Complex accidentally posted a pre-Photoshopped image of Kardashian on its website -- before her thighs, arms and waist had been digitally sculpted. In a matter of hours the photo was gone. But in that brief time span, those who spotted it got a little reminder that we should think twice about taking photographs at face value.
Aside from U. Photoshop, the go-to graphics editing program that got a foothold in the s, has become so ubiquitous that most of us gaze at faces, bodies and landscapes, not even registering that wrinkles have been diminished, legs lengthened and the sky honed to a dream-like shade of blue. And, unlike its predecessor, airbrushing, anyone can use it. In , the fashion website Jezebel posted unaltered images of Hill that were shot for a Redbook magazine cover.
The fallout was huge -- the Jezebel post generated more than 1. Many commenters were angry that an already attractive woman had her image altered to appear on the cover of a national magazine. Redbook declined to comment for this story.
Not surprisingly, Hollywood starlets were eager for Elvgren to elevate them with his magic paintbrush. The melon-breasted, small-waisted sameness of his images invented something of a new pulp genre: physiological science fiction. Much like our latter-day Photoshop humanoids, the artwork of Elvgren, Vargas, and their peers rely on elements of caricature, fixating on erotic body parts, the breasts and hips, as well as on secondary sexual characteristics — big eyes, smooth skin, all the alluring physical accessories.
These illustrations obviously amplified and emended the actual women who modeled for them. Were they, however, photographs that had been digitally manipulated, their distortions would rankle and disconcert.
If we could ditch the idea that these images bear any resemblance to reality, viewers might not feel conned or played for fools. Seen and appreciated for what they are, magazine images might gain in artistic vibrancy what they lose in everyday authority. Constrained by their origins as photographs, they stop short of embracing full stylization. They force themselves to walk a very fine line: romanticize without being preposterous, improve upon nature without grossly misrepresenting a famous physique with which viewers are familiar.
When an apparently hipless Demi Moore graced the cover of W last year, readers blanched. What were the editors thinking? This has led to a rise in breast augmentation and anorexia to allow for the tiny waist and large hip and bust that is so unrealistically fought for.
For the men in countries like Brazil plastic surgeries are usually more centralized to the face, as Germanic features are idealized, while remaining tanned. Plastic surgery has become a real life Photoshop for the youth that has grown up in a world that allows them to believe there is only one way to be beautiful.
By refusing to leave models the way they look naturally, companies are feeding into the insecurities of adolescent children, and telling them that they should feel ashamed of the way they look because naturally they will never be as beautiful or handsome as the fabricated person on the cover of a magazine, or the almost animated creature selling some product.
On a brighter side however, there are many companies that are fighting against using Photoshop to advertise their products, but the idea is unfortunately still in its infancy. These companies, instead of just using untouched photos, are calling attention to this fact as if it is some brand new idea to use real looking people to sell products instead of unrealistic Photoshop creations.
These baby steps towards a better culture are just that, baby steps and have yet to become popular in the countries where the advertising is the most extreme. In the celebrity world where stars are constantly lauded for being perfect and holding to the golden standard of glamour that an A-list Hollywood star would be admired for, one may or may not be disappointed to know that celebrities are humans too — and would much rather remain that way.
Brad Pitt was for a similar cause in choosing photographer Chuck Close to photograph him for his feature in W Magazine as Close was known for his attention to detail in photographs without the use of retouching. Associations and even congress have stepped in to control the out-of-control situation of photoshop and misleading consumers. The American Medical Association AMA announced that it was against the manipulation of images in advertising as photoshopped images of unattainable standards may result in psychological problems such as unhealthy self-image and eating disorders.
However, this form of regulation may not be entirely successful as it is nearly impossible to police all the ads in the world that adhered to a standard in propagating for the unrealistic alterations of images to make people appear perfect. Photoshop has become a major problem because it has become so commonplace that it has set the standards for not only beauty, but acceptance.
Even those who are informed have trouble resisting beauty propaganda. Not only do the after effects of Photoshop take a toll on body image, but the before effects are crucial as well. For example, take a woman who is on the curvier side and is happy with her body. She sees an image of someone like Kim Kardashian or Beyonce without retouching and values their curvy figures, thus feeling confident about her own.
The result is huge damage to the confidence of young women. Because now, not only are they comparing themselves with the models and actresses in magazines and on their screens, but with their peers — and, perhaps most distressingly, with themselves.
You create an online alter ego for yourself, and she is gorgeous and sexy and perfect, and what you think boys want. Whiteley tells me the competitiveness, jealousy and bullying among girls interacting with one another online are out of control. Study after study shows that social media is harming the mental health of teenagers. Some who grew up in a different time will dismiss this issue as pure and simple narcissism, but such an analysis fails to grasp the psychological complexities of the problem.
Those of us who know what it is like to grow up in a culture with a value system that places your body above all else will know just how much energy this preoccupation expends — how it bleeds away at your ability to act in the real world, to achieve things. Of course there is an element of narcissism in selfie culture, even if it is one largely rooted in insecurity — where the likes and the compliments appear to add value to your existence as a young woman in a society obsessed with female bodily perfection.
Now it is worse than ever.
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