“Germany’s most popular women’s magazine is banning professional models from its pages and replacing them with images of “real life” women instead.” (story, via).

Editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert is quoted as saying he’s “‘fed up’ with having to retouch pictures of underweight models who bore no resemblance to ordinary women.” No, you read that correctly: “‘For years we’ve had to use Photoshop to fatten the girls up,’ he said. ‘Especially their thighs, and decolletage. But this is disturbing and perverse and what has it got to do with our real reader?’” (my emphasis)

Needless to say, some people disagree: “Louisa von Minckwitz, owner of Louisa Models in Munich and Hamburg, where models have to be ‘size 36 (UK size 10), tending towards size 34 (UK size 8)’, said she understood the rage about underweight models but doubted that readers really wanted to buy a magazine to look at ordinary women.” Well, it’s time to let readers decide - and not the owners of modeling agencies.