What decides where the navel is on the belly? It does seem to float around from person to person.

Irony corner: the site I found the candid pictures on runs those “Cartoonize yourself” ads quite prominently.

Did it occur to you to flag the offending comments instead of saving up your indignation for future use?

Thought that’s why they hired mods.

Seriously, not only are you good at catchy retorts (“saving up your indignation for future use” – I like that), you’re also good at changing the subject. Look, it’s your blog. You’re welcome to whatever (double) standards you like.

Pity that; she used to be a good looking chick. Now she’s a walking billboard for cosmetic surgery gone horribly awry.

And alcohol does horrible damage to ones face, don’t it?

This isn’t a forum for bashing Ms. Lohan, we’re just observing bad photoshoppery here.

Don’t be cruel here, please.

Her belly button is really high!

High as in the back of her head? Look at the picture in the floral bathing suit.

Admittedly, I’m a touch heavier than she seems to be.

The visual facts speak for themselves.

how about “Lindsey Lohan’s belly button appears to have grown legs.”

Really, even if you’re not attracted to women, chances are that you came out of one and know how they look. Unless it’s some wolf-boy retoucher.

It’s true perspective definitely plays a role in all of this, and perhaps it really is the angles. However, the frequency of photoshopped images in mainstream media begs the viewer to question the veracity of what is shown. To pretend like these images weren’t touched up is absurd, of course they were, the point is to think about how photography functions in this situation. Is the purpose to display a true depiction of a celebrity, or an image that functions as a “painted” portrait of a celebrity? An illustrated portrayal of a person is certainly nothing new to magazines, media, or fashion, however, I feel like the ambiguity of images like these is misleading to the audience. It is one thing to touch up hair frizzies, an odd shadow or small imperfections, however it seems like significantly altering a person’s silhouette crosses an unspoken line.

A question to you all – how do you feel about altered images? Would you be okay with it if you felt like it was made clear that you were looking at an idealized form instead of externalized plastic surgery?