Over the past couple of days, the “big” story in the fitness blog world (a world I don’t consider myself a part of necessarily, but one I follow) is that one of the bigger bloggers has been photoshopping all the images of herself for a while, possibly for a few years.
This woman has made herself look so different that words like “Catfish” are being thrown around.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of the blog in particular, but I find the whole thing really sad. The real pictures of this girl? She’s attractive. She looks normal. Some people have said she looks fat, but I’m not convinced she has that many extra pounds on her. The unedited pictures just show her next to very tiny women. She’s been photoshopping herself so dramatically to make herself appear not only thinner, but what she considers more attractive. The big thing I see is that she thins out her jawline and totally changes the shape of her face.
The whole thing is ridiculous, not so much that she’s doing it but that she feels like she has to do it. She’s a blogger who makes a living through her blog, I believe, so I guess her appearance does matter a bit more, but I think that people want to read honest voices. If I want to read crappy fitness tips that don’t necessarily work and see pictures of perfect people, I’ll go buy a magazine. I read blogs to get a personal experience from a particular writer. I want to know the good and the bad. Because let’s be honest, everything’s not always good.
Now, I’m not saying that every instance of photo editing is bad. I’m a fan of a good Instagram filter. And if you want to Photoshop out the idiot behind you or blur your license plate or maybe hide that whopper zit that just appeared on your forehead, that’s fine. But don’t change who you are. Yes, it happens all the time in magazines, but we expect that. I just don’t like that it’s becoming more and more commonplace in the blog world.
Sure, go ahead, post the most flattering pictures of yourself. I’m very picky when I put up pictures of myself in triathlon gear because hello, it’s spandex. I do not look good in spandex. I still cannot believe I took up a sport that all but requires me to wear spandex in public. But I’m not editing the photos to make myself look different. Flattering angles, yes. Fakery, no.
To me, the incessant need to edit your photos so that you look “better” takes away from the idea that you’re good enough as it is. It creates a false ideal. (I’m sorry, but no matter how much you work out, no matter how much weight you lose, you’re never going to change the basic shape of your jawline without surgery.) So just be who you are. Be yourself. I’d like to think that blog readers can see the sincerity and appreciate it.
I’m not angry with this particular blogger for her photo editing. I’m not even mocking it. I just find it sad that she feels the need to represent herself as something she’s not and can’t be content in who she is. That’s not the impression we should be giving to others and it certainly isn’t the right way to inspire someone else.
[…] I’ve written before about the need some people feel to obsessively over-edit every picture ever taken of them, but I came across an interesting story this morning and wanted to share. We are all aware of the “curating” of Instagram feeds and other social media. People want to make their lives look perfect. Health and fitness bloggers want to make their bodies look perfect. We see stories of a person who finds an old friend on Facebook and is immediately jealous of their life, only to discover that the life curated online isn’t their true life at all. […]