How Much Does Airbrushing Actually Offend Us?

Anyone pay attention to this  photo that Glamour ran in its September issue? 

The woman in the photo is a plus-size model (apparently) and this image received no airbrushing. People flipped out. Glamour was flooded with letters from women who appreciated this gesture of body acceptance from a ladymag,  a part of the media not known to be very inclusive when it comes to women's looks. Honestly? I think it's about time that someone in media actually featured a realistically-sized woman instead of just talking about how terrible it is that models are too thin. Kudos to Glamour for that.

But then I got to thinking - why are we so surprised by this? Why is it a big deal? Are we so accustomed to the Photoshopping of images that we see an unchanged image as a novelty? I started thinking about authenticity and how much we really do value it. Even after airbrushing has become the norm in fashion magazines, we still connect deeply with an unaltered image. Is this because we feel we can relate to the model? Or because there's just something about the idea of authenticity that is essential? And if this is the case, why do we continue to use (and expect) airbrushing in mainstream media photography? 

In our textbook the authors write that "authenticity can refer to seeing or structuring an image as if without the help of the many technologies available to us today" (196), which is exactly the type of authenticity present here. We like the idea of Walter Benjamin's aura of authenticity - that's why people travel all the way to the Louvre to battle through a crowd of tourists for our average 15 seconds before the Mona Lisa, instead of contenting themselves with just a Google Image reproduction. 

But then, what's the deal with all this airbrushing if we love authenticity? Look here, and here, and here at these Vogue covers I found. It's easy to condemn how artificial and stereotypical these women are made to look, and everybody does it. But Vogue, and most other magazines of its ilk, continue to use Photoshop in their covers and editorials, and people are accustomed to thin, perfect models. 

We're struggling as a culture between upholding long-standing stereotypes of feminine beauty and giving in to our yearning for authenticity. This isn't a new idea. But what bothers me is that everyone gives so much lip service to ideas of body acceptance and "real" women when those sentiments aren't reflected in the images that surround us. What do you guys think? Does this picture mark a move in a different, and maybe better, direction?