the bronchi and lungs, often after vomiting.
08/14/09
Two were so photoshopped they were blatantly missing bellybuttons.
Now I am desperately searching for a plastic surgeon to remove mine, Barbie-style. Thanks Self, for reminding me what my Best Self truly should be!
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
Whether it's an "it" bag, must-have car, or whatever - people are realizing the true cost of items, and are no longer willing to go into debt to prove our worth.
Once you make that leap... wouldn't it be a step to realizing what your true worth is? And that is not a size, or the ability to compare yourself to other women's measurements.
I think we're moving back to a more natural state - where canning preserves are just more rewarding than spending four hours on a treadmill so someone else will approve of your ass.
So I guess we've just lost patience with the bullshit.
08/14/09
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08/14/09
Months ago I remember reading a description of one of those mags by a jezebel editor describing it as: like your friend that only ever talks about her diet and workout regimen. It gets old fast.
I have no patience for these publications. My niece came in carrying one a few months ago. She doesn't work out and doesn't cook. "Why do you want to hate yourself?" I asked, "Throw that garbage out."
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
That's not an accident.
08/14/09