Seriously, why do magazines think that we won't notice? Or are they truly going with the "a photo is just the beginning of our art project" theory? Because if photos are just an art project for them, then just fucking say it.
This time around Kelly Clarkson is the winner of the photoshop diet.
We've seen this done to plenty of other women in Hollywood, including my favorite America Ferrera. Kelly Clarkson's weight has been an issue since her "American Idol" days and she seems to have weathered all the talk very well and with all the confidence most of us wish we had when it came to our bodies. That must be why "Self" wanted to feature her in their magazine. But why then would they photoshop her multiple sizes down? Even looking at the 'behind-the-scenes' video you can see that Kelly's arms are larger in real life. "Self" comments that, "Our picture shows her confidence and beauty," which reveals to me that they admit that they photoshopped the hell out of her, but hey she still oozes confidence!
Instead of pining over what corporate America wants us to look like, even when we love our bodies, I want to mention a new blog that I learned about at Blogher 2009: we are the REAL deal. It's a body image blog whose core bloggers include the amazing Claire Mysko, Kate Harding, and Roni of RoniWeigh. It looks like a great site to gather to discuss how we came to hate our bodies, what some of us are doing to love ourselves, how we can get to be healthy and all that body loving stuff.