5/6: Photoshop Hiatus In The Media

I think I made my opinion clear in my earlier post about female objectification in the media. As if it weren't bad enough that the content of ads was sexist, they need to worry that they're not skinny enough, their boobs are big enough, their hair needs more volume, etc. Yeah, well, it's never good enough, is it? Because there's still extreme editing on the computer no matter how beautiful the models are in real life.

On the left, you see Filippa Hamilton, a Ralph Lauren model. Obviously, she was pretty enough to be a runway model for the brand, but the photo ad was definitely way too much. I mean, her head (not even including her hair) is as big or bigger than her waste. Really? I mean, if you have to edit the picture, at least make it convincing. And I say that with the most sarcasm possible.


Same with the Jessica Simpson ad to the right. Unless you have an afro or something, your head and hair should not be bigger than your waist. It's just not natural, and it's just not fair to women seeing the ad. To be honest, I think it's more than a bit insulting to the models in the ad.


We've all heard it before, everyone is beautiful. In addition to that, magazine and ad companies choose the extremely beautiful people in the first place. They don't only Photoshop models to appear thinner, they remove all the little "flaws" there. One might think the picture on the left was Photoshopped in the first place, but nooooo, she was too fat, her skin isn't glowing enough, she has too many wrinkles, eye bags and crows feet are starting to form... All of these must be unacceptable, right? I think it's just the way people are, it's normal. All this editing is telling people that we should stop the process of life. There is no way to stop it, it's inevitable. The sooner we embrace that, the sooner we'll be happy with ourselves.

However, I think they're starting to make improvements. For instance, the whole no-make-up photo fashion spread, or the real size models.

These women, are realistic weights, and maybe I'm just being really cynical, but I bet these images were edited still.. If not, they still choose models who have wonderful and glowing skin, killer hairstyles, and expertly applied make up. Oh well, I guess that's what makes fashion so exclusive, huh?

Again, maybe I'm just cynical, but all this new "natural beauty" stuff doesn't make women stop trying to change themselves. It's almost like it's a new trend. Make up companies are coming out with "natural" toned cosmetics, telling consumers that wearing the earthy toned eyeshadow/liner combo will make them look like a natural goddess or something. Right, because adding more make up makes you more natural, hmm..

Either way, I still think the media is still taking steps toward a better message (albeit tiny, tiny babysteps). But then again, that's how we all learn, right?


Oh, and here's a funny failure of an editing job done :)