Because being the U.S. military's first female four-star general is not enough

Airbrushing - it's not just for models anymore!

Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody was promoted to full general on Friday, making her the U.S. military's first female four-star general.

But according to the AP, in the original photo, she is wearing a uniform with three stars on it (in reference to her then-rank of lieutenant general); in the "after" photo - the one distributed by the Army to the media - she's somehow in military fatigues, a flag waving in the background. And the three stars are gone.

"Hey Army, could you get rid of a few errant stretch marks, too?"

Now, it's not like they gave her a lollipop head or lightened her skin or enhanced her bra size or bulked up her too-thin bod or anything. But still...couldn't they have found a new photo with the four star ranking? Even though the same woman is being represented, is this misleading the public? Yet another example of how pervasive airbrushing is, how it infiltrates areas far beyond fashion magazines and shapes, consciously or not, our view of women.

BTW< did I ever tell you my book jacket flap photo was touched up? You know, for my book on body image? Yeah.

Comments

AND do you know how many singers have their vocals touched up in the studio? All commmercial artists. All of em. You think that voice is real? It ain't. Seriously, I got my voice auto-tuned TO THE WRONG NOTE once. I never even sang that note. Yet there it is on the record. And my band are small-time nobodies.

You can't believe your eyes or your ears anymore, thanks to modern technology....

TA x

I can't say I'm surprised. Esp. with all the image problems the military has been having lately. That said, TA - I had NO idea about the vocal retouching!!! Does that make me the most naive person on the planet?

Except Kelly Clarkson! She sounds better live than recorded. :)

Leslie, why did they retouch your photo? I mean, did your editors think it should be retouched or the publishers or what? That's ridiculous, I've seen your TV segments, you don't need any photoshopping.

NO WAY!

Photoshopping has definitely gotten out of control. Oh well, we'll respect her anyway!

Even when I go to an art gallery with beautiful photographs on the walls I'm suspicious now. You never, ever know what's real and what's not. Didn't know that about voice altering, either. No wonder we are all trying so hard to be "better" than we are, rather than accepting and loving ourselves right now.

I was working at a restaurant once with live music. The singer was singing horribly off-key, and one of my co-workers actually told me that that's what it was supposed to sound like if not touched up in the studio. Umm....no...plenty of singers can sing on-key! I was surprised they they retouched the music to the wrong note though, maybe they should leave the music to the musicians!

And yes, they should have her photo with all four stars on it, she earned it!

Oy.
When I used to get professional headshots done, the photographer would always recommend a re-toucher, who would get rid of pimples and under-eye circles, things like that. It wasn't a huge difference, but there was never a question that you had your photos re-touched before you gave them to casting directors. It's just the way it's done, and I never thought twice about it until I stopped performing. Plus, we were ALWAYS advised to get a photo that looked like us: casting directors want to see the person in the photo, not a glammed-up version of them.
Airbrushing and photoshop have taken it to new extremes, and it's just ridiculous!

So many ethical complications involved in photoshopping... apparently journalists do it all the time to make for more dramatic pictures and such. But doesn't that totally change the meaning of their story? Weird.

am I the only one whose mind is blown by the fact you were touched up on LRD?!

I've recently started getting into vintage photo collecting, and have read a lot of interesting comments at online photo blogs from people who look at old photos like this and this and can seem to think of nothing to say but that these girls are fat and/or ugly. It's sad when we're so used to being bombarded with retouched images nowadays that we forget what REAL people look like--real people like the ones in these old photos (give or take a certain sense of style) from before the time of Photoshop and plastic surgery and home gyms and fat-free, fake everything.

Of course, it's translated to life off the printed page as well. I admit that I sometimes feel out of place if I don't wear makeup to the mall, or if I've eaten a lot and have to be seen with a bit of a food baby in public. It's sad when a woman has to be all painted and starving to be considered acceptable, no matter where or what she's doing.

I was almost floored by the fact that you were touched up on the photo on your book, Leslie, until I remembered something that the photographer of my toddler's recent 18 month photos said. She let me know that she had "corrected" some blemishes and a little rash that my daughter had in her photos and it dawned on me - my sweet, beautiful little girl has already been airbrushed at age 1 1/2! No one is safe. I did, incidentally, ask the photographer to send me the un-retouched photos as well so that I can look back someday and remember her just as she was in all her rough-and-tumble, drippy nose, bruised chin perfection.

good!

Your book jacket picture was touched UP? But WHY? That's exactly what you LOOK like! What on earth did they change?!