I know everyone has already covered this, but I was thumbing through the September issues of Allure, and man--what an insult. I know Allure is a magazine all about beauty, fashion and makeup, and that all of these things are tools in the art of deception--tools most of us use on a daily basis. But the one thing the average woman doesn't have at her disposal is an overly zealous retoucher who spends hours painstakingly removing every pore, every line, every flaw, every extra pound.When I look at Britney Spears on the cover of Allure and see her shiny, wavy (wig) hair, her porcelain skin, and her smaller frame, it just frustrates me. Real women can never live up to this false standard of beauty...hell, Britney Spears herself can't live up to the standard she is setting, and it really does a disservice to us all in the long run. Why bother having a real person on the cover of a magazine? If what we want is perfection, why don't publishers and advertisers just use Barbies in their shoots? Barbie probably doesn't require Photoshop, after all!
