Whether it’s an intentional play on the phrase “inner beauty” or just a coincidence, a new fat-shaming trend called “thinner beauty” has emerged thanks to Photoshop and Instagram.
The trend takes real photos of plus-sized women and men and digitally edits them so they look thinner. All this without the consent of the people in the photos. The images are cropped side by side and captions are added such as “beautiful” and “not beautiful” – emphasizing that a thin body is the only type of body that looks beautiful.
There is a new Instagram account dedicated to Thinner Beauty, with only two photos so far that have been posted. Under the account profile description it says: “We believe thinner bodies are the best type. Fat acceptance should never be acceptable in today’s society.”
According to the Huff Po UK, Project Harpoon is dedicated to creating the original images and then reposting them with the hashtag #thinnerbeauty. (The Facebook and Instagram accounts have been taken down, but the Twitter account is still active.)
#thINNERBEAUTY pic.twitter.com/S2xMY0nAJZ
— Wimly (@InjectCoffee) August 21, 2015
Several of the photos use plus-size model Tess Holiday’s image without her consent who has spoken out against this campaign. If you recall, she is the world’s first plus-sized model to be signed to a modelling agency in the U.S. She also came out with a campaign called #effyourbeautystandards to help raise awareness about women’s positive body image.
(Thinner Beauty/Instagram)
According to the Huff Po UK, the model has called for a boycott of Project Harpoon and any other sites like it. “It’s abominable that this [Facebook page] is using my image without permission to promote themselves,” Holliday told E! News. “Loving yourself is the most powerful message we all need to stand behind.”
Rivkie Baum, editor of plus-size magazine SLiNK, told the HuffPost UK Lifestyle that she also finds the trend “absolutely horrendous”.
“Women’s bodies are continuously dissected by the media, but this takes it to a whole new level and violates their bodies in a whole different way.”
