Alex Cooper faced a wave of backlash and drama after she used Photoshop on an Instagram post, and now she's explaining why she decided to do that.
In August, Alexandra Cooper, a popular influencer and podcast host, posted a photo to her Instagram where she did some photoshopping. Alexandra, who goes by Alex, is normally known for her body positivity, and so the photo sparked a backlash after users on TikTok revealed the fact that it had been photoshopped. Now, Alex is explaining why she posted the photo in the first place.
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Alex said she was 'uncomfortable' with how her body looked in the photo.
The photo in question was taken in Las Vegas as Alex was celebrating her most recent birthday. As she explained in a recent episode of her podcast Call Her Daddy, she went out for a big group dinner with friends and family after drinking all day. After their dinner, they made their way to the club and took some photos along the way in which Alex said she was "uncomfortable" with how she looked.
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“I saw those photos and I was upset, but immediately Lauren wanted to post it and I said hold on, I want to edit this photo,” she explained on the podcast.
She continued by saying that she usually uses an app called PicMonkey to edit her photos, but that she had decided to download Facetune for this photo in order to give her body a more hourglass figure.
Alex was exposed when her friend Lauren posted an unedited version of the same photo.
Alex's photo editing was eventually discovered, and she faced a wave of backlash as a result.
“I go onto Instagram and open my DM’s and there’s a DM from a girl that says ‘go f--k yourself, you should kill yourself, you are the biggest f--king poser, you say you don’t edit your photos but you’ve been exposed,'” she explained.
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Alex began editing her photos in high school.
In a recent podcast episode, Alex came clean about her history of using photo editing software on her photos.
“The first thing I ever photoshopped was to make my legs look bigger," she said, adding that she started around 14 after she became aware of what boys were saying about her.
“I remember I got bullied for how thin my legs were. I got called malnourished when I was younger, people told me I had an eating disorder.”
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Alex also added that she used to be excited for days when she could dress down and wear sweatpants, just because they meant her legs wouldn't be visible. By the time she'd reached college, Alex said that editing her photos was a habit, and although she's preached body positivity, it's clear from her confession that she hasn't always been able to practice it herself.
Although editing your photos can be harmful to the body image of others, Alex's reasons for editing her photos seem pretty clear. She was succumbing to the same pressures that so many young women face to look and act a certain way. Body positivity may be a nice idea, but it's clear that it can be harder in practice than it is in theory.
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