Clothier American Eagle will not use retouched photos of its models for its new lingerie campaign, the company says. So-called imperfections, ranging from stretch marks to tattoos, will be visible in American Eagle marketing.

That’s great, right? For the past few years, body image advocates have said rampant Photoshopped images in magazines give women—especially teens—unrealistic expectations about how their bodies should look. Girls look at such pictures and try to live up to what they see—though those very images aren’t achievable by the models themselves.

Despite the company’s apparent good intentions, research psychologist Peggy Drexler says this strategy can be just as damaging to young girls’ self-esteem. “…by calling attention to the bodies of their unretouched models, American Eagle is doing exactly what it purports to be rallying against: Drawing attention to women’s figures and all their possible ‘flaws.'” Drexler wrote at Time.com.

Drexler goes on to say, “It’s arguably preferable that campaigns continue the practice of airbrushing, and for teens and women to believe that most photos they see in advertisements and in magazines are enhanced, and couldn’t possibly represent the truth. It’s one thing to understand that you can’t live up to a celebrity ideal, or to the picture on the cover of a magazine—it’s not real anyway. But when the teenage girl still doesn’t live up to the unretouched, natural, ‘real’ women in American Eagle’s ads, how will she view herself then?” (Time)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.