‘Seventeen’ Magazine Signs ‘Body Peace Treaty’: Is It Enough?

After a 14-year-old girl led a crusade against altered photographs in Seventeen, the magazine’s staff vowed not to change girls’ body or face shapes. But is their new Photoshop policy really all that different from their old one?

According to Ann Shoket, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Seventeen “never has, never will” alter the way girls look. Apparently, their retouching just involves “removing wrinkles in fabric, stray hairs, a few zits, random bra straps,” etc. Hmm…interesting. Essentially, because they admit no wrongdoing, there is nothing for Seventeen to change.

Jezebel's Jenna Sauers puts it this way: “So, a quick list of what Seventeen is not doing under the terms of this ‘treaty’: it is not going to stop Photoshopping its models and celebrity subjects. It is not going to acknowledge that its reliance on Photoshop has ever been in any way problematic. It is not going to commit to publishing any unretouched photo spreads. Lame.”

Seventeen’s new “Body Peace Treaty” has the support of the National Eating Disorders Association, but even their president, Lynn Grefe, admits that this is just a first step in working to promote positive body image and more attainable standards of beauty in magazines.

"I'm not saying it's a total victory," said Grefe. "Seventeen, Teen Vogue, Vogue, Cosmo, every magazine still has ads for diet products and other things that we find problematic, but in terms of the Photoshopping stuff, I believe that Ann is sincere and wants to really educate the consumer and work with the girls and show them what has been Photoshopped and how to recognize that."

So SodaHeads, what do you think about Seventeen’s “Body Peace Treaty”? Is it enough?