She Got Fired for Being Too Fat

Effect of digital retouching on real women's body issues is now creepily tangible

(NEWSER) - As if the fake beauty of those Photoshopped magazine covers wasn’t enough, enter Temptu, a home “airbrush system” that can give anyone that flat, plastic look in the flesh. Chloe Angyal is appalled. One really needs to focus in order “to think about just how incredibly screwed up this concept is,” she writes. It’s not like we don’t know what happens on magazine covers—“Women have never been more media-literate”—but they still want a home airbrush? More»

Photoshopped models would require disclaimer

(NEWSER) - If you're going to airbrush a woman in an ad, you must include a disclaimer exposing the wrinkle-hiding, curve-thinning lie—at least if an Arizona lawmaker gets her way. The proposed bill seeks to make it illegal in the state for advertisers to enhance a photograph without attaching a note that reads: "Postproduction techniques were made to alter the appearance in this advertisement. When using this product, similar results may not be achieved," reports the Arizona Republic . More»

Labels digitally altered images from 1 to 5

(NEWSER) - Highly altered images of models and celebrities in fashion magazines have come under increasing scrutiny, with France even proposing that all airbrushed pictures come packaged with a health warning . A new tool could make that easier, as it analyzes photographs to detect digital retouching, Wired reports. Publishers have “gone a little too far,” explains the Dartmouth specialist who helped create the tool, adding that there are “negative consequences” associated with a barrage of such images. The new tool would rank images from 1, or barely altered, to 5. It takes into account geometric adjustments (slimming the hips, widening the eyes) as well as photometric adjustments (removing wrinkles, changing skin tone), Mother Nature Network notes. More»

Nothing, as long as you view it as art

(NEWSER) - We love to hate retouched photos (click here , here , or here for evidence)—but why? We claim to be concerned about the self-esteem of young girls who might be influenced by these unrealistic pictures, but the truth is, "the endless cavalcade of before-and-after shots is an outgrowth of the voyeurism, gossipmongering, and schadenfreude that fuel our celebrity industrial complex," writes Amanda Fortini in New York . Because we want to see stars "in all their wrinkled, full-figured glory," websites and magazines keep making a big deal about these images. More»

Of course, most of them still look great...

(NEWSER) - Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson both got attention recently by releasing unretouched photos, but they’re far from the first celebs to do so. The Daily Beast found eight more—check them out in the gallery:

• Kim Kardashian: The reality star wasn’t upset when Complex posted the wrong—un-Photoshopped—version of her picture, going so far as to repost it herself and later pose for an unretouched Life & Style cover.
• Sarah Palin: In perhaps one of the first instances when a magazine was scolded for not digitally manipulating an image, Newsweek sparked the ire of some conservative critics by allowing its Palin cover shot to show laugh lines and pores.