Stay True to Who?: Airbrushing Kelly Clarkson

The cover of the August issue of Self magazine featured pop singer, Kelly Clarkson, posing next to the phrase, “Stay True to You.” The issue glorified the idea of body confidence as the curvy artist expressed a sense of pride in about her full figure. 

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While Clarkson found contentment with her shape, the editors of Self magazine found flaws. With the help of airbrushing, Self reconstructed the shape of Clarkson’s body to adhere its ideological views about the shape of the female body. In doing this, Self not only mislead readers, but discredited their entire issue (one that glorified body confidence). How can readers possibly exude “body confidence” under circumstances such as these? How do we ever satisfy the ideological views of Self magazine and of today’s society when our good is never good enough?