Tuesday, January 26, 2010

OK! Goes Too Far



More and more often it seems like I write about magazines that photoshop women excessively when doing their diet stories. OK! is a frequent offender but for them even this goes too far. For now we will gloss over the fact they put a Kardashian on their cover. That is a much different crime. The picture on the left was taken of Kourtney Kardashian about a week after her baby was born and was on the cover of a different magazine. The one on the right? Well it has never been taken. She didn't pose for OK! and she didn't give them an interview. OK! just took the other photo, dropped about 20 pounds from her and are selling the issue as her diet secrets.

How is this supposed to make a woman feel who had a baby a month ago like Kourtney? Why can't she be back to her pre-baby weight and totally perfect looking one month later? To me this is wrong on so many levels. It is misleading and harmful. It is a lie perpetrated on the entire world. The sad thing is many many people will buy this issue, follow the diet and will wonder what is wrong with them when they don't look like Kourtney. This has got to stop.

37 comments:

jax said...

amen.

Ms Cool said...

I have to give her credit for owning up that it was photoshopped and that gained more weight during pregnancy than they stated.

Unless something radical happens, it takes a while for the uterus to get back to its normal size after giving birth.

These stories and photos are preposterous.

Maja With a J said...

Reading stuff like this makes my blood boil. For many reasons.

BigMama said...

yeah, I hate this crap. I feel bad enough trying to become a happy size without this crap.

K said...

What Ms Cool said.

JeninRVA said...

As a PhD sociology student ... I am seriously considering doing my dissertation on this topic - photoshopping v reality of women's bodies. ESPECIALLY in regards to post-pregnancy or "diet secret"

ballyhoo. said...

ditto everyone. makes me sick.

Andrea said...

The other sad thing is that they photoshopped the baby, too. Different outfit, different tilt of the head, different hands. What the F??

Unknown said...

I thought the secret to losing 10 pounds was having the kid.

Unknown said...

I guess it must be legal, but it just seems totally unethical and somehow criminal to photoshop someone's photo without their knowledge and come up with an article about diet secrets. It puts the person in a bad position if/when the diet obviously doesn't work since it implies this person totally endorses the diet! Regardless, I think she looks 100 times better in the original picture.

selenakyle said...

DAMN RIGHT. Fuckers.

parissucksliterally said...

as much as I can't stand ANY Kardashian, I do give her credit for speaking up about this.

RocketQueen said...

Thank goodness she at least came out and denounced the lie that is this cover.
I think this sort of thing SHOULD be illegal.
I have no faith in magazines or covers anymore.

KLM said...

These are the posts that make me think Enty is a woman. I don't know too many men that would give a rats ass about this. But if Enty is a man, amen to you brother. This nonsense is total BS and should be illegal.

BigMama said...

wow, I didn't even notice they photoshoped the baby as well. How horrible.

Robert said...

I'm not even a woman and this fucking pisses me off--I can't imagine what women must feel like looking at this shit! The world is screwed up enough as it is without people, women in particular, being tricked into feeling terrible about themselves and their bodies because they can't compete with a total illusion. I'm a lot older now, hopefully a little wiser, but, looking back, I realize how many times I was duped by photshop, air-brushing and the like w/out realizing it. Now, I don't care so much, but appearance is paramount to impressionable young people--this type of thing makes people insane!

Anonymous said...

Props to the Kardassian for admitting she actually gained 40 lb. with the pregnancy, and blowing the cover on the OK picture. That is totally ridiculous to think a woman would have a baby and look like the OK cover a week or two later, no matter what diet she used.

It can be emotionally devastating to a lot of young moms, as well as dangerous, as they try to diet so strictly at a time that their body needs nourishment to heal or to produce milk for their infant.

I'm still trying to figure out why a size 0 is so much better than a size 10 anyway.

Get a Life said...

This article proves Enty is a woman AND has had kid(s). No man would write an article and be this "emotional" and no woman without kids understands the fat feeling you have right after you give birth.

From a proud mom of 2 that is still trying to lose the extra baby fat even 5 years after her last child AND I train for competitive sports.

RocketQueen said...

I must respectfully disagree, Get a Life. I believe Robert's comment above just proved that a man CAN care about this kind of stuff. Let's not be sexist, now.

libby said...

Thanks Syko--I was just about to say the same thing. A crash diet right after pregnancy would be depriving the child.
I was tentatively impressed w/ Kourtney not only denying the cover, but also explicitly adding that she has NOT lost her baby weight yet.

There has to be some consequence for faking a whole interview, and 'diet tips.' I just can't believe that's allowed.

D said...

Fun Fact About the Headline: Also the title of OK Go's next album.

selenakyle said...

Wear your most stoic "blinders" in the grocery store!

Get back at them all by NEVER buying their stupid GD rag mags or even looking at them in line.

This goes for GH, Redbook...ALL of them. They will all suck the life right out of us if we let them.

Instead, we can get our goss for FREE online (like we're doing now!).

Hell, even my National Geographic came yesterday with--of all things--the FLDS polygamists on the cover! I was stunned. My husband had to take the mag outta my hands they were shaking so badly. After all these years I might cancel my NatGeo subscription, it made me so mad.

I don't play around with bull crap.

Marna Palmer said...

I'm totally confused. Where does she denounce the issue?

Pookie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pookie said...

go enty, you tell 'em!

RocketQueen said...

@SFG - see here: http://ca.eonline.com/uberblog/b163929_link_party_kourtney_kardashians_miracle.html

nancer said...

quit buying these shitty magazines. as long as they fly off the shelves, this won't end.

Treesap-Covered Lady, the Humanist said...

I like she came out and said they photoshopped the picture; that instead of gaining 26 pounds (per OK), she actually gained 40. Perhaps she's just pissed they used her image without providing enough of a financial inducement for her, but at least she said something.

When a woman has a child, the least of her concern should be getting her body back to the way it was before pregnancy, because you can‘t naturally. On average, women gain an additional five pounds per baby, but unless your child is a horrible monster (in which case, you’re at least partially to blame) than five pounds isn’t anything to fret about. Your hips widen, a lot of women’s feet grow, waist get a little thicker, but I consider those rather trivial things in the long run. This is coming from a girl who spent her OBGYN rotation scared witless and grossed out, but now finds it all rather beautiful.

Out of all pregnant starlets, I think Rebecca Romijn has it right: “Breastfeeding is the very best diet I've been on”

kathrynnova said...

AGREED. and not only is it illusion, but i think that it wrecks self-esteem. what's so awful about having baby weight after pregnancy? i have a friend- tiny girl - even she had a large stomach for a good two to three months after she gave birth - and now she's back to normal.

amanda said...

Great post - it is truly sickening what these magazines do.

This should be illegal - it's disgusting.

sunnyside1213 said...

Breast feeding did it for me.

Anonymous said...

Babies change your body. Period. I weighed 150 when I became pregnant with my first, and when she was six weeks old I was down to 135 (too excited over being a mom to eat) but I still could not wear some of my pre-pregnancy clothes, my ribcage was larger, my boobs were larger, my stomach was less firm. It's an illusion that you can have a child and go back to exactly what you were, especially within a month of the birth.

Linnea said...

I wonder how much money you get from appearing on a magazine cover that you did not pose for, and an interview you did in fact not give?

B626 said...

SLOOOW news week.
That goes for US Weekly too.
Yawn.

Ashley said...

OK magazine usually does stupid crap like this.

Lynne Thompson said...

You know, this goes way beyond stupid and making women feel bad, it's actually really *unhealthy* to lose weight too fast and hard to breastfeed (which is so beneficial to both mom and baby) if you diet too much. You can't look the same after you just had a baby, it's almost like you want to pretend like you never had one? it's crazy...

Unknown said...

Ok magazine is very desperate, their editorial staff must think in a most creative way and not by fooling readers! I bet this people can let you buy resveratrol if they want to by applying this kind of strategy.

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