Something seems to be in the air in Europe as the French and Germans and Americans are keeping things real for women in magazines.
It may have been a few years since Dove's campaign for Real Beauty but there seems to be some real momentum gathering behind this trend around authenticity.
In France, there are calls by the government to include warnings on any ad, labels or posters where women have been airbrushed. The campaign is being headed up by Valerie Boyer, a conservative parlimentarian who rightly points out how airbrushed images only create a false reality for women to aspire to. We'll be watching like hawks to see how and if this story develops.
In Germany, the most popular womens magazine there, Brigitte is banning models from appearing. They are now opting for 'real women' only to appear in the magazine from 2010. This is such a huge move for a magazine but it is responding to complaints from a proportion of its 700k readers. The magazine is a familiar diet of fitness, lifestyle, recipes and sex (of course), which is apparently read by a slightly more upwardly mobile gal.
The editor in chief, Andreas Lebert of Brigitte says that "Today's models weigh around 23% less than normal women".
This year American title Glamour also published an image of a plus size model without airbrushing her. It even sounds rediculous to have to be so excited about such a break through!
Is this a hint that women will no longer be fed a diet of unachievable images to aspire to? let's wait and see before we pop the champas.
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Standing in the supermarket isle on the weekend, I noticed Sarah O Hare on the cover of Women's Weekly - with the caption of her story saying that she had requested a natural, un-retouched cover shot...really hope to see more of this kind of thing.
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