In the end…
Redbook Editor-in-Chief Stacy Morrison went on the Today Show to defend her photoshop attack, er, improvement on Faith Hill, stating that the picture of Faith Hill was, in the end, not a photograph, but an image.
In other words, it isn’t the magazine’s fault that you & I mistook an artist’s concept for reality. How very bourgeois of you & I, don’t you think?
Let’s face it. We are in a world now where every cover photo is a lie, uh, image, every song is digitally “corrected” to be perfectly in tune; and all of these images and sounds are fed to us like pablum to babies. Most of the time, most of us never even know.
Time breaks most of these fantasies, for those with an interest and a memory for such things. And yet – there is always a current set of supposed ‘role models’ whose white-washed perfection we optimistically adhere to. That is the true role of magazines like Redbook.
Authenticity is so totally nineties. Didn’t you know? OMG!
July 27th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Life is pain; anyone who say’s different is selling something.
Faith Hill is a product, or more correctly a brand, and she is selling it here.
Faith Hill in both images is a beautiful woman, but neither image would cause me to buy this magazine; it is not targeted at me. It is targeted at people who want to look like, or be like, or by some other mechanism idealize Faith Hill. Yes, this means you.
We live in a world where everyone, to a certain degree, is disingenuous, I’m pretty sure lying started in the garden or Eden or before if you prefer. We all attempt to “put our best foot forward” in the world. Being completely honest, faults and all, is an extraordinally difficult thing to do – and in my own experience is fraught with pitfalls – sometimes it is better to keep the truth to yourself. Is the photoshopping out of a “few faults” after the photo was taken any different than having a professional makeup artist involved before?
I think rather than blasting the “Photoshop Attack” on the ever so nice Faith Hill (sic), you should find out what image she, or her publicity people, “approved” for Redbook. She may have “flown off the handle” when she saw the before cover and had them change it, rather than the “evil” editor “fixing” her image. The truth, like the real Faith Hill, is probably more complex than has been reported in the press.
I always figured you more as a “Jane” reader.
Personally, my preference for the 15 items or less line is the “Weekly World News”, which alas passes into oblivion this week.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
EXCELLENT post! I have written on this topic many times myself. Your post is succinct and gets the message across, if I ever write about this topic again I will link here!