If you know and love American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, you know she has been pretty vocal about how her weight fluctuates and how it should be irrelevant to her singing career. And unlike, say, Jennifer Love Hewitt, she’s actually pretty endearing about it.
However, according to SELF magazine, her weight is extremely relevant — the fitness magazine shaved about 30 pounds off her for its September cover, as Jezebel calls out.
In response, the SELF editorial board put foot in mouth again and again in their explanation of Clarkson’s crash Photoshop diet:
KELLY’S CONTAGIOUS CONFIDENCE
Kelly has this amazing spirit, the kind of joie de vivre that certain people possess that makes you want to stand closer to them, hoping that you can learn what they know. In this case, you get the feeling Kelly has not let fame spoil her, but also that she was just born confident, with a generosity of spirit that is all about others and rarely about herself. She is, like her music, giving and strong and confident and full of gusto. Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best. Did we publish an act of fiction? No. Not unless you think all photos are that. But in the sense that Kelly is the picture of confidence, and she truly is, then I think this photo is the truest we have ever put out there on the newsstand. I love her spirit and her music and her personality that comes through in our interview in SELF. She is happy in her own skin, and she is confident in her music, her writing, her singing, her performing. That is what we all relate to. Whether she is up or down in pounds is irrelevant (and to set the record straight, she works out and does boot-camp-style training, so she is as fit as anyone else we have featured in SELF). Kelly says she doesn’t care what people think of her weight. So we say: That is the role model for the rest of us.
But as Jezebel rebuts, the photo department didn’t “make her look her personal best.” They gave her an entirely new figure — one that will sell more fitness magazines promising “Total Body Confidence” and Kelly’s advice to “Stay True to You and Everyone Else Will Love You, Too!” Only now they’ve gutted her, in more ways than one.
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Okay, let me get this straight: She’s overweight and she’s okay with that. Self admits she was overweight when they shot the pictures and they know she’s okay with that. But BECAUSE she’s okay with being overweight, the camera SHOULD show her as being slender. Ergo, they fixed the photos to show the way Self believes she really is on the inside.
That about cover it?
The editorial board is like your friend telling you about this great girl he knows so you ask if she’s hot and he starts to tell you about how great her personality is.
Freak Show you hit it the nail on the head, and by nail I mean photoshop and head I mean low-life “health” hypocrites who pray on people’s insecurities to peddle ineffective weight-loss magazines.
She hasn’t looked like that in ten years.
That photo doesn’t even look like her, her face looks off. I don’t know if they screwed up with the Photoshop (this time NOT on purpose), but something isn’t quite right. She is heavier than she has been, but I think she is still in a healthy range. I am disappointed, I usually like Self, and thought that they generally had a more positive slant on health. Shame on me for being fooled!
I think we should all have an airbrushing specialist, to make it so everyone has the same advantage we should have to wear “airbrush glasses”. That way we can see everyone the way the feel they look, should look or want to be seen.
I have never, ever seen the point in airbrushing celebrities. I saw a music video where the camera accidentally caught a pimple on the star, and I laughed not out of derision but out of recognition: hey, he gets pimples too! It’s like Charlie Brown said about his perfect red-haired girl: “She nibbles her pencils. She’s human! I guess this day isn’t so bad after all.”
I’m especially confused as to why everyone seems to think Kelly Clarkson is overweight– she’s been airbrushed on pretty much every single album cover or magazine she’s ever done. I’ve seen her without the “enhancements” and she doesn’t need them at all. She’s beautiful, and she exercises a hell of a lot more than I do.
“Did we alter her appearance? Only to make look her personal best”
What kind of crap statement is that? They use photoshop with the utmost integrity and sincerity? Pure bullcrap double-speak-not sayin’ anything-truthful-spinola. And their editors let that piece of “look the other way because we mean well” crap go to print? I am outraged that the editors think anybody should/will buy this line. I hope there is a backlash and somebody gets canned for it. There is no excuse for promoting a line like that.
I go away to Vegas and miss all the good stuff. WTF.
And then Freak Show beats me to what I wanna say. Again.
Who are they kidding? Kelly Clarkson seems like a nice girl, but she does currently resemble Meat Loaf. ‘Oh you’re beautiful just the way you are, but we are taking half your body off for the cover so that we can sell more copies.’ That kind of hypocrisy makes my skin crawl.
Would Self airbrush Meat Loaf? I mean the old 300+ pound Meat Loaf. I think he was okay with his weight back then. I mean, he called himself Mr. Loaf. And his singing was FANTASTIC! I bet Self would make him rail thin….
Would Self airbrush Meat Loaf? I mean the ’70s 300 plus pound Meat Loaf. I think he was okay with his weight. I mean, he called himself Mr. Loaf, right? And what a VOICE! I bet they would make him rail thin.
great. Let’s see, We know you are okay with your weight, but we still want to airbrush you to death? What kind of message are they sending to the rest of us? The same thing – you must be thin to be beautiful
As I recall, Kiera Knightley had an interview discussing airbrushing for magazines/movie posters. They say women prefer to buy magazines where the woman on the cover is a C-cup.
Also, I had a dream last night that someone came on Deceiver.com impersonating me. Am clearly 1. Visiting this site too much, and 2. Having delusions of grandeur.
Uch. That rambling, disingenuous statement from Self reminds me of the kid’s manager in “Bolt”. Oily, smarmy, and thoroughly dishonest…with a perky smile. “We’re asshats, but we’re stylish, positive asshats! Yay!”
Re Kiera Knightley: don’t they have to photoshop MORE weight on her so she actually is visible in the photo?
Okay, so here’s what Self told Ms. Clarkson:
“We know you are okay with your weight. But inside you are much more beautiful than your outward appearance (which, frankly is too hideous to put on our cover), so we’re going to make people see the inner beauty of you by making your (too hideous for our cover) outside match.”
Nice.
Exactly, Freak Show. Either that or “we didn’t want to offend you by running a cover that shows how fat you are, so we gave you a new body instead and negated everything you said in the article about self-acceptance.”
Also — and I should have pointed this out above — did anyone else notice the name of the editors’ blog post was “Pictures That Please Us”?
Pictures That Please Us–hehehe. Wrong magazine.
OH NOES! THAT OTHER MAGAZINE HAS SPEIDI!
okay. ewwwww.
So please, don’t tell me…
The way to <i?Get Flat Abs Faster, Erase 8 Pounds, and Be Hot By Saturday is to first balloon up to 250 and then airbrush the hell outta myself?
Well, it’s Thursday now, I better go get a few Twinkies, fast…
I just ran across this on Digg and thought it’d provide a good counterpoint: models with no makeup and no airbrushing.
http://models.com/feed/?p=3747
They don’t look perfect but my god, most of them still look amazing.
So, let me get this straight. If you work out and are healthy, you can look like Kelly. Only this isn’t Kelly. It is a fantasy version of her, but you can look like this fantasy if you follow their advice. In other words, they don’t even believe what they are saying – you can be overweight & healthy, but we must not LOOK overweight, no matter what! How dare you Kelly? Shouldn’t you be getting lipo like everyone else so that you can talk about how “true” you are to yourself and how your confidence comes from being naturally thin? How dare you not lose weight just for us so we can tell EVERYONE how working out = thinness. This is another lie they tell you just like vegetarianism = thin! I know lots of healthy, fit people who eat right and exercise and are still not stick-thin. It has to do with heredity too, morons.
Good to know that, according to SELF magazine, women can’t be their “personal best” unless they’re a size two.
Oh yeah. You also can’t POSSIBLY be a good entertainer/singer if you are not rail-thin! Who in the world believes this other than the health nazis? Only thin, pretty people have talent. Have we not learned that yet?!
That was my first thought too Allykat, they messed up her face as well with some tinkering around. :-p
This is pretty much the reason I’ve stopped reading women’s magazines. Even if the focus of the magazine, or the articles therein, aren’t focused on beauty, the relentless onslaught of Photoshopped images are always there. It’s truly draining to one’s self-esteem
Women’s magazines are at least 50% advertising, anyway. But they do give you something disposable to read in the tub so you aren’t freaking out if your bath goes awry. That’s kind of useful…
Cool photos, Elle – Shalom Harlow actually has real unplucked eyebrows and Tatjana has under-eye bags. Yay! But they still all look amazing.
As for poor Kelly, it’s ironic that her message in the top right corner is ’stay true to you.’ Guess the magazine decided not to take her advice.