Warning Labels for Reality Checks

I’ve been reading the debates about the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and enjoyed the many  responses to the cover and inside photos.  I particularly liked the reader who suggested that “small print” be applied.  Ultimately I’d like to end up on the side with the commenter who asks why we can’t just appreciate real bodies but in truth we rarely ever present ourselves untouched.  Every time we apply makeup, style or color our hair, shave our legs/pits/bikinis, wax our brows, whiten our teeth, paint our nails, or wear our spanx we are presenting a retouched version of ourselves.  So since we all enjoy the desire of seeing the fantastical I think the label of all parts retouched is a brilliant idea.  Might keep us in the reality that NOBODY is quite this perfect.
On a side note, I appreciate that SI chose a young woman who has some sag to her breasts (not that I don’t still envy the little bit of sag she has) but it’s a nice change not seeing youthful, silicone breasts that are up to her chin…you know another part of the fiction they usually like to sell men and women alike.

Here are the comments from The Good Men Project.

This comment was from Bob on the post Cover Me, I’m Going In: SI Swimsuit Edition 2012

Folks, EVERY image is photoshopped. From the cover to the tiniest contributor pic. They are ALL photoshopped. NO waxer plucked out all of her hairs, someone like me painted them out, or at least the ones that were missed. Her nipples were removed too, and wherever that suit (whatever there is of it) had an uncomfortable intersection with her body, a retoucher like me smoothed it out. Her hands were photoshopped, they would be bluish compare to the rest of her otherwise. Go ahead, look at your hands under real bright light. Yours are bluer than your arms too. Her hairline, her teeth, her fingernails, her legs. IT’S ALL RETOUCHING. Her breasts? Don’t get me started. The fact that someone thought they weren’t photoshopped is a compliment to someone like me, not her. It just means they were NICELY photoshopped. No disrespect to her, no body part of any one of us is magazine ready when in front of the camera. Not you, not me, not her.