Now Magazines Airbrush Models Bigger

And some say it's just as controversial as the opposite
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2012 1:51 PM CDT
Now Magazines Airbrush Models Bigger
This image released by Vogue shows Lady Gaga on the cover of the Sept. 2012 issue. Gaga looks much less curvy in the behind-the-scenes photo shoot video on the magazine's website.   (AP Photo/Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for Vogue)

Not long ago, all the controversy surrounding magazine airbrushing seemed to focus on models and actresses being made to appear way too thin (to the point that some actually lost limbs), but not so anymore. These days, magazines are increasingly Photoshopping models to appear heavier, because that's what the public wants. "I have to airbrush clients to make them appear bigger and more womanly before I submit photographs," a talent manager tells Fox News. "Skinny doesn’t sell."

Thank Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, and other curvy stars like Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton for the new trend of "bootylicious-ness," says a celebrity stylist. But models are still, for the most part, ultra-skinny—and thus need the "reverse retouching." "These poor girls have been forced to lose the very curves that the general public wants in order to find a woman attractive," says a model manager and publicist. Some find the practice just as controversial as slimming down models, and it gets particularly ridiculous when health and fitness magazines do it in order to make models appear healthier. (More Photoshop stories.)

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