Let’s Talk About: Photoshopping
Hi friends 😀 How are you? It’s almost the weekend… and almost the day when the Pilot is home for good! (SATURDAY) I’m so excited, I can’t even stand it.
Bfast was a smoooothie:
-1 C almond milk
-1 banana
-frozen organic blueberries
-1 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior
-organic spinach
Perfect. Even though my mouth is blue-ish now 😉
I’m off to orientation at the new j-o-b, so thought it would be the perfect morning for a discussion post about media influence on self image, namely photoshopping. This is something that my friend Caitlin has brought up a few times on her blog, which has sparked some fantastic discussion.
A tweep asked me the other day if I “was sick about the Photoshop debate.”
The answer: definitely not.
I’m not sick of the Photoshop debate for the same reason why I’m not sick about the “why you should buy organic”, “HFCS” and “can you wear black with brown” debates.
The reason: I feel like each time these topics are brought up, I become aware of an entirely different viewpoint and take away something new. Especially when it comes to the blog, since ya’all are so wise and fab 😉
I brought up this topic because I read *this article* (nsfw- not dirty, but an intense visual) the other day about Kate Winslet refusing to conform with her celebrity peers – she didn’t get breast enhancement surgery post-children. It made me think about pressure celebrities face, pressure on us non-celebrities thinking we need to look like celebrities and photoshop. The negatives of photoshopping are frequently discussed, but what about the people who think it’s not such a terrible thing?
I’ve always been a magazine fanatic. I started at the age of maybe 7 and haven’t looked back since. The thing is, reading magazines (even Cosmo and Seventeen when I was in middle school), never made me feel bad about myself,and I was overweight throughout most of my adolescence. I was too worried about what dress to wear to the school dance and what makeup look I could copy, rather than comparing myself to the models in the pages.
Even today, I think of magazines as art and use them for ideas (particularly recipes and fashion ideas), and fully expect the models to be photoshopped. It’s kind of a given, and my thing is if I’m having a bad self esteem day, I’m going to have it whether I look at a magazine or not, ya know?
On the other hand, I’m not the parent of a young, impressionable daughter, so I have no clue what it feels like to have little eyes looking at photoshopped models and wondering if that *should* be them when they grow up.
So what do you think?
Do you loathe photoshopping? Think it’s not so bad? Over the whole debate?
Hit me up in the comments- I’m curious to read your thoughts 🙂
Enjoy your day and I’ll see you after work!
xoxo
Gina
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As a mother of 3 young girls, this hits close to home… but not too close. I try to raise my girls to get their confidence and self esteem from something other than their looks. We keep them involved in activities that are active and character building. We talk about being healthy and strong, not skinny or beautiful [of course they’re goregous, but you get the idea :-)]. I don’t mind the photoshopping – it is what it is. I’m sure as my girls reach teenage years I may change my mind, but as their mother, it’s my responsibility to pay attention and have a discussion and open dialouge with them on any and all subjects. Ugh… parenting is hard work! Just my 2 cents…
I’m much more worried about the over sexualization of young girls portrayed on TV, movies, magazines, etc.
I think that design-wise, photo-shopping is a piece of the total magazine or advertisement “look.” But as for it’s influence on people, I strongly urge publications to scale back on the photoshop. I zip here or there or needing to blur something out of an image is okay. As for transforming a body or face into something unhuman – no way should it be allowed anymore. I used to look at magazines and wish that I looked like “so-and-so.” Now that I’m older, I understand that even the person they photographed looks at the image and doesn’t recognize themself sometimes because of all the retouching. I think that we as a society should make it known that photo-shopping is not okay and it needs to be banned. Thanks for starting the discussion!
I don’t have any children, but I can see how younger impressionable girls might feel the pressure even if they know that the image has been enhanced. Now that I’m older, I always tell myself that that’s not REALLY how a model looks, but I can totally see how mothers would be concerned.
If someone wants to use Photoshop to smooth out some weird colors or fix a stray piece of hair that blew across someone’s face in an odd way it doesn’t bother me. Photoshop for your personal family photos….if that is what makes you happy. But Photoshopping the image (specifically the size) of a person in a magazine, especially when the interview discusses body image or food choices: “Mary Kate ordered spinach and eggs but didn’t mind helping herself to a few pieces of bread and butter while we spoke” bothers me – it indicates that you too can eat bread and butter with a few healthy options and look “JUST LIKE THEM” when in reality, that isn’t what they look like! That bothers me…a lot.
As someone who has dealt with an ED, yes, photoshopping is horrible, and reading those magazines have been horrible for me. But I don’t think it’s just the magazines-it’s also the pervasive celebrity sites that one can get so easily addicted to. So basically, it’s everywhere. What frustrates me the most is that these magazines narrow women down into one thing-obsessed with beauty, appearance, and diet. Articles disappear and we are left with huge pictures of the latest skinny celebrity. But, even so, I do still read them from time to time, maybe for the wrong reasons, some for the right (like inspiration for fashion, like you mentioned above). I think some people like you can read them and not be affected, but studies have actually shown that for adolescence, reading them showed a marked drop in their self esteem. So, I’ve chosen to no longer subscribe to them and stick to sneaking a peak at the grocery store line 😀
I agree that self-esteem (for me, at least) is not determined by others I see, but what I see in my own mirror. Early on, I realized that I will always look different than models. I only want to be the most healthy and fit version of myself. Sometimes, especially after eating in ways that my body doesn’t appreciate, I get a little down. But on the other hand, when I’ve been taking good care of myself and I feel healthy and strong, NO picture of even the skinniest model can bring me down.
I photoshop almost ALL of my recipe photos… but I am very up-front about it.
I mention it all the time in my posts, and whenever people say, “Oh you are such a good photographer,” I make sure to tell them “I am a LOUSY photographer… but thank goodness for potoshop!”
I don’t really have a problem with magazines photoshopping out peoples’ eye circles or anything like that. Because let’s face it: people want to look pretty… and even more so if they’re going to be on the cover of a magazine for the whole world to see! It’s not really any different than wearing make-up.
Now, on the other hand, I hate that they photoshop models to look skinnier… but bthen again, I guess it’s better than making the models go on extreme diets in real life 😕
Like you said, as long as a person KNOWS the photos aren’t reality and doesn’t judge herself by those standards, that’s the main important thing!
Also, I loved this comment of yours: “… if I’m having a bad self esteem day, I’m going to have it whether I look at a magazine or not, ya know?”
If we stopped pointing blame at the media for all our problems, we’d have more time to take responsibility for our self-esteem issues. We need to stop giving the media power to control our thoughts and bodies. Pointing blame doesn’t do anything to fix the problem.
Katie, you said it perfectly!
I strongly dislike photoshopping models to make them look skinnier (I think it spreads the wrong message, if only subconsiously) but I think we need to take some personal responsibility. You hit the nail on the head with this quote:
“If we stopped pointing blame at the media for all our problems, we’d have more time to take responsibility for our self-esteem issues. We need to stop giving the media power to control our thoughts and bodies.”
i dont think all the photoshopping is necessary, why can’t people just be HAPPY with their body and the way they really look. That’s all i have to say.
EXACTLY! That’s why I can’t support it.
You know what’s funny? I’ve never been totally outraged by Photoshopping only because to me, it’s so obvious. With the oversaturation of papparazzi and cell phone cameras these days, haven’t we all seen what celebrities look like in “real life.” To me, magazine covers and editorials are no different than any other work of art — they’re trying to make it as beautiful as possible. We all know that Giselle (OK, maybe not Giselle but the rest of the world) have issues like blemishes, a bit of cellulite and uneven breasts. But why WOULD that be on the cover of a high-end fashion magazine?
I have a young daughter and while she’s not to the absorption phase, I worry to some extent about her thinking what she’s supposed to look like. But at the same time, I know who the most important influence is going to be on these issues — me. It’s MY job to tell her she’s beautiful, smart, extraordinary and beyond compare.
If you haven’t read Bossypants yet you should. She has a whole chapter about her love for Photoshop and why she thinks it’s so much healthier than actually getting plastic surgery, which is what celebs did before Photoshop.
Great topic!
I don’t understand the idea of being worried about the beautiful celebrity, who has lots of money, but thank goodness she didn’t get plastic surgery and they instead photo shopped her hips here and there. Rather than, being worried about the rest of our children in this nation who need to see real people in magazines, with healthy bodies of all shapes and sizes who love themselves. ??? The photo shopping and the plastic surgery are the same problem…it is allowing us to believe that without those things we are not attractive people…thus perpetuating an unattainable body image. At least that’s how I see it…
I’m not a mother, but I agree with Colette that, if I were one, I would be a lot more concerned with the sexualization issue than the photoshop one. However, I do have a major issue with the photoshopping thing. Personally, I don’t read magazines much because of photoshopping, so photoshopping doesn’t really affect me anymore. But I do believe that the media can be a powerful thing and I don’t like the idea that we’re not good enough as we are. This idea of perfection is one that can be very harmful to us “normal” people; if the celebrities who have professional trainers, dietitians, etc. aren’t good enough without photoshopping, then what does that say about the rest of us? Just my opinion 🙂
I’ve also come to expect photoshopping and don’t use magazine images of celebrities as ideals since I know that they’re fake (and sometimes they do a realllllly horrible job with the photoshopping.) I can see however the potential harmfulness of photoshopping to impressionable people (and maybe even to the models who have to deal with the fact that the magazines don’t think they look as good as they should so they need to compu-edit them.)
I am totally guilty of looking at people in magazines and even catalogues and thinking, “I wish my clothes fit me like that,” so I totally understand how photoshopping can give a reader, especially a young one, the impression that they aren’t what is ‘supposed’ to be the norm. However, photoshopping is now a common practice and is no longer a secret. Readers need to be able to read a magazine and pretty much take the photos with grain of salt because it is rare to find one that hasn’t been altered.
Part of what my blog stands for is celebrating natural beauty found in the world, i.e. NOT what magazines think is beauty. I wrote a post about photoshopping in the magazine industry a few months ago, and I would love for others to check it out!
http://thebeautynotebooks.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/the-awful-art-of-airbrushing/
As a model, I can confirm that a lot of photoshopping is involved, either to make your skin smoother or to make you look slimmer..I even have a photo in my portfolio where they made my legs a few inches longer ( and I’m already 5 ft11)
I just think it’s ridiculous that models are getting pressured to get so extremely thin, that they even have to photoshop them to make them look healthy!
I rather have a real size 6-8-10 or whatever model on the cover than a size 0 that is photoshopped, to make her look more healthy..
I totally understand why photoshopping occurs as it does and I do see how it can be a bad influence on children and others that might be easily influenced. I mean, it is not hard to see a picture (photshopped or not) and think “wow, I wish I looked like that!”…. but in reality photoshopping is a means to make money for companies such as those who produce magazines. As a businesswoman I understand the financial and marketing influences behind it so I do not loathe the act of photoshopping because it is part of our society that will not go away. I do not agree however with the severity of it.. but that is life I guess!
I’m 21, so while I’m not in the “young and impressionable” age group I was a few years ago. I actually suffered from an eating disorder all throughout high school (I was a ballerina – so its not too surprising), and I’ve always been an avid magazine reader but the imagines never really fueled my self esteem problems. I actually had no idea until pretty recently that magazines photoshopped, but in high school and middle school I was MUCH more influenced by my peers than the media when it came to self esteem. I’ve never looked at a picture of Jessica Alba in a magazine and then felt bad about myself, but when my friends fit into a smaller size or got more attention from boys, ate less than I did, weighed less etc thats when I would go off my rocker.
I’m not sick of it at all. I think it’s one of those things that we need to be reminded of all the time. I think it’s hard to see someone in a magazine and not think that’s what they actually look like. It’s the side by side comparisons like above that make you realize how doctored the photos actually are. And hopefully the more it’s discussed the less it will happen, who knows. What kills me is that Jessica Alba in that picture untouched looks AMAZING! And the photo shopped photo is just unrealistic. But I think unfortunately we need reminders like that frequently.
I just think that it’s a problem not because people necessary want to look like a *supermodel,* but because too many people go around thinking that’s just the norm/average/ideal, and then “what’s wrong with me?” It’s a slightly different argument (although sounds very similar)– it’s not like “ooh, I want Giselle’s abs,” it’s more like “every body i’ve seen in the past 400 magazines has perfect complexion, is 5’9″, and doesn’t have a single vein in their legs… why am i nothing like that?” when that image isn’t the norm or even real!
I’m ok with photoshopping when it comes to adjusting lighting or changing the color of a dress for a catalog, etc. Those sorts of things are ok with me. Changing the shape of someone’s body is not ok — I know it happens and I can laugh when I see photographs that I can tell have been changed, but it still somehow sends a message to me (or I just receive the message this way) that I should look that way — that this is the ideal.
I think photoshop has a place — like when a hair is out of place or the lighting just wasn’t right. I really disagree with photoshop when it is used to make people look 10 years younger, 10 lbs. lighter, 10 cups bigger, etc. on the cover of a magazine.
I actually think Jessica Alba looks BETTER in the un-photoshopped version…she’s more symmetrical and you can see muscle tone in her legs and arms, whereas after photoshop, she looks skinny-fat with no definition….
I actually kind of disagree with you on this one.
While I certainly don’t compare myself directly to a magazine model or pray to the workout gods to make me look like her, it definitely distorts what I view as “normal and healthy”. For a perfect example of this, watch any older movie. I remember watching White Christmas this past December and thinking to myself, “these perfectly beautiful women would never be leading ladies today because they have thighs and curves”.
I noticed again while watching an 80s movie…how tiny our leading ladies have become. It was really a strange adjustment for my eyes to see women considerably heavier be the object of every man’s affection back in the day. And I find something really wrong with the fact that for a brief moment I find these “women of yesterday”…kind of heavy by today’s standards.
I’m a firm believer that you can be health(ier) at any size. I went to a Wellness Fair recently with my teeny-tiny sized 0 co-worker and she and I were both shocked that I blew her out of the water in every health/fitness test.
I do agree with your ideas about older movies and how different the actresses are. However, I had to LOL when I read about White Christmas…most of the girls fit your description but I just always remember from that movie that Vera-Ellen’s waist is practically non-existent! 🙂
I personally think the unphotoshopped photo looks better. The photoshopped one looks like a sexpot, not a real woman.
I think they should tone it down, if they wanna remove a pimple, fine, but if they wanna remove a waist or thigh, not fine. They do set unrealistic expectations and make people think they aren’t “as good as” or “as beautiful as” when beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and ages.
One time I saw a girl looking in the mirror asking if these pants made her look fat. She was a size one, curvy and had a very nice body. She was 15. And a mumu could have not made her look fat. But we all compare and think what we see in the mirror, or our own pictures doesn’t measure up.
I wish we would spend as much time working on our insides as we do our outsides.
For me, I found the photoshopping you see in magazines pretty harmful. At the start of my ED, before it really became one, I cut out photos of all the women in magazines I wanted to look like. Looking at them made me feel disgusting, so I starved myself. There is this whole online community that I got pretty immersed in which involves sharing this ‘thinspiration.’ And now I look back on it, I can see just how unrealistic these images are.
This is not to say that all photoshopping is bad. Edits for lighting/contrast/removing the odd spot are all fine, but when you start drastically altering someone’s body shape, it goes too far.
I did a big post on this a few months ago
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/03/photo-editing-before-after-truths-trickery.html
There are times in food photography when no matter what you do, the lettuce is a horrible shade of green and by brightening it up and playing with the tint, contrast, sharpening, etc I can achieve a much prettier salad.
This is *totally* different from making a pale woman tan, or taking 20 pounds of a woman’s hips and adding 2 cups sizes to her chest.
As I stated in that post, as long as we realize that it’s happening in virtually ALL women’s magazines, and we realize the reason 99% of most of us “average” women dont look like magazine women is that the magazine women arent even “real”…they are edited…from mildly to heavily. As a grown woman, I realize this. As a 14 year old girl, I didnt.
Now, I tell Skylar, she’s 4 that yes the woman is pretty but they played with the pictures. She watches me edit salad on the computer and I think she realizes that magazines edit women, but since 99% of young girls arent growing up with a food blogger photographer mother, it’s safe to assume it’s going to cause major emotional issues for many young, impressionable girls.
I could go on and on…sorry for the link drop but it was an important discussion.
Thanks for this post, Gina! 🙂
I am a graphic designer. And spent a year or two working for online website where I edited womens photos. I removed blemishes, fixed fly away hair and also help soften edges. I never removed inches or attempted to create smaller wastes or etc. I am not against photoshopping. But i am against full body sculpturing. Photos in magazines are art but they need to hold back on making those people different then who they actually are. And it also depends on the type of publications. I know I don’t want to see inches removed from the models in my fitness magazines.
For me, it’s the principle of the matter. Even if we don’t feel bad about ourselves as a direct result of someone chopping 12 inches off of Jessica Alba’s waist, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take a good, long, hard look at WHY we think such ridiculousness is necessary. Why are we so afraid of the “imperfections” of reality?
I also think we should distinguish between Photoshopping to adjust the color balance of a food or landscape photograph versus Photoshopping to reshape a woman’s entire body. The former, I understand completely, but the latter is something different entirely.
Photoshopping makes me really sad. It makes me sad about the fashion industry, worldly views about body image, and even myself. I personally would love to see it come to an end, but the truth is sex sells. The real problem lies within that “sex sells” part. I recently came across a few Pro-Ana blogs and I was floored on the effect they had on me. They used these photoshopped models as “thinspiration” and for the moments that I read their blogs I actually felt myself sucked in. I had to remind myself that these people have problems, problems that don’t need to be mine. Yet, during the day I felt a little down about myself….the root of the problem was the photoshopped girls/celebs. We are told how we have to look, feel, dress, do our hair etc by these magazines, but how realistic is riding a bike in fancy clothes holding flowers, perfectly tanned and toned with a perfect pedicure and white teeth looking happy and in love with out a pimple, dirt on our clothes, wind in our hair, dimples on our thighs and crooked teeth. I just need to remind myself of this daily.
That link needs a NSFW warning please! And I’m so proud of Kate for standing up for what she believes in!
Some times I’d love to photoshop my fine lines on m forehead or lengthen my torso or space out my eyes, but I’d hate for somebody to be sorely disappointed when they met me only to find I didn’t look the same. Small “tweaking” is “okay” I suppose, but slimming people down and reshapingn jaws is crazy.
Have you seen the Scarlett Johannsen MANGO ads? They slimmed her legs down so tiny, same with her waist. It’s horrible!
I’m 23 and grew up with the whole photoshopped magazine thing, but I’m not sure how much it really affected me. I have definitely had issues with low self esteem and poor body image, but I think it has been mostly due to the examples set for me. My mother and grand mothers all had poor self esteem and hearing them say how fat they looked or how they looked bad in all their clothes made me think the same things about myself. From time to time I would compare myself to celebrities and whatnot, but I usually wanted to look like my thinner friends/family. As I’ve grown up, I became frustrated with all the negative talk from the women in my family and have tried to stop doing it myself. I still have my moments though. But when I see a stick-thin model or celebrity in a magazine, I don’t think about how I want to look like them because I know that most “real” women don’t look like that. I do know a lot of people who look at those photoshopped pictures and say that they want to look like that (including my mom), so I know it’s causing issues with the women in this country. Mostly I just don’t understand why it’s necessary. Women are beautiful on their own. Why alter that?
I think that in the side by side pictures, she looks better in the first one (which I assume is the non photoshopped one). As someone above said–color correcting, a stray hair, a funny bulge in the fabric, weird shadown, no problem, but I don’t like the idea of taking celebs (a lot of whom are already at a weight/size/shape that is unattainable for the average person who doesn’t have all star personal trainers and chefs) that look great already and making them smaller/smoother/thinner is kind of crappy.
As a model, It is part of m job to portray beauty, fashion and a lifestyle as FANTASY. Magazines, celebrities, movies are all, in one way or another, selling a fantasy lifestyle and ideal. It has become human nature to want more, better, thinner, richer. The media is playing into societies fantasies by creating them and instilling them into our lives. We must educate the young and remind ourselves that the lifestyle the media and big corporations are selling plays into consumerism and we can chose to buy into it and let it affect us or we can be happy with what we have. 🙂
I’m kinda ambiguous about photoshopping because it takes all shapes and sizes. That said, I do feel for celebrities and models who asked NOT to be photoshopped and it’s done anyways.
I’ve never wanted to be a model or a celebrity – especially based on anything I’ve seen in magazines. I think when they made them look super skinny they look like lollipops. Why would I want to look like that??
I have a daughter and I’m not super worried about her thinking she’s going to grow up to look like a supermodel based on what she see in magazines. I’d rather set a good example and have her grow up wanting to look like me!
My two cents is that my problem with Photoshop isn’t the Photoshopping itself, but the message it sends. In the picture you posted, Jessica Alba looks gorgeous in the pre-Photoshopped picture, but changing it to make her look skinnier (changing lighting, the hair, etc. I think is fine) is sending a message that a beautiful, healthy-looking person isn’t skinny enough. That’s a little twisted in my opinion and while it may not be the entire cause of self-esteem issues, it certainly does not help.
I am a sucker for magazines and love them Photoshopped pics and all. Have these images distorted our view of what “normal” looks like. Perhaps but not as much as we likely think. I have only one friend who is “magazine skinny” and she is naturally built that way. She eats and eats and eats but doesn’t gain. Her children have inherited her rocking metabolism. Most of the people I know are either a normal healthy size or overweight.
But…my daughter (7 years old) asked me a few months ago if she was fat. I was shocked and angry (who called my daughter fat!). I assured her she was not and asked her if someone had told her that and she said no. For all of you parents out there, she’s on the 35th percentile so she’s far from fat. After wracking my brain trying to figure out who may have said something to her I realized it may have inadvertently been…me. Her entire life I have been trying to lose weight. I try to have a healthy mentality about it (exercise and a healthy diet is what we preach) but do admit to having whined when nothing looked good on my “fat self”. I’m not fat. I’m a slight bit overweight (maybe 10 pounds) and am tall enough that no one notices it. Long post but I’ll get to the point. For children I think that the media are not nearly as harmful as we can be if we are not careful with how we treat ourselves.
I feel kind of torn on the issue. I really don’t mind photo shopping that much as long as people are aware of that photo shopping. I want people (my fiance especially!) to understand that the very, very large majority of models and celebrities in every magazine everywhere don’t actually look like that in real life. I have the occasional body image issues that most females have at times, and it really gets to me when I’m having one of those days, and I’ll glance at a Men’s Health Magazine or a Maxim, and see an absolutely perfect specimen that I know is touched up. I am very lucky to be with a man who understands that no one really looks like that in real life, but I am afraid not everyone knows that., especially young girls.
There was an article in Men’s Health recently that said something along the lines of “how to eat skinny on the go” and I was so shocked to see the word “skinny” in a men’s magazine! After the shock, I got really angry because I realized that the word “skinny” is such a common occurrence in women’s magazine that I wouldn’t even bat an eye.
Also, have you heard that Skechers is making those shape up sneakers for little girls, but not for little boys?
Double standards get to me way more than photo shopping.
Katherine,
so funny! I just saw that you also brought up the Sketcher shoes too. I am so upset about that!
That’s a really interesting comment about your “fiance especially”. I’m definitely not criticizing you, but I think this is more about our personal insecurity (I say “our” because I, too, have definitely wanted to tell my boyfriend the “truth” about models) than photoshopping. And this insecurity is maybe fueled by magazines, but certainly not caused by it.
great topic Gina.
I don’t feel too stronge about the actual photoshop because I see RIGHT through it. MOST MOST MOST people forget that no one really looks like that! I live in LA, I see celebrities weekly! They do not look like that..only on the Magazine racks.
I encourage everyone to remember this so they don’t compare themselves to someone that is just not real. Just the other day, a client of mine mentioned “cellulite” and how celebrities in general do not have it or have to worry about it! HAHA. Excuse me, yes they do, they say 95% of women do, celebrity or not! So We had this very topic for a discussion.
I have seen the before and afters of a handful of HUGE celebrities because I know a retoucher for top magazines….SHOCKING indeed.
I think people get caught up in comparing way too much, it is not really their fault either. What I really can’t stand, is what this can do to a young girls image of herself. Like you had mentioned of you growing up.
Did you hear about the Sketchers shape-ups for young girls by the way! I am outraged! Those darn Kardashains, geesh. 🙂
I was flipping though a Victoria Secret catalouge when I was a freshmen in college…having just gained that dreaded 10 pounds from partying and eating burritos… I was feeling kind of bad about myself…then I flipped the page again and saw a girl with no belly button. They touched up the pic so much they photoshopped her belly botton!! It made me laugh…and the moment stuck with me. I realized then that the images are to sell the product not tell me what I should look like in it.
I am definitely not a fan of the photoshop. I beleive it sends the message that those people in the ads are NOT acceptable as is, and must be improved in someway or another. Last night. I caught a glimpse of ‘America’s Top Model’ at the exact moment this comment was made by a judge of some sort on the show, “She is a pretty girl, but it’s the makeup and styling that works the magic on her”. ENOUGH SAID…
I LOVE magazines as well and expect all of them to be photoshopped.. even just a color enhancement is done in some sort of editing program. I am not a mom and might feel differently about it when I am one.. but I’m confident that when that time comes, I’ll try to education and talk to my child about reality/photoshop/and self confidence.
What would make photoshoping reasonable is if they added something to the model that was obviously fantasy, like a big unicorn horn, wings or something that says “This isn’t real!”. Oh, shouldn’t we already know that? Maybe we do, but then why do people keeping buying these magazines? Why not pick up a Tolkien book?
Frustrating especially in the fitness community, that even in our world everyone is actively checking out everyone else. After all the hard work athletes and fitness professionals go through we still put each other side by side to our “perfect” image of a yogi, crossfitter, runner, swimmer and the list goes on. Comparing and judging them rather that celebrating them as a person, and appreciating who they are at that moment. That is why I love reading articles from people like Anna Guest-Jelley.
My niece is 16, she constantly tells me that the other girls call her fat. She runs, and has told me she maintains an active diet, something which I have heard he say since she was 13. She has the typical pop star posters on her wall, glamorous with shiny hair, tiny waists. She has an archive of sixteen magazines that could easy be the foundation for a twin bed. She is a cheerleader, basket ball player, she works out with my sister and they both talk about diets, watching their weight, and how they love the elliptical. Maybe this is an okay life, yet it isn’t one I want my future daughter to have. Is it from seeing photoshopped images? No, not entirely but it is a piece of the puzzle.
Damn, that photo of Jessica Alba! The before and after. She almost looks like a real person in the before.
You know if there was no photoshopping, everyone (ok maybe not everyone but alot of people), will be complaining and scrutinizing celebrities “wow she has fat legs” “oh look at her thighs” etc… We all know the truth that noone can have the perfect legs etc, so why do we have to complain about photoshopping? anyway, i’m same as you..i’ve loved magazines since i was in my adolescents…it’s bc i love fashion and make up and all that jazz, but never to compare myself to the models in the magazine.
If people have a prob with the photoshopping they are prob placing too much emphasis in the people in the magazine and letting it have too much influence on their thoughts. They are entertainment and should be taken as such. Magazines are a vehicle for advertisements. It’s important to have a strong basis of thought in your own reality because that is the only truth you’ll ever even come close to– everything else, just try and get as much enjoyment from it as possible.
Mutual.-Photoshopping definitely comes in handy when you’ve got red-eye or a big fat zit. Or your fly is undone.
But from the perspective of a parent-I also see how I would worry (if I had a daughter) that this may affect her image. But in all reality this is life-something that we’re going to have to get used to. The nice thing is that if your daughter can understand that it’s photoshop-they’ll understand that noone is perfect, therefore, they too do not need to be perfect. Celebs obviously aren’t anywhere near perfection otherwise photoshop would be obsolete. It’s alll one big, huge, cycle.
I never had a problem with it growing up as a young girl. I looked to magazines for the some of the same reasons you did, what clothes to wear, how to apply make up, and those fun quizzes 🙂 But as a twenty something adult, trying to get in shape and being more aware of my health and fitness, I sometimes find myself comparing my body to those in magazines. I have to remember that it actually IS photoshopped & I’m a curvy girl, I will never be as thin as the models in the magazine. And I’m okay with that, I just want to look and feel great for my self!
Loved the article about Kate but the link needs a NSFW warning please! Glad I was using my iPhone & not my work computer when I clicked on that. Could have been awkward…
I think the main thing is to teach your children that they ARE photoshopped. I have been subject to comparison to magazine covers and other advertisements. But after reminding myself that they really don’t look like that, it’s easier to handle.
I do want to point out that several of these comments talk about how it’s a magazine cover, so they want it to be beautiful. The only problem is that’s saying that the inch they took off Jessica Alba’s thighs wasn’t beautiful. And that’s just sad.
I always enjoy the opportunity for these discussions. It means we’re not totally blind to the manipulation, thank goodness. I too read Seventeen and Cosmo growing up. I don’t feel like they gave me a huge sense of negativity about my body because I understood that many of the photos were of MODELS whose JOB it was to be rail thin. And sometimes the images weren’t event their real bodies (photoshopping). Alas, the idea that we’re supposed to be skinny, tan and do all the right beauty routines to make men happy definitely was there. I think being involved in athletics and team sports especially, helped me develop a good sense of self and what healthy women can look like.