Thin Skin
The Issue
Popular fashion magazine Astropolitan has recently been criticized for heavy-handed use of photo-editing software to make their models appear slimmer, smoother-skinned and paler. A riot of fashionistas and equality advocates have sashayed and stumbled into your office to debate the issue.
The Debate
1. “Photograph enhancement is nothing new, darling,” slurs renowned fashion designer Carla Largerfield. “For my clothes to look as gorgeous as possible, we need to make our models look as gorgeous as possible! If that means adjusting them down in post, then that’s what we do. We’re selling a dream of something better, not tawdry reality. What right does the government have to dictate how we edit our magazines? Besides, it’s not like we’re hurting anyone.”
2. “Not hurting anyone, she says! LIES!” screams social worker @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Young girls across @@NAME@@ read her magazines and think they need to conform to the faked physiques they see. Let’s not even talk about the implicit racism in deliberately whitening skin tones! I implore you, make photographic enhancement of models illegal, for the sake of the children!”
3. “Simply banning photo-editing is insufficient,” proclaims plus-sized pop star Megan Plimsoll. “It’s abhorrent that only tall, slim women are considered for modelling jobs when the clothes will be sold to women of all shapes and sizes. I suggest a government mandate declaring that fashion designers must fairly represent women of every size on their catwalks and in their photoshoots. Only then can we start to fight inequality in the fashion industry.”
4. Your Minister for Friendly Solutions, @@RANDOMNAME@@, suggests an alternative solution: “How about instead of setting quotas or inflicting bans, we try and change society. Let art bring forth a candle. A big fat tallow candle. I suggest you tax the fashionistas and use that money to subsidize artists who are making positive depictions of the plus sized: a big-boned bronze statue here, a Rubenesque nude there. Denounce commercial culture, and promote fine art of the fat!”
The Issue
Popular fashion magazine Astropolitan has recently been criticized for heavy-handed use of photo-editing software to make their models appear slimmer, smoother-skinned and paler. A riot of fashionistas and equality advocates have sashayed and stumbled into your office to debate the issue.
The Debate
1. “Photograph enhancement is nothing new, darling,” slurs renowned fashion designer Carla Largerfield. “For my clothes to look as gorgeous as possible, we need to make our models look as gorgeous as possible! If that means adjusting them down in post, then that’s what we do. We’re selling a dream of something better, not tawdry reality. What right does the government have to dictate how we edit our magazines? Besides, it’s not like we’re hurting anyone.”
2. “Not hurting anyone, she says! LIES!” screams social worker @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Young girls across @@NAME@@ read her magazines and think they need to conform to the faked physiques they see. Let’s not even talk about the implicit racism in deliberately whitening skin tones! I implore you, make photographic enhancement of models illegal, for the sake of the children!”
3. “Simply banning photo-editing is insufficient,” proclaims plus-sized pop star Megan Plimsoll. “It’s abhorrent that only tall, slim women are considered for modelling jobs when the clothes will be sold to women of all shapes and sizes. I suggest a government mandate declaring that fashion designers must fairly represent women of every size on their catwalks and in their photoshoots. Only then can we start to fight inequality in the fashion industry.”
4. Your Minister for Friendly Solutions, @@RANDOMNAME@@, suggests an alternative solution: “How about instead of setting quotas or inflicting bans, we try and change society. Let art bring forth a candle. A big fat tallow candle. I suggest you tax the fashionistas and use that money to subsidize artists who are making positive depictions of the plus sized: a big-boned bronze statue here, a Rubenesque nude there. Denounce commercial culture, and promote fine art of the fat!”
The name in the first option should not be a random name, it is a reference to Karl Lagerfeld, and I think the name Megan Plimsoll in the third option is referring to Meghan Trainor.