When I first saw this photo of Lizzie Miller in my September Glamour magazine, I quietly cheered.I cheered for the attention it was drawing to a normal women's body and I cheered for Lizzie to have such confidence to do it. My hand went to my own stomach, wondering how close to the truth this would look for me too.
I have seen this photo discussed on other blogs this past week and one comment I read made me stop and think.
The commenter was angry that they used such a gorgeous women in such an unflattering photo and wondered why they didn't show her in glamorous fashion photos instead.
Hmmm..... interesting take and I'm still thinking about it.
Why don't magazines take stylish photos of all kinds of sizes and inter-mix them so we can all relate no matter what size we are?
I'm not stupid- I'm sure the answer has to do with business and with what the reading audience "wants"-or do they?
Maybe the readers are just conditioned to seeing all the youth and thin-ness offered up to them in thousands of images a day.
Food for thought....
The industry has definitely made improvements. When I was a stylist for shoots ten years ago I couldn't fit my big toe in those sample sizes. That hasn't changed.
But some magazines (Glamour included) have run ads and spreads using more average-sized women. But it's few and far between.
My final words on this 9-11 post, 8 years later? Let's Roll!
13 comments:
wow-it is hard to look away from it-I haven't seen this. I applaud Glamour for it.
I agree: It's time to move toward bodily diversity. Don't replace thin with not-thin, show us a little of both. A little of EVERYTHING.
i love the photo..i think it's great! and personally i love when they use all different body types...it shows how the clothes would REALLY look!
Interesting look on the topic. I agree, let's see a little bit of both
I LOVE this picture. I don't think it's unflattering at all. It's beautiful to see a woman so confident in her body.
I agree - I like seeing some thin, some not so thin. If I'm totally honest, of course I don't want to only see really out of shape people - then I'd have nothing to aspire to. I'm glad you shared this pix with us - I actually hadn't seen it yet!
And yes indeed: Let's Roll!
when i was younger i didn't know those photos in the magazine were all worked on via airbrush and other tricks. i was so hard on myself. although i still want to be skinny, it is good to see fashion is not just about skinny.
Interesting - what I find interesting is that I think she looks great and it's not an unflattering post - it's just that we're so conditioned to see women with no stomach at all, that we think that that is normal, rather than the one we see on Lizzie - no wonder women are so down on themselves - cos that's what I look like and my husband finds it attractive!
Women can be so HARD on each other!
By "glamorous fashion photos" instead of the above pic did the commenter mean shots that have been photoshopped to a Barbie-esque plasticity that we mostly see in fashion shots?
I think the above pic is beautiful. She's a beautiful woman and it's refreshing to see a real body for once (even though I'm sure her cellulite has been photshopped out).
She looks beautiful. Did I read on Meg Cabot's blog that this woman is being called a size 12? She looks much smaller than a 12 to me.
Interesting, I would LOVE fashion magazines showing all kinds of women in fashionable clothes- I think that's why I love fashion BLOGS so much- we take pictures of real people working with the pluses and minuses we have!
I agree with you and Sal, I'd love to see real diversity in magazines/ads. A bit of every size, age, color!
Hi Christina,
Have you seen the November edition of Glamour?
In addition to a photo shoot featuring models who represent the sizes and shapes of the average American woman, Glamour pledged, to maintain a continued devotion to showing a diverse range of body sizes within its pages and to take a stance in support of equal opportunities for models of all sizes in the fashion industry.
It certainly sounds like a step in the right direction. Hopefully they keep it up!
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