Keira Knightley: "Don't (Re)Touch My Breasts!"

Keira Knightley has had her share of boob controversy.

First there was the digitally enhanced King Arthur poster, followed by speculation over whether she really had enough up top to fill that hat she was holding in the recent Chanel ads. Now Keira is taking a stand, refusing any cleavage alterations on the publicity photos for her new film, "The Duchess."

"She has insisted that her figure stay in its natural state," an insider said. "She is proud of her body and doesn't want it altered."

Not so surprisingly, the creepy commenters have been out in full force responding to this news over at HuffPo. "She has no breasts because she's anorexic" is just one of a couple hundred thoughtful gems offered up in the last 24 hours. Keira has already publicly squashed the anorexia accusation. In fact, last year she sued over it, won, and donated the money from the lawsuit to a British eating disorders organization.

We throw around the "unrealistic beauty ideals" phrase, and while it's true that Keira's body type is not realistic for most of the female population, it's her body and she deserves to feel good about herself--just as people of all shapes and sizes deserve to feel good about themselves, too. The ultimate goal is body diversity, isn't it? When an actress tries to make a point about self-acceptance by calling out the practice of retouching, it really doesn't help the cause to call her a "freak of nature" or tell her to "eat a cheeseburger." [Huffington Post]

Submitted by 5resolutions (view blog

) on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 11:32

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Are we photo-shopping the life out of
celebrities?

We've been told over and over again that these stars and starlets are photo-shopped and yet, somehow, women are still striving for this nonexistant perfection. I always appreciate when stars say "no" to all the photo-shopping, after all, it's their voice that seems to speak the loudest on this contraversy.

But I have to wonder if women really want to see all the "perfection" erased. Standing in line at the grocery store, I've seen plenty of women pointing, laughing, and cringing at the gossip magazine pictures of stars and their cellulite-- as they really are. Yes, we want to know that these stars are imperfect, just like the rest of us, but somehow, it seems, that we also like to see pictures of perfection-- as if to say that if these stars look this way, then maybe we can too (not choosing to remember, in that moment, that the stars actually don't look that way either).

Dr. Robyn J.A. Silverman

Child and Teen Development Expert

Body Image Specialist

http://www.DrRobynSilverman.com

http://www.DrRobynsBlog.com

http://www.BodyImageBlog.com

Submitted by DrRobyn on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 11:07

Keira Will Be An Honoree for Shaping Youth!

As one who has a body type similar to Keira (I'm writing a piece for Eco Child's Play this very moment called 'Breastfeeding AA in a DD world" dispelling myths and insecurities for World Breastfeeding week) I think I've found a new star to honor to resurrect our People Shaping Youth section!!! (Danica McKellar was our first honoree, here for her 'math doesn't suck' book http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=613)

Keira and others like her are heroes in my book, for championing change and putting themselves out there on personal topics...(Keira is also DYSLEXIC, not anorexic, btw, and she's been very upfront with the fact that she wants to 'prove' to others that she's smart, even though she had learning issues w/school)

To me, we MUST keep looking at how this is all landing on kids.

My own 13-year old daughter is quoted in the breastfeeding piece asking if I "ever wanted to get work done there," and teased about how she's "already bigger than I am"---yet when I pulled a Keira on her being perfectly satisfied with my (lack of) same she was a bit incredulous...

Translation? "eww, if this is what happens to you when you bf, I'll pass" ---I could literally FEEL her thinking it. ugh. WRONG MESSAGE.

THIS is why I'm championing change on the ECP blog this week with that very personal post...THIS is why I want to change the tides and ask our industry to fully support a star's wishes...

Get a better camera angle, if they're so concerned about $$ perception! Don't digitally alter a star against her own request!

There are tons of slide shows of Keira UNaltered that were tastefully shot and gorgeous...(tho I'm curious if she's purposely drawing attention to her smaller chest-size to be a cyclebreaker in her multitude of strapless gowns?) http://photogallery.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2355505.cms

Dr. Robyn (above commenter) is our Shaping Youth body image
correspondent, btw, and her response is authentic & interesting, for it relects the reality-based cruelty of a business out to
sell and the consumers of same who have learned to deride/belittle in
'Simon says' style rather than uplift, embrace positive cyclebreakers
like Keira.

In fact, the Ugly Betty episode I just watched reflected this very issue, 'wanting' to show 'real' but then 'fudging' to make it palatable for the masses by 'fixing the scale to add pounds' as a PR stunt...Dialog went something like "designers don't hire 'real' because it's about the clothes, not the models, they're just human hangers, they don't want the distraction." (a similar line was mentioned in Milan, actually, when I posted about the runway weigh-in controversy) http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=72

Of course, in the show, Betty trumped all by recruiting real life humans to huge acclaim and paparazzi flash cams...but in reality? To Robyn's point, just look at the Dove backlash on some of their 'real people' campaigns, with snarky comments even in the press) sigh.

We have a long way to go, but Keira, Kate (Winslet), Jamie (Curtis) and others CAN help us get there, if industry would 'let them.' (again, its' $$ and 'what sells') We need to support their efforts 200% if we ever want to see REAL change.

Thanks, Claire and Magali for opening up the dialog with this Keira post...Important stuff...btw, here's Shaping Youth's category deconstructing 'body image' and its huge impact on kids: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?cat=5

In hope and tenacity, --Amy

Amy Jussel

Founder/Exec. Dir.

www.ShapingYouth.org

Submitted by Shaping Youth on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 10:45

In Breasts We Trust

Yes, Amy, thank you for the great points. This week, I'm having trouble keeping a straight face about all the hype around this topic given that both of us have been writing about Bucket Lists and the importance of making life meaningful.

http://drrobyn.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/family-bucket-list-7-ways-to-pou...

But, here we are and this indeed the topic. When looking deeper into photo-shopping, while I think we all know that it's used everywhere, on nearly every picture, you would hope that it would mostly be used for improving lighting and maybe removing a zit or something like that. It's a sad comment on our need for...what? Perfection? Symmetry? Inflated body parts?...when we need to alter EVERY picture. It's like those stores that always have a half off sale-- we always feel like we're getting something better even when the it's a complete hoax.

As quoted in my recent blog post

http://kissmyassets.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/keira-knightley-says-no-to-...

the guy from The Photoshop Effect said, "Not one picture is released without... permission." We must really be insecure -- we can't all look that bad to have NOT A SINGLE picture that can go out without being puffed, buffed, shined, and shrunk to be considered beautiful.

Yes, Amy-- what does that say to the children? If Keira Knightly-- hailed for her beauty-- is not beautiful enough as she is...who is?

We have a lot of work to do.