Best charity calendar this year: Beauty Without Photoshop

[Rosebuddy7]

A glamour photographer and a make-up artist who also does mostly glamour work get together and produce a calendar for the girl next door, ie. no perfect bodies, no hair extensions, no perfect features and faces to die for - just pretty ordinary girls who look, well, ordinary and pretty... without any help from the air brush. A confidence boost for teenage girls and young women everywhere, plus the make-up product info for whoever wants to try it at home.
All the proceeds are going to the women's charity WOMANKIND (UK registred charity no: 328206)
£5.99 + p&p
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beauty-Without-Photoshop-Calendar-2016-/221950168519?hash=item33ad42cdc7:g:uegAAOSwAKxWVMNa

[specialsubject]

it says in big letters at the top '12 brave girls'. Are they implying it is brave to be photographed without being retouched to buggery afterwards?

the girl in the image is inch-thick in makeup, surely that's enough to make her unrecognisable?

nice idea, poor execution.

[enderwoman]

Confused...

Have the women done something brave or are they brave because of the no photoshop?

As a mother I worry about the self esteem of the next generation but not sure of the point of this calendar?

[specialsubject]

if it is brave to be seen without photoshop then clearly no-one should ever leave the house!!

[specialsubject]

answer came there none....

the blurb on the calendar says 'can a makeup artist and a glamour photographer make 'regular' girls look fabulous without photoshop?'

I would bloody well hope so. The second page of the ad does at least show that in the other pictures the women are smiling - except the one hidden behind a book, presumably not allowed out unless photoshopped. The main pic with the miserable face isn't the best.

the message this is sending gives me the absolute rage. And it is being done in aid of a women's charity with the slogan 'equal/respected/proud'.

[Rosebuddy7]

Sorry no answer for a few days, little thing called Christmas been keeping us busy...

This was a last-minute, well-intentioned attempt to raise money for a women's charity without resorting to the usual charity calendar gambit - ie getting naked. (Brilliant idea from the WI first time, bit lazy and predictable now.)

We're also always hearing how 'regular' girls want to see more images of girls who look like them (ITN report from Rita Chatterjee earlier this month), so a calendar featuring regular girls with nice make-up is what we decided to do. Is it fair and reasonable to call the girls brave for being photographed without Photoshop? Well, considering most school photographs of six-year-olds are airbrushsed these days, I'd say yes.

The girls are all smiling - including the girl 'hidden' behind the book, as you can clearly see from the sparkle in her eyes - except for the spoof Marilyn covergirl, which is tongue in cheek, so calm down specialsubject and save your "absolute rage" for the plight of the impoverished women the charity's trying to help.

[SitsOnFence]

I applaude what they are clearly trying to do, but can we please, please start celebrating women for something other than the way they look?!

A calendar of everyday inspirational female heroes would have been a better choice.

[Rosebuddy7]

Thank you, SitsOnFence,

We completely agree about a calendar featuring inspirational female icons being better - that's already been suggested for another time. (All our sales have been from word of mouth and presenting to local businesses etc, rather than on ebay, so I guess a lot of people think the same as you.)

This year – being 3 middle-aged women, not Pirelli – our main problem was lack of time and finding enough girls willing to be photographed, whose real lives don’t revolve around posing for the camera and caring too much about how they look.

Next year we’ll do female icons – and start work in May, rather than the end of October – and the images still won’t be Photoshopped!! Watch this space.

[SitsOnFence]

Sounds really great, good luck with it!

[Rosebuddy7]

Thanks again!