From SRP author Tracy Cooper-Posey:
Okay, I’m on a tear. You know that feeling where something clicks in your brain and you can’t not share it? That’s me, right now.
So, here’s what’s got me fired up: photoshopped models and the slow, sneaky conditioning that’s convinced generations of women that the “ideal” body is one that looks like it’s made entirely of elbows and wishful thinking. I’ve had years—decades, even—of looking at those long-legged, vanishing-waist images and feeling like my body missed a memo from the fashion gods.
Well. No more.
I recently stumbled across three blog posts that pulled back the curtain with actual, jaw-dropping visuals. Wanna see for yourself? Be warned: once you do, you can’t unsee.
- That Waist: Photo Editing at the Turn of the Century
- Photoshopping: Altering Images and Our Minds
- The Reality of Celebrity Photoshop: Before and After
One of them even suggests that every retouched image should come with this warning label:
“This image has been retouched to lower your self-esteem.”
I laughed. Then I winced. Because… oof, right?
Here’s where it gets interesting: I stumbled on a hack—by complete accident—that has turned my whole outlook around.
See, I sew. In my (non-existent) spare time, I collect images of clothes that inspire me. Beautiful silhouettes, vintage styles, sleek lines—basically, a Pinterest board without the Pinterest. But when I was flipping through my notebook, something started to bother me. Again. The models. So slender. So elongated. So… not real.
And a little voice in my head whispered: “Surely, no one is actually that long-limbed and whittled down to a suggestion of a waist?”
So, just to test a theory, I grabbed the side of one of the images and widened it. Just a little.
Then a little more.
And a bit more…
Until the model in the image started to look—brace yourself—normal. Like someone I might pass in the grocery store. Like me, or someone I know.
And something in me relaxed. I mean, really relaxed.
Now I do this with every image that hits me wrong—every fantasy long-legged woman in an impossibly proportioned dress. I widen the image until the person looks like someone I’d actually invite over for tea. With cake.
Here’s an example. The original high-fashion image:
Those legs can’t possibly be that long! She even looks like the photo has been stretched.
So I “normalized” her:
In this one, she looks human. You could even argue that there’s a suggestion of a belly under that dress. It’s…a relief, to see a woman with a normal-sized waist!
It’s weirdly healing. Suddenly, that dress doesn’t seem like a cruel joke played by the fashion elite. It looks like something I could wear. And not just wear—rock.
So if you, too, find yourself sighing at those endlessly tall, suspiciously narrow models, try my trick. Stretch the image sideways until the proportions start to feel human again. It won’t fix everything, but it will shift something inside you.
And that’s a start.
Tracy Cooper-Posey
SRP Author
