Camila Mendes & Lili Reinhart Called Out These Photoshopped Pics & It's Amazing
Though the world was celebrating women making strides on International Women's Day, we learned pretty quickly that there is still a long way to go. Ironically, on a day meant to celebrate women's power, two of our fave Riverdale stars noticed that Cosmopolitan Philippines decided to photoshop their waistlines for their magazine spread. So, Camila Mendes and Lili Reinhart called out these photoshopped pics — and it's top notch.
Mendes and Reinhart, who play Betty and Veronica on the CW's Riverdale, recently had a spread in Cosmopolitan magazine. But on Thursday, March 8, the stars noticed that when Cosmopolitan Philippines published the story, their waistlines had been significantly trimmed.
Being the awesome ladies that they are, Mendes and Reinhart took to Instagram and posted about what had happened. They showed both the original and photoshopped photos, and called out Cosmopolitan Philippines for feeling the need to change the way their bodies look, but complemented Cosmopolitan for leaving them as is. Please and thank you!
"@lilireinhart and I feel disrespected & disturbed by the sight of our photoshopped bodies," Mendes wrote via her Instagram Story. "We want [Cosmopolitan Philippines] readers to know that those bodies are not ours."
The Riverdale star went on to note that both she and Reinhart are happy with their bodies the way they are and prefer that those be the ones represented and not some manipulated ones. Reinhart wrote,
We are f*cking powerful, beautiful and strong... we aren't going to hide behind photoshop to conform to beauty standards.
Preach!
Reinhart posted the comparisons, with annotations written over the pics.
Hello, they are clearly fantastic as-is!
Why would anyone want to change a single thing about them? Also, as you'll see below, it seems like the magazine thought that unobtainable alien-looking torsos would be a much better bet? Who knows.
Mendes posted a call-out on her own Instagram Story.
A big thank you to Reinhart and Mendes for calling Cosmopolitan Phillipines out on their bullsh*t. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how beautiful a woman is, magazines will still try and "fix" something. It's almost like once someone is captured on film, some people feel that it's in their hands to distort and change the image any way they please. No thank you!
Mendes and Reinhart also aren't the first celebrities to be photoshopped without consent and call it out.
In 2015, Zendaya noticed that her photos had been tampered with in a spread for Modeliste magazine. She posted a side-by-side comparison of the photos on Instagram and called out Modeliste for slimming down her hips and torso. She wrote,
Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19 year old hips and torso quite manipulated. These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love.
I mean, it looks like the altered photo even slimmed down her hair... which is just weird.
When Meghan Trainor noticed that her waist had been slimmed down in her "Me Too" music video, she was furious. According to USA Today, when the video was released the "All About That Bass" singer started seeing screenshots fans had uploaded and noticed that her waist was significantly thinner. At first she thought it was the fans editing the shots, but then she went and watched the video and noticed that it had been retouched. Trainor told USA Today,
I saw fans posting it and was like, ‘Why are fans ruining my waist? Are you kidding?’ Then I went to the video and was like, ‘Oh my god.’ I texted the editors like, ‘I never asked you to touch my waist. I want my waist back.’
She took down the video and uploaded a snap explaining "they photoshopped the crap out of me and I am so sick of it."
The idea that celebrities are being photoshopped without their consent is a huge problem. If we want women, especially little girls, to not have the weight of unrealistic beauty norms then, media has to stop creating their own unrealistic images. All of these celebrities are gorgeous and probably work really hard on loving themselves and being confident enough to constantly be in the public eye. So thank you Mendes and Reinhart for sticking up for yourselves and setting a good example. For the magazines still cutting women's waists and airbrushing them into oblivion — let's stop that, huh?
