Shape Editor Defends Photoshopping Kelly Clarkson Cover Photo
Self editor Lucy Danziger made an ill-advised appearance on The Today Show today with plus size model Emme to talk about the fury over Self's major retouching of Kelly Clarkson's cover photo. The entire issue is about being happy with yourself as you are, yet the art department shaved off quite a bit of weight from Kelly's frame and made her taller.
Meredith Vieira goes after her for hyprocrisy: the magazine tells women to be happy with themselves, but presents Kelly Clarkson's "personal best" as being impossibly taller than she actually is. Kelly has a quote in the magazine about how she's happy with her weight. But the cover clearly conveys a different message -- that Kelly's delusional and that the only way she's attractive is if she were taller and much, much thinner. That's not cool.
Ms. Danzinger calls the cover a "poster" and says it is "aspirational." This is Self magazine, not Vogue which treats fashion as wearable art. It's an entirely different genre which is supposed to be about empowering women. Well, it's an epic fail on that level. Take a look:
