Modern criticism of the fashion industry photoshopping unattainable beauty standards seems not to have reached the ears of the Vanity Fair team responsible for Nicole Kidman's latest cover.
The image of the 54-year-old styled in Italian high fashion label Miu Miu has proved divisive online, with some calling out what they allege is excessive photoshopping.
Many claim Kidman's knee pops out at an angle incongruous with her foot, and the line of her left oblique runs just next to her belly button.
One commenter compared the photo with a video accompanying the cover story, acknowledging the differences, despite it being technologically possible to retouch videos as well.
"No 54-year-old’s body looks like that, not even Nicole Kidman's. Why are we we still doing this s**t?" read one popular Twitter response to the cover.
Other eagle-eyed scrutinisers pointed out more subtle inconsistencies, such as the cloning of the flowers behind Kidman and her shoe seemingly becoming one with the grass.
The cover image appears to contradict the accompanying interview, in which Kidman reveals issues with her health as a result of her work in the public eye.
The Australian star told Vanity Fair she had often fooled her own immune system into thinking her character's suffering was real, only to fall ill after filming.
"Parts of the body don't know, a lot of the time, what the difference is" between a role and real life, she explained.
She said she got sick after filming Big Little Lies, in which she played an abuse survivor.
"I've started to understand a bit more to take care of yourself."
A-list backlash against photoshopping
In 2016, fellow Hollywood heavyweight Jennifer Aniston penned a scathing blog post railing against years of tabloid scrutiny of her figure and persistent pregnancy rumours.
"The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing," she said.
"We use celebrity 'news' to perpetuate this dehumanising view of females, focused solely on one's physical appearance, which tabloids turn into a sporting event of speculation."
Aniston was backed by many others in the trade, including Melissa McCarthy, Olivia Wilde, Anna Paquin and Margaret Cho, as well as her then-husband Justin Theroux.
The weight of the media's influence over body image standards has led a number of countries to implement legislation to ensure unhealthy and unrealistic bodies are not presented to vulnerable consumers
Laws in France require models to provide a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall health and proving their body mass index (BMI) sits within a healthy range in order to work.
Advertising standards in Israel, known as "the photoshop law", require models to have a proven BMI of above 18.
In 2018, the Australian Association of National Advertisers introduced a code of ethics in which advertisers are instructed against content which promotes an "unrealistic ideal body image".
