Yesterday Jezebel put out a $10,000 cash prize for the pre-Photoshopped images of Lena Dunham on this month’s cover of Vogue. Someone (I wonder who?) got a nice check yesterday when they released the photos, which show significant photoshopping, but nothing shocking nor out of the ordinary for ANY woman who models for the cover of the most judgmental and influential fashion magazine in the world.
Included in the photoshopping: a narrower jawline, shaved down arm/shoulder width, higher waistline, higher neckline, smile lines/under eye circles removed. But honestly, WHO CARES? This whole thing, I think, is freaking ridiculous, and frankly I feel sorry for Lena. Why should someone who has brought such a brave display of healthy body image in the mainstream media be taunted and pinpointed for not being the “exception” to the Vogue Photoshopping rules?
Let’s be serious, everyone wants to be Photoshopped a bit when they make it onto the COVER of Vogue. Of course, Lena fits the standards of “Vogue Beauty” more in her photo-shopped images, which is what we all aim to do when we Instagram a picture of ourselves in a filter that drowns out our wrinkles or creases.
Lena being Photoshopped doesn’t make her any less authentic to who she is and what she stands for–and if anything, it’s Vogue’s aesthetic policies that should be reconsidered.
What is funny is that there was actually no pigeon on Lena’s head (shocker) and the photograph of her and Adam in a “glamorous NYC setting”was really a doctored shot of her and Adam on some random NYC street.
Moral of the story: Photoshop is insane, it’s freaking hard to be a woman today, and Lena Dunham looks beautiful either way.
(Photo by Vogue/Jezebel)