Most serious organizations have rules against photo manipulation. But, they typically do not follow these rules. Many magazine and television photo editors and advertisers think that retouching, thinning, “beautifying”, models is expected. This photo manipulation is not only physically, but psychologically affecting many people of all ages.
Self esteem is being pushed to an all time low, by making people think that they are not as good as the models they see in many television and magazine ads. Glamour magazine surveyed 33,000 women eighteen to thirty-five. 75 percent of those women thought they were fat. Though, only 25 percent were medically overweight. Even 45 percent of the underweight women thought they were fat! Surrounded by stick figure like advertisements few people can eat without worrying about their image.
Many women and men compare themselves to these manipulated images thinking “Maybe if I don’t eat lunch today, I can have as great a body as that model in that magazine” Yeah….Well, sorry that’s not going to happen, because these models aren’t really as perfect as we think.
The flawlessness of the models is an illusion created by make-up artists, photographers, and photo retouchers. Teeth are bleached white. Blemishes, wrinkles, and stray hairs are all airbrushed away. Almost all the models we see are completely unrealistic. How is that beautiful? I do not see the beauty in being edited, airbrushed, and retouched so much that it is physically impossible to look that way.
The irony is that the models have already been through hours of hair styling and makeup to remove the slightest blemish. Even after all of that, a 5-foot-10, 100-pound model still isn’t thin or perfect enough to suit some photo editors.
People come in so many different shapes and sizes, but you would not know that from looking at advertisements.
Almost every ad we see is of a woman who is unrealistically thin. What about the overweight and averaged weight women? Are...