America Ferrera: Really this thin?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Jezebel.com -- a must for anyone who questions the veracity of women’s media -- broke the story on the subtle (and seemingly unnecessary) airbrushing of Faith Hill for Redbook a few months ago. Did you see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of the 39-year-old country singer posted on the smart and delicious site? Sadly, in my opinion, Redbook always felt less disingenuous than other magazines for women. (Full disclosure: I wrote two cover stories for the publication earlier this year and the editors didn’t ask me to serve up the usual, requisite, inane interview questions like ‘How do you feel sexy first thing in the morning?’ or ‘Which lip balm rocks your world?’)

Nevertheless, on to the next offender. In this month’s issue of Glamour, the stunning, zaftig America Ferrera looks as if her arms were put in a pencil sharpener. I stared at the cover in Ralph’s yesterday in shock because her head practically exceeds her rib cage in width, thanks to a Photoshop scalpel. The effect? Weird, fake and infuriating. (Clearly, this make-believe photo didn’t escape Jezebel either.)

In the issue, Glamour has the nerve to ask America how she feels about being curvy. Little does she know during this interview, she ain’t curvy no more.

GLAMOUR: How do you feel about being the newest spokeswoman for curvy figures in Hollywood?

AF: I don’t hate it. I feel like I’m a regular-size person — I’m a size 6 or 8, which is totally normal. Sometimes I worry more about losing weight than gaining weight, because this is how people know and accept me. I do feel like if I wanted to get in better shape, there might be a backlash of, Why isn’t she comfortable with herself anymore? So I try to figure out what my own goals are.

This type of tomfoolery needs to stop. Shame on Glamour for whittling down this actress to a mere twig of her true self.