Lucciana Beynon, the daughter of the controversial tobacco magnate, Travers ‘The Candyman’ Beynon, has been photoshopped so severely by a swimwear brand, she is now unrecognisable.
It began, when the infamous Instagram account CelebFace, reposted photos of Beynon, one before she was photoshopped by a brand, and one after, and the difference is very noticeable.
CelebFace has over 1.4 million followers and routinely calls out influencers, celebrities and brands for photoshopping. The Instagram also controversially points out when it believes celebrities have had plastic surgery, posting before and after photographs.
The idea behind CelebFace is to ‘debunk’ images on social media. Following the account can give us “ordinary” women a reality check. A reminder that these new beauty standards are unrealistic, therefore always unattainable – no skinny tea will make a grown women no longer have a waist.
CelebFace posted a side by side comparison photo of Beynon, with the caption, “I noticed one swimwear brand is editing photos of their models.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUF1L-mK6Ld/
In one photo Beynon looks like a gorgeous real-life woman, in the other, she resembles a doll. Her features have been changed, her nose is less wide, her cheekbones more severe, her skin has been smoothed and her waist has been cinched in. She has been morphed into something inhuman.
The carousel leads to photos of other women, receiving the same treatment.
CelebFace, doesn’t identify the swimwear brand, but according to DailyMail, it is OMG Swimwear.
It has been widely accepted that photoshopping affects women’s body image. Norway even changed the laws so influencers and brands had to disclose if an image was photoshopped, after finding that filters and photoshopping was leading to an increase in mental health issues.
The normalcy of photoshopping is a very real issue on the web, according to PageSix, recently, Khloe Kardashian went to great lengths to scrub an ‘un-photoshopped’ image from the internet because she assumedly didn’t want her real body on display.
While it would be easy to write this off as a bizarre ‘Kardashian’ thing, it speaks to the fact photoshopping makes women feel unhappy with their own real bodies.
Yet brands and influencers continue to photoshop, no matter how obvious. While it remains unclear if the swimwear brand had Beynon’s permission to alter the images, either answer speaks to societies unrealistic beauty standards. If they did ask, and she said yes – it speaks to the fact even models don’t feel good enough, if they did it without asking – it speaks to the fact brands feel the best image to put forward is a fictional one.
However, it does appear Beynon has reposted images by the swimwear brand, where she is photoshopped.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPUSf4Fe-P/
And while it would be easy to put the onerous on Beynon. and declare she is promoting unrealistic beauty standards, arguably the more important question is, why does she feel she needs to?
