I prefer my supermodels airbrushed

Maybe you've heard a statement like this recently:

"Women should stop photoshopping pictures of themselves. Girls, you're perfect the way you are!"

Statements like this one are everywhere. In line with this trend, Aerie Lingerie has decided to run a new line of ads without photoshopping its models. The campaign's slogan: "The real you is sexy."

Call me crazy, but I think statements like the above are completely counterproductive. Not to mention...really dumb. I mean really, really DUMB.

Here are two reasons.

First, the argument behind the statement above is fundamentally flawed. It ASSUMES that a woman's value is based on her physical beauty.

It could be rewritten: "Women should stop trying to add to their value by photoshopping themselves. Because they are already naturally beautiful, they are already valuable."

That last sentence is the core of the problem: "BECAUSE a woman is naturally beautiful, she is already valuable."

See what I mean?

Put another way: if you assume that a woman's value has NOTHING to do with her physical appearance, then how is it affirming of her value to say she's naturally beautiful?

Second, photoshopping is just one way women try to make themselves appear more beautiful. Should we outlaw makeup? Hair dye? Cute clothes? Push-up bras?

For some reason our cultural has put photoshopping in a category of its own, separate and distinct from the myriad ways women alter their physical appearance. Why?

Real sucky logic. What do they teach in schools these days?

And that is all.