Celebrities use photoshop just like print media always used photo editing to make their perfect model cover girls even more perfect. That's not some major "shatter the industry" sort of deal like it was years ago.
Current celebrity trends and the ease of use of new technology mean we all go about our day sort of assuming all celeb images are digitally altered in some way. Even the non-professional ones they post on social media.
Recently, Kendall Jenner dropped a few pictures and a video as a sort of "behind the scenes" from a photoshoot. The shoot, for sister Kim Kardashian West's "Valentine's SKIMS," featured Kendall in something called a micro-thong.
The lingerie covers very little, even for underwear.
Kendall Jenner is undeniably beautiful, her career as a model has been more successful than most, her social media is constantly filled with fans singing her praises and she is constantly asked to promote products.
People love looking at her.
But people did not love looking at her in the Skims shoot. It's not that she wasn't gorgeous, it's that she was too gorgeous and it made a lot of people feel bad about themselves.
One shot in particular, a full-front shot, had people reeling in self loathing.
But the reality is, Kendall Jenner is a supermodel with a fashion catwalk body. Her bio lists her height as 5'10" and her weight as 119 lbs.—she's extremely tall and slim of build.
As the insecurities and self loathing (and in some cases talk of self harm) poured onto social media, people tried to combat it by reminding the world that "THE PIC" is very likely not what Kendall Jenner actually looks like.
Digital editing, lighting, crash diets, tensed muscles, exhaling to reduce torso size, makeup artists and more all go into creating these perfect mini moments.
These sorts of reactions have been behind calls to minimize or eliminate digital editing in these arenas—or to at least label when and how an image was manipulated.
Some people said they felt like the images should be removed from social media for promoting poor and unrealistic beauty standards.
Others came to Jenner's defense, essentially stating it's her body and she can shape it however she wants. How people react to it is their problem, not hers.
