Jessica Simpson talks about “finally loving her body” for the September 2010 issue of Lucky magazine, according to the cover featuring the singer and former reality TV star. However, her picture next to those words didn’t depict Simpson in her true form at all.
It’s a discovery made by the magazine’s former editor-in-chief, Kim France V blog post on August 15 when reflecting on the prevalence of Photoshop on the covers (after a suspected retouching of the latest issue of Vogue).
France then recounted a story about the state of liberation in which it had participated and in hindsight, “it wasn’t particularly proud of it”. Although it was “exciting” for Simpson to get the 2010 big cover, the process didn’t work out as well as she had hoped.
“When the cover film came out, we could see that[Simpson’s]size was about a 14 – which is considered normal by many rational standards, but not by glossy magazine standards, not in 2010, not by a long shot.” He wrote for the Cup of Joe. “I’d like to be able to tell you that I fearlessly insisted that we put it on the cover anyway, to make it look the way it really did. I didn’t….we made it skinnier—much skinnier than it actually was.”
France told Yahoo Life it was “a tribute” to Simpson’s size 14 rating at the time. However, she says, “You simply didn’t see larger or even average-looking women on magazine covers at that time, unless they were Oprah.”
How Lucky Magazine demonstrated body positivity
Despite the heavily modified image – and Cash that the magazine faced at the time – Simpson’s version of Lucky tried to sound positive in nature.
“Jessica Simpson has seen a significant evolution in her personal style, and she’s been inspired, as she says, by coming to terms with some serious physical issues over the past year.” Excerpt from the journal. “I stopped fighting her hourglass silhouette, for example, after realizing we’re all obsessed with looking like the perfect Barbie type, which isn’t always pretty. It’s about making peace with yourself.”
It was a minor effort, paradoxical, when combined with acceptance of revision.
“That cover line is probably the most embarrassing aspect of the entire cover, and I obviously really regret it,” says France. “I think the idea of body positivity back then was just a matter of lip service, unlike now, where it seems to come from a much more honest place.”
Alex Lighta body confidence influencer, told Yahoo Life, “It was meant to be an inspiring headline surrounded by an image that not many knew was edited to make her body look completely different and fit the beauty (read: thinness) standards of that time.”
Body standards in the early 2000s and 2000s
And Light admits that those standards may seem “shocking” today. However, “it was indicative of the way women’s bodies were viewed at the time: they were only worthy if they were skinny,” she says.
Others testify to that Magazine covers for the month of September 2010, also. “Get a great butt” Seventeenth JournalThe Back-to-School issue reads next to a photo of Katy Perry, while Mary-Kate Olsen covered Marie Claire as the issue touted a section dedicated to “Diet Secrets: What Women Really Eat.” The cover of Elle UK magazine even wrote: “How harmful is being skinny?” Along with the smoldering Emily Blunt.
Rafaela Mancusoan advocate for body image and mental health, tells Yahoo Life, “I usually stay away from magazines in general because they were always about ‘how to lose 10 pounds fast’, or I got so jealous of the beautiful, skinny women on the cover. It added to the shame I was already carrying.”
“Whether directly or indirectly, we are constantly being told which bodies are good and which bodies are bad,” she continues.
“Anyone who grew up consuming the messages of that era is likely now conditioned to believe that we need to be thin in order to be worthy, desirable, successful, and happy,” says Light. “Thinness was glorified and obesity was severely condemned.”
To this day, France maintains that she had no choice but to change Simpson’s appearance. “Once we shot a size 14 woman for the cover, this cover couldn’t have made it out the door and past heads unless she was downsized,” she wrote. “And so I did it, to a humiliating degree.”
She went on to write: “Jessica Simpson herself reportedly hated the cover, and who could blame her?”
What France has not done, and should not have done, according to Mancuso, is acknowledge the damage that image has ultimately contributed when it comes to France. The lasting effects of the high ideal.
“She didn’t consider how her actions contributed to the idealized beauty standards that cause eating disorders in so many young girls,” says Mancuso. “It’s great that she knows the cover was bad, but I don’t think we’ll move forward in society until we actually address the root of the problem, which is obesity phobia.”
If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, please visit the National Eating Disorders (NEDA) website at the following link: nationaleatingdisorders.org for more information.