Airbrushing is extremely common in the fashion world, and it doesn’t look like the phenomenon is slowing down any time soon. A new behind-the-scenes video from Vogue proves that the magazine heavily airbrushed September cover girl Lady Gaga. In the video, Gaga is wearing a purple Marc Jacobs gown that doesn’t necessarily flatter her figure. She looks like a normal human being, but on the cover she looks much thinner, especially in the waist.
Gaga’s hair also looks much different in the video than it does on the cover. In the video, her hair looks like a wild crazy mane. It still looks crazy on the cover, but it was obviously airbrushed to look more styled. Add in airbrushed skin blemishes, and Mother Monster looks like a whole new person.
It surprises me that Gaga, who always preaches to fans about the importance of being your true natural self, is okay with having so much of her body airbrushed. However, she has praised the cover and said it looks “fab”. This really upsets me and makes me wonder what kind of message she is sending to her fans, especially young girls who are dealing with body-image issues. If girls can’t even look up to Gaga for guidance on self-acceptance, who do they really have as role models? I hope Gaga realizes her approval of extreme airbrushing it not right and she truly starts to practice what she preaches.
Does Gaga’s approval of the Vogue cover contradict her usual message of self-acceptance? To what extent should magazines be allowed to airbrush photos? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
sunflower / 320 posts
no, that’s art as well.
I don’t like that picture because it’s too whited out. That’s WAY too much light.
I used to have nearly perfect skin. Some people do. I had it because I sweated so much, and I rarely smiled or expressed emotion.
I didn’t even get a wrinkle between my eyes until I was in my 20s. I think I was 23.
Now I have dents around my eyes from laughing and I have a slight dent between my eyes.
guest
I think that a lot goes into what celebrities do other than “I’m beautiful the way I am”. It involves money, it involves forethought, it involves managers, public relations, and lots of other things. Not to mention that Lady Gaga, preaches more of “You are born with what is inside of you” considering the crazy fashion and hair antics she does and the body add ons she has in several videos and appearances. Her craziness is what she was born with, not her shoulder and face protrusions. But that also means that if thats who you are on the inside, then you should be happy with what you do on the outside because of the inside. And who knows, maybe it was out of her hands.
guest
I don’t think they were going for a natural look on this cover. To me, it looks like they were trying to make her look like a fashion designer’s sketch hence the paint/sketch effect on her dress. If that is the case, they did a great job. I am pretty sure that most people can recognize this cover as trying to be artistic instead of natural.
guest
blahblhblah.. who cares. most photos look better photoshopped.
guest
I think it looks good. I don’t agree with excessive photoshopping in advertisement (i.e. making lips and eyes bigger to “beautify” what is already beautiful) but she still looks like Lady Gaga, and she has never aimed to look natural anyway. It is one thing to be comfortable in one’s skin and another thing to allow a magazine to do what they want with a few pictures.
guest
It’s showbiz where image is everything. If we want reality we listen to our SO snore and fart in the wee hours of the morning.
guest
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - best dose of reality ever. =)
sunflower / 294 posts
That’s unfortunate. I find Lady Gaga to be beautiful, and no one likes airbrushing.
guest
Ugh, when are we going to be able to take responsibility for our own self esteem?
guest
“If girls can’t even look up to Gaga for guidance on self-acceptance, who do they really have as role models?”
Really?
Women are supposed to look to a shock artist who wears meat dresses for “guidance on self-acceptance”? What about like @pistolannie@xanga said? When are we going to take responsibility for our own self esteem? When are we going to start reaching out to younger girls that we clearly see are struggling and start fighting for them? Lady Gaga and no other artist is going to be able to do that, and honestly it’s not their responsibility to. We need to step up in the lives of younger girls around us, because WE are the ones they see everyday and WE are the ones that they will want to be like when they grow up. If anything, I’d be more disappointed if my a girl was looking up to celebrities as role models instead of women in her immediate life- moms, sisters, other girls in the community… There are a million better examples of role models than a celebrity.
(quietly steps off soapbox…)
sunflower / 255 posts
Are you kidding me? You are talking about a woman who completely changed her image in order to become a pop idol. Lady Gaga knows exactly what she’s doing: marketing herself. If she truly stood for self-acceptance she wouldn’t have changed who she was. That girl with long brown hair who played the piano and wrote melodies that could never be called pop music. She’s selling an image, not herself. I think her fans know that and either don’t care or decide to glaze over it.
Anyway, an airbrushed photo is the least thing you can attack her with.
guest
@PerkyPunk8064@xanga - I agree with you, sadly. I used to love Lady Gaga, but meh. I would hate for my daughter to view Lady Gaga as a role model. Not when there’s so many other brilliant women out there.
guest
Honestly who cares? Who cares if they airbrushed her? If someone looks at that and thinks “Oh my gawd! I don’t look that good.. ” They should have their head examined. It’s a magazine, it’s used for entertainment. People wouldn’t buy stuff like that if everyone looked normal. People want to see perfection and beauty. It’s a load of crap when people say “Oh she looks so beautiful with out make up,” That’s not true, we are conditioned to think make up, and air brushing, and all of that modification is beautiful. You can say you think someone is beautiful without it, but you would be lying because inside you think “Wow she is hideous, makes me feel better about myself.”