What is the big no no when it comes to magazine covers? If you are unwashed, the answer is reshaping the body. You can photoshop (once called airbrush) lines and blemishes. You can brighten teeth and eyes. But when you reshape a body, you get in big trouble.
That's what happened to
Self magazine, as they really are guilty of the most ironic lie.
Self has almost done a complete body transplant on Kelly Clarkson.
The sin is laughable on so many levels. First, Kelly Clarkson is the poster girl of average girl done good. That includes her body shape. She's not curvy, she's not skinny, nor fat. She's average. The final product on
Self's cover... portrays Kelly as a slim model, perfect in every way.
That doesn't bother you? OK try the asserted quote on the cover of Self which reads:
Kelly Clarkson Stay True to You and Everyone Else Will Love You. Too!To the left of Kelly is the 64 point font type:
Slim Down Your Way and down the page continue the overtures of how to be thinner.
The kicker? The foot of the cover reads
Total Body Confidence You may want to think perhaps Kelly has lost some weight for the photo shoot. Wrong. Here is video from the shoot showing Kelly with her average hair, eyes and body shape.
While it's expected to not show any celebrity on the cover in an unflattering pose or unattractive image, Kelly justifies having
Self distort what we see of her as follows:
"When I ran the marathon five years ago, I was so proud of myself for completing it in under five hours and not walking a single step. But my hips looked big in some of the photos (I was heavier then), so when I wanted to put one of them on the editor's letter in SELF, I asked the art department to shave off a little. I am confident in my body, proud of what it can accomplish, but it just didn't look the way I wanted in every picture...
The same is true of vacation. I keep the pix that show us all happy and glowing and laughing and playing, not the ones where we are scowling or hungry or tired. The ones that make the Christmas card are the best of the best."
What does Self's editors say about the controversy of their cover? They say covers are not supposed to look realistic. Yet they taunt readers with false assertions that the celebrities on their covers lead a life they in fact do not live. What do you think? Feel duped or insulted?
