Although there will be some trashing of Jennifer Love Hewitt in this post, my rant has more to do with the publishers of magazines and specifically Shape and Self. Each month on their covers these two magazines generally have a picture of a woman on the cover who looks toned and fit and perfect. I understand about photoshopping and airbrushing and that is how the game is played. Fine.
But if you are going to do that don't run an article in your pages about the person on the cover that talks about how she got this perfect body by diet and exercise because it isn't true. Yes, Jennifer Love Hewitt diets and exercises but she doesn't look like the person you have put on your cover and I especially hate it when you have a sample diet inside that makes it seem like you will look like her when you have completed the diet.
The picture on the cover is not Jennifer Love Hewitt. Yes it is technically her, but the parts that most people find difficult to look at in the mirror are not her own. She is not flawless but the cover and the article make it seem like you will look flawless if you follow the diet or do what Jennifer does. You won't though because even the subject of the article doesn't look like the image portrayed on the cover.
Jennifer Love Hewitt famously exploded two years ago when people said she was fat in her bikini. She wasn't fat at all. She looked great. She said the whole thing was unfair and that people should be judged for who they are and not what they look like. Fine. From now on when you agree to do a cover of a magazine in a bikini, make sure as part of your agreement that no airbrushing or photoshopping is done to your picture because if you do, then you are being a hypocrite and not having people focus on you but some imagined perception and feeding the stereotype that you said was wrong. Be proud of who you are and if you want the world to change, then you need to be part of the solution and not adding to the problem.