The fashion industry has long been plagued by over-Photoshopped models that present an unrealistic standard for beauty. However, with the surge of social media, many women have come forward to challenge the rules of the modeling world.
Plus sized models Callie Thorpe and Diana Sirokai have become Instagram influencers for the empowering paths that they are paving in fashion. These two women have worked to disillusion their followers to the unhealthy beauty standards that are continually being relayed to the masses.
To show just how harmful Photoshop can be to the female psyche, the two women teamed up with a photographer to lift the veil on the photo editing software’s distortive nature.
Photo editing is a tool with a plethora of beneficial uses, but when it comes to presenting models to an unrealistic level of perfection, it can embed futile insecurities in those who believe what they are seeing is real. Thorpe and Sirokai have been using their social media presence to bring fashion back to what it’s supposed to be: expressing yourself.
The two models have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and have been inspiring confidence in women everywhere with their approach to body positivity. One of their latest efforts tackled the problem that is Photoshop, asking their followers to “Swipe for reality.”
Collaborating with the photographer Karizza, Thorpe and Sirokai posed for a photo together and asked for it to be Photoshopped to the extremes in which most major media outlets will go to strive for perfection.
Thorpe and Sirokai both uploaded the Photoshopped picture alongside the original. Their goal was to show the drastic difference photo editing can make so their followers can see beyond the airbrush in the future.
“The purpose of this was to show you all how magazines and the media take editing to a different level,” Diana Sirokai wrote on Instagram. “Models and celebrities do not even look like themselves. We live in such a fake world it’s time to bring real back. Own who you are and slay.”
Callie Thorpe also shared some words alongside the comparative pictures, writing, “It’s no wonder women are laden with insecurities. For years we have been subjected to perfect airbrushed and often altered images across the media.”
While Thorpe admits that there are some ways Photoshop are constructive, women’s bodies are not one of them. “We want to show women that it’s okay to look ‘normal’ to have cellulite, stretch marks, and tummies that aren’t flat and toned,” Callie wrote.
If the attention and overwhelming praise Thorpe and Sirokai say anything, it’s that they are not the only ones ready for a more realistic and all-inclusive representation of beauty in the media.
