Take this, Project Harpoon...
And in today’s most infuriating, sexist news, a new social media group has been set up dedicating time and energy to making women look thinner with Photoshop.
Project Harpoon (seriously, that’s the name) claims to 'help misguided women' by editing their images to make them look alarmingly thin, with awful captions and accompanying hashtags like #SkinnyAcceptance and #thINNERBEAUTY.
The creators target supposedly ‘plus-sized women’ including celebrities Melissa McCarthy, Meghan Trainor and Rebel Wilson, as well as lingerie catalogue models and feminist activists.
The captions are as shocking as the pictures themselves, with disgusting before and after comparisons like ‘from freight train to getting gain’ and ‘Now this is a true looker in disguise. From double wide to a possible bride, being thin could do wonders.’ Isn’t the internet an awful place sometimes?
What’s even sadder is that the anonymous (read, cowardly and deluded) person who has created the account seems to think they are actually a feminist and are promoting a healthy body image for women around the world.
Actress Melissa McCarthy was targeted by the group
That’s despite such joyous captions as; ‘If you're a feminist, you should at least be in shape so you can attend the protests, not get stuck in the parking garage.’ Seriously.
‘If I offend 1000 people but inspire 1 to lose weight and live a longer happier life then ya that's fine by me,’ the creator wrote in response to the squillions of comments from Instagram users, calling out their bullying behaviour.
One totally right Instagram user wrote; ‘There are beautiful women killing themselves every day because of what you're doing and you glorify the fact that you have a page bullying people to promote that thin is prettier.’
‘You made these women look anorexic which in ITSELF is unhealthy and a psychological illness... there isn't 1 post on here that promotes how to be healthy not one clean eating post... how about you show success stories to support your notion that thin is better or fitter as you so obviously put it?’
Rebel Wilson is also a victim of their mental editing process...
Lingerie company Neon Moon, whose beautiful model Paulina found herself a victim of Project Harpoon's also responded in the most fantastic way.
'With a few clicks of a button, they transformed [Paulina] into the very narrow standard of 'beauty' Neon Moon has always avoided,' the brand wrote on their blog.
'By Project Harpoon (what a disgusting, trash name), asking Facebook users to compare and contrast these two images they are reinforcing that women are objects to be judged, purely on their looks. They are reinforcing the notion that women's bodies are pieces of meat to be carved up for sexual consumption and entertainment.'
'We know our model to be a strong, talented and confident woman. She is comfortable in her own skin and will not be losing any sleep over this attack on her being. However, there are teenage girls, women, transgender women and others out there who are still struggling with body image. Social media is extremely powerful amongst teens and young adults. What message does this give to them?'
We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
