Actress, Kate Winslet, has spoken out about the need to reaffirm body positivity in a recent interview at the Elle Women in Hollywood event last week.
Stating that photo altering technology has wreaked havoc on the self-esteem of women all over the world, she has vowed to address this issue by contractually holding editors and the media accountable.
Winslet told E! News‘ Catt Sadler, that she has it written in to her contract with L’Oréal, that her images are to be in now way altered in her Lancôme ads.
“I can only ever speak for myself and I can only ever do things that are important to me,” Winslet told E! News.
“It’s a hope that other people might follow suit but it does feel important to me because I do think we have a responsibility to the younger generation of women.”
“I think they do look to magazines, I think they do look to women who have been successful in their chosen careers and they want people to look up to, and I would always want to be telling the truth about who I am to that generation because they’ve got to have strong leaders. We’re all responsible for raising strong young women, so these are things that are important to me.”
Winslet’s words provide an important lesson to those who look to advertising and media for representations of, albeit unrealistic, beauty.
True to her word, Winslet is not new to this debate.
In a 2009 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Winslet expressed a similar view, insisting that her images were not to be altered.
“I have wrinkles here, which are very evident,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “And I will particularly say when I look at movie posters, ‘You guys have airbrushed my forehead. Please can you change it back?’ I’d rather be the woman they’re saying ‘She’s looking older’ about than ‘She’s looking stoned.’ “