Jennifer Hudson's Slim Chance
Is it just me, or does Jennifer Hudson look, um, DIFFERENT on her debut album's cover?
Seriously, not since Ann Wilson was electronically compressed from a size 16 to a size 2 in one of Heart's '80s music videos have I seen such a glaring example of what appears to be some sort of digital diet. Because unless Jennifer has been on Beyonce's pre-Dreamgirls lemon-and-cayenne-pepper fasting plan for the past six months, this album art does NOT accurately represent the real Hudson from the neck down.
So, this looks like one extreme Photoshop makeover. But why? Jennifer looks great the way she is. Do the suits at RCA Records really think she'll shift more units with her head digitally decapitated and then Frankensteined onto some skinny mystery body? And do they really think her fans are unobservant enough to overlook such a radical renovation of her famously full figure?
You know, Effie would not stand for this, and neither should Jennifer. Neither should her fans.
And if this really is Jennifer's actual body, then someone please email me the name of her personal trainer, pronto.
And that's the skinny, for now.
CHAT LATER, NIXON LEE
Please stfu. I know I don't want to be a stick twig. I love my voluptuous body and so does my man. Not everyone is in love with skin and bones and frankly some of these girls that follow the media don't need to see someone being photo shopped to look and appear skinnier. This is a disgrace.
music video
To what? Its fake!
This is Jennifer Hudson body but the waist and hips have been altered. The waist have been thinned down and her hips have been trimmed from the photo.
But waist up is all her. Very easy to do and no one can ever tell unless you knew she was already another size.
The only way to put this rumor to rest is to actually see something current she has done and make a comparison.
I know she has a new video and I know they did their best not to show the full Jennifer. She still cute to me.
Buy you be the judge.
Your column reminded me of when CBS ~ August 2006 ~ (in)famously altered Katie Couric photo to slim her down. You might recall she appeared significantly thinner in a network promotional magazine photo thanks to digital airbrushing. At the time, Couric said she hadn’t known about the digitally reworked version until she saw the issue. She told the "Daily News", 'I liked the first picture better because there’s more of me to love'.
On the flipside, recently I read that Nicky Eaton, head of PR at Condé Nast (which publishes Vogue, GQ, and Glamour) confirmed that images of models are enhanced to make them appear fuller-figured: "There have been cases where models are booked way ahead of a shoot and then they turn up two months later looking less healthy and perhaps a bit underweight. We wouldn't be happy showing them that way, so it is then that we would need that person to look a little bit fuller."
Thank you for this story LP Jr. I post rarely these days, but decided to do so at this time mainly to recommend a film to you; one you may have already seen during your college days.
SYNOPSIS & OVERVIEW
In "Killing Us Softly III", the newest version of her groundbreaking video "Killing Us Softly" (CDF-1979), Jean Kilbourne surveys the contemporary advertising landscape to critically examine how, why and to what effect corporations and their advertisers use images of girls and women to sell their products. Deconstructing advertisements with the same kind of care and thought that went into constructing them, Kilbourne pushes the discussion of media and advertising beyond the realm of pure market values on the one hand and pure aesthetic values on the other.
SELECTION OF KEY POINTS FROM THE FILM
i. Because of the prevalence of advertising in our culture, the sheer amount of cultural space it occupies, it is crucial to examine and understand the stories advertising tells us about femininity and what it means to be a woman.
ii. In addition to products, advertising attempts to sell women the myth that they can, and should, achieve physical perfection to have value in our culture.
iii. In her film series, Jean Kilbourne takes images similar to Jennifer Hudson's CD cover and shows how common such airbrushing has become; how expensive it is etc.
Here's a quote from the film:
"...the omnipresent media consistently portrays desirable women as thin....even as real women grow heavier, models and beautiful women are portrayed as thinner. In the last two decades we have developed a national cult of thinness. What is considered beautiful has become slimmer and slimmer. For example, in 1950 the White Rock mineral water girl was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. Today she is 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 110 pounds. Girls compare their own bodies to our cultural ideals and find them wanting.... When unnatural thinness became attractive, girls did unnatural things to be thin." ~~Mary Pipher, Reviving
All the best!
The article from where I took the quote by Nicky Eaton, head of PR at Condé Nast, also had a comment page for readers. Attached to the article was a BEFORE (AIRBRUSHING TO MAKE HER APPEAR LARGER) & AFTER (AIRBRUSHING TO MAKE HER APPEAR LARGER) image of the American actress Cameron Diaz. A reader responded: "oh, yeah! cameron diaz looks really full-figured there". Upon reflection I wanted to point this out since the context of the use of the phrase "full-figured" to refer to airbrushed model by Nicky Eaton is likely as disturbing to some as the process itself.
If you're interested LP Jr. read the whole story at:
http://theweightinggame.ivillage.com/dietfitness/2008/04/reverse_airbrushing.html
Love ya!!!