This is not Miss Conrad‘s first appearance on the cover of Shape Magazine (she also was featured in a 2008 cover story), but let’s just say it was the first time I took notice. I had to do a double take – are those abs, or ribs? Or ribs with just a little muscle over them? One cannot be sure because as any magazine editor will willingly tell you, magazine cover shots are airbrushed and Photoshopped to high heaven right up to the point where the celebrity starts to look like someone else.
But there in lies the rub, my sisters…this means that as a whole, people all over media outlets are making ingenues look even skinnier than they are to sell magazines. The ugly truth remains – people won’t buy magazines with “fat” people on the cover. They don’t watch TV shows with “fat” actresses unless the title of the show is actually called Fat Actress. And Angela Merkel will never be on the cover of Vogue, but Michelle Obama is a lock. Beth Ditto can be on the covers of many many music magazines, but will they ever put her on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar? (Only if HB gets way, way hepper!)
Whenever I see a young woman beaming bonily from the cover of a magazine, I am quickly reminded that in 2006, fashion model Luisel Ramos died from heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa. She had been starving herself down to a size zero, living only on Diet Cokes and lettuce. The following year, the same Ramos family lost another daughter, Eliana, to complications stemming from severe malnutrition. Their deaths inspired the fashion industry to wake up and ban size zero models from their runways, in both Spain and Italy.
I am not accusing Lauren Conrad of personally trying to make us forget this kind of terrible story or of Shape Magazine driving young ladies to live off of parsley and barley water. But I do bring it up to remind US, the readers and the consumers of this media, to just remember that bony ribs either:
A) Don’t exist! They’re Photoshopped in there
OR
B) Are very unhealthy and can lead to serious health problems and even death.
And stop talking smack about Kelly Clarkson‘s dress size, girls! She’ll be on the cover of Shape this year too.
I agree. It’s really too bad curvier girls never make the covers of magazines (fashion rags especially). Especially as they can look so damn great! Christina Hendricks in the recent Esquire, for example, looks absolutely stunning.
I think it’s bizarrely bad airbrushing…lol