I’m really confused about why we don’t expect magazines to retouch their photos?

I always say almost every woman is one of two things: a makeup artist, or a Facetune artist. And some of us — the very best of us — are both.

Working in women’s media, I spend hours every day scouring the internet for inspiration in the form of “Why are people reading this piece on another site, and what can I learn from that?” And what almost every story has in common is that they’re, in one one way or another, shocking:

‘Tomi Lahren said she’s pro-choice and we’re all shook to the core‘, ‘Airlines are telling women in leggings that they aren’t allowed to board‘, and of course, the infamous ‘X fashion brand has photoshopped an image, and we cannot believe this is still happening in 2017.’ But what I’m sat here wondering is, why on Earth are we shocked when a magazine photoshops its images?

I know what you’re thinking: A magazine dropping 15 lbs off a girl is problematic because it fosters unrealistic beauty standards, and makes women feel poorly about their image — but that’s not retouching.

It is the job of magazines and fashion media alike to remain aspirational, so when something is retouched, it’s because they’re interested in offering the consumer the best possible version of that product, and we would all be lying if we said we didn’t do this every single day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSBxcWrFzH8/?tagged=facetune&hl=en

I for one am a fan of retouching in magazines and ads. It makes me feel better about doing it myself. It makes me realize that everyone else wants their ex to see them looking hot too, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Tina Fey said it best, “I feel about Photoshop the way some people feel about abortion. It is appalling and a tragic reflection on the moral decay of our society…unless I need it, in which case, everybody be cool.”

Let’s all agree to be cool.