There’s a lot of wonky photoshopping going around — enough that people are speaking up about it. Recently, actor and activist Jameela Jamil actually requested that one magazine not photoshop her. A little touch-up here and there is fine, right? You might move a hair out of someone’s face or increase the exposure. You know — the basics. But that’s not what’s happening on many magazine covers.
People are either whittled down into a whole new body shape and size, or they’re given scary features that don’t look… totally human.
The issue is, photoshopped magazine covers not only do a disservice to their subjects by reducing them to a caricature of themselves. It also harms people, particularly vulnerable younger people, by teaching us that impossible and unrealistic beauty standards are the norm.
But we also have to ask why most of these cover mess-ups are SO ridiculous?
Like, why do people need to chop off arms and legs? What’s so bad about someone’s hand placement that you need to entirely chop it off? And why-oh-why would you make someone look like a monster? Why such a hot mess, guys?
You tell us. Here are some seriously ridiculous WTF magazine covers in recent history…
1. The monster hand cover.
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For some reason, someone thought that this model holding hands with… her own hand was the way to go? Elegant! We’re not sure if that was left in from another image of her maybe clasping her hands, but it looks like someone seriously forgot to clean up their work.
2. The giant boob cover.
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Kerry Washington is lovely. What’s not lovely? This crazy boob explosion someone decided was not only necessary — but totally passable.
3. The random weird baby cover.
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We are entirely sure that this baby and this woman are totally separate entities who have never, ever met in their lives. That kid is sort of just hovering on top of that woman.
4. The missing leg cover.
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This Elle cover is super interesting, but where did Kylie Minogue’s leg go? Has it twisted and turned up into her dress somewhere? Hello! We’re looking for a leg!
5. The lopsided leg cover.
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Now, this isn’t extremely egregious, but the fact this is a major magazine on just about every magazine stand everywhere is a problem. One of Fergie’s legs is noticeably thinner than the other — and it’s not an illusion.
6. The Taylor Swift’s evil twin cover.
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We all know that Taylor can’t come to the phone right now… because she’s dead. But THIS? This monstrosity must be her zombie twin. We’re not sure what Russia’s Oops! magazine was thinking, but that’s definitely an appropriate name for this publication.
7. The phantom hand cover.
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This Vogue cover — yes, VOGUE. Come on, guys — is gorgeous. Except for that the model’s arm and elbow are completely missing. We can assume it’s out of shot, except that her hand would absolutely have an arm attached to it, even if the arm was out of shot. Who got fired, we wonder? Because someone needs to get fired.
8. The Prince William as a boy band star cover.
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This Hello magazine cover is a real treat. Because it’s featuring Prince freaking William posing like your emo neighbor and total crush, Jake, from 7th grade. He’s even wearing lip gloss! Incredible.
9. The missing arm cover.
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In this lovely picture of Kristen Stewart, her leg not only looks bent pretty weirdly (but we’ll let it pass), her one arm has totally disappeared. What goes on behind the scenes? Do they think, “This isn’t necessary!” and they get rid of it? Seriously. We want to know.
10. The missing knees cover.
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Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid look great — except that their legs have been stretched to the point of unreality, and Gigi doesn’t really have even an iota of a knee. On either leg.
11. The inhuman muscle cover.
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Zac Efron’s cool, right? Or, he was back when we were about 16. Nevertheless, he’s beefy — so beefy he has muscles no other man on Earth has.
12. The pretty scary Eminem cover.
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And yet another gentleman who got the wrong end of the deal? Eminem. Just look at his weird, pretty face and shimmering eyes? Huh.
13. The missing hip cover.
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It really looks like Demi’s poor hip and thigh got the boot in this pic, which you can tell by the fabric that sort of sits right outside of the nothingness where her body and skin should be.
14. The extra Oprah hand cover.
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This magazine features some serious powerhouses, like Oprah (our Queen). So why would you go ahead and give her extra hands?
15. The “not a real person” cover.
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Is this… Barbie? Jennifer Lawrence? No. It’s Ashlee Simpson. That’s right. Whatever this magazine did to her was inexcusable. They simply changed her into someone else altogether, which is a great way to not get any Ashlee Simpson fans to buy your magazine.
16. The impossible giraffe neck cover.
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And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, one poor model gets a new neck — like, a really, really long neck.
17. The on-purpose photoshopped cover.
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We’ll end this whole charade with GQ Magazine’s comedy cover issue, which actually goes to great lengths to showcase all the weird magazine cover mess-ups we’ve seen before — and it’s amazing.
Now that’s more like it. Let’s keep pointing it out when we see it. Hopefully, magazines will get the drift and stop turning people into weird butchered imitations of the people they’re supposed to be.