Skip to main content

Apple bites it with decision to Photoshop a smile on a woman’s face

apple bites it with decision to photoshop a smile on womans face screen shot 2015 09 10 at 7 23 39 pm
Women, as a whole, are under no obligation to plaster on an expression that renders them feminine, sweet, submissive, accommodating, or any number of adjectives that are commonly associated with what millennia of social expectations have deemed “feminine.” This isn’t to say that we should be traipsing about with a scowl on our faces, nor can we deny the power of a friendly demeanor. But when smiles become a social expectation, a line has been crossed.

Which brings us to Apple’s decision to Photoshop a smile onto the ruby red lips of a female model. Adobe executive Eric Snowden, who was invited on stage during an iPad Pro demonstration, was displeased with the steely and strong (but rather neutral and unsmiling) countenance of the woman in the photo. “I wish she had a little bit more of a smile. I think it would warm up the design quite a bit,” he said. “Luckily we have an app for that.”

Related Videos

Snowden decided to fix her face, turning the corners of her lips up for an expression he found more acceptable. An avalanche of social media commentary followed this, with many commenters finding the incident to be the personification of literally everything that is wrong in the tech industry today.

“I’m not happy with the model’s smile. Let’s Photoshop it" Apple: Portable Sexism since 2015

— Jonathan Kingsley (@JFKingsley) September 9, 2015

"Good news, guys, you no longer have to tell a woman to smile. Just photoshop it!" -Apple(ish) http://t.co/xAw2XiPq51 (via @juliezeilinger)

— Slade Sohmer (@Slade) September 9, 2015

Despite Apple’s awareness of its need to improve diversity among employees (an industry-wide problem), the fact that this faux pas raised no alarm bells is an indication of just how desensitized we’ve become when it comes to subtle sexism. The woman who appeared on screen during the demonstration was the first female presence in the two-and-a-half hour presentation, and her purpose was to receive criticism and superficial beautification from a man.

After all the stick Apple get about women & they choose to PHOTOSHOP A WOMAN'S FACE. I cannot. #AppleEvent

— Guardian Tech (@guardiantech) September 9, 2015

Did he really just force-Photoshop a woman to smile more at this Apple event? THAT was the best example of image editing…? Nice one.

— Emily Combs (@emily__combs) September 9, 2015

As a woman (and one who works in technology, no less), this is a sentiment that has become all too familiar. Whereas it is common to find executive head shots of men looking very serious (and sometimes downright unapproachable), their unsmiling faces are considered appropriately professional.

But for women, such images — even on stage — are dismissed as cold, aloof, or arrogant. As though there weren’t already enough road blocks to making it to the top in an industry that is stunningly dominated by men, even the manifestations of our moods are put under a microscope. After Serena Williams won her quarterfinal match against sister Venus at the U.S. Open, a reporter asked her why she wasn’t smiling, saying, “You just won a match. Normally you smile when you win, you come here, you laugh. What happens tonight? Is just because you beat Venus or because you’re thinking about what is going next? What’s wrong?”

Was Apple’s photoshop an intentional slight towards women? No. But does it point to a very longstanding and extremely salient issue in technology today? Absolutely. And if it takes some angry tweets and ridicule to point out just how unacceptable such a move is, so be it. We women have faced much worse.

Editors' Recommendations

Apple could soon put an M3 chip in its worst laptop
Fortnite running on a Macbook M1.

Apple’s MacBook lineup is full of great laptops, but the 13-inch MacBook Pro really doesn’t feel like it belongs. Yet a new report claims Apple will update that device with an M3 chip later this year instead of simply killing it off.

The news comes from 9to5Mac, and the website says its sources have confirmed the 13-inch MacBook Pro is going to get a refresh with a new M3 chip, potentially at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

Read more
Photoshop AI thinks ‘happiness’ is a smile with rotten teeth
Phil Nickinson, as edited by Adobe Photoshop's Neural Filter.

You can't swing a dead cat these days without running into AI. And nowhere is that more true than in photography. I've certainly had fun with it on more than my share of photos. But the more I attempt to be a "serious" photographer, the less I want to rely on artificial intelligence to do my job for me.

That's not to say it doesn't have its place. Because it does. And at the end of the day, using AI filters isn't really any different than hitting "auto" in Photoshop or Lightroom and using those results. And AI certainly has its place in the world of art. (Though I'd probably put that place somewhere way in the back, behind the humans who make it all possible in the first place.)

Read more
Apple cracks down on ChatGPT apps with harsh age ratings
App Store on-screen illustration

Apple is in a deadlock with email app BlueMail over its decision to give the app's latest update an age restriction of 17 and older due to its ChatGPT integration.

Apple is currently blocking the update because the app's developer Blix Inc. disagrees with the company's stance to give BlueMail an age restriction, having rejected the brand's update application last week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Read more