Getty Images is continuing its push for gender equality, announcing it will no longer accept creative images depicting models whose body shapes have been retouched to make them look thinner or larger.
The industry-first initiative was spurred by new laws in France that require publishers to label images of models that have been retouched.
The Getty Images team has for years been tracking the evolving representation of women in imagery and seen a positive shift in customer choices (fuelled by consumer demand) toward those images which show more realistic and authentic representations of women. Search term “unfiltered” has gone up +219% over the past year, “authenticity” has increased 104% and “real life” up 99%.
The news follows previous Getty Images diversity and gender equality efforts, as outlined below.
• Lean In Collection: In February 2017 Getty Images celebrated the three-year anniversary of the Getty Images Lean In Collection– a collection of realistic, authentic images of women and the communities who support them. The Collection is curated in partnership with Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.Org.
• MuslimGirl.com: On March 8 2017 Getty Images announced an exclusive content partnership with MuslimGirl.com that aims to tackle misrepresentation of Muslim women in the media and advertising. Together, they’ve created an offering of new, high quality images that authentically represent Muslim women in a fresh and contemporary light. MuslimGirl.com is the largest Muslim women’s online platform in the United States.
• Refinery 29: In January 2017 Getty Images and Refinery29 launched The No Apologies collection, expanding on the existing 67% Collection. The new library of images creates an opportunity for the media industry to evolve the conversation and action around accurately representing women’s bodies, diversity, and the experiences that women face in their everyday lives.
• Jaguar Land Rover: On March 8 2017 Getty Images announced a partnership with JLR to create perception changing imagery of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers. More people than ever are searching images of women in STEM careers, yet results are often outdated and don’t reflect today’s exciting and varied roles. This partnership aims to change that.