Keira Knightley poses topless in stand against photoshopping: When you’re the recipient of one of the most egregious cases of image manipulation of recent years, you’re going to have good reason to dislike the practice. Knightley’s chest was infamous enlarged on the poster for 2004’s King Arthur, seen below, and her distaste has clearly stayed with the actress over the last decade.
In an interview with The Times, Knightley explained her reasoning behind the shoot for Interview Magazine:
I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch, because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are… I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters…
I think women’s bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame. You need tremendous skill to be able get a woman’s shape and make it look like it does in life, which is always beautiful. But our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape…
Whilst Knightley’s actions are admirable and well-intentioned, and it is shocking that even some like her (who is as close to the white, western media’s unfortunate image of beauty as possible) get warped to ridiculous standards, you’ve got to take “different varieties of shape” with a pinch of salt, as the image of a pretty, skinny, white, cis woman posing topless - retouched or not - is fairly prevalent throughout our society. Were this a female celebrity not fitting any of those categories, it’d be a slightly more brazen, revolutionary move.
(via hitsvilleuk)