Does photo editing affect society's view of body image?
DESCRIPTION
So Jennifer Lopez has cellulite, Justin Timberlake has eyebags, and Madonna doesn't have the skin of a 27-year old. Where does that leave the rest of us? In this beauty and youth obsessed society, how does one get a realistic idea of our own bodies, let alone the overly photoshopped made to look impossibly thin bodies of the actors and models whose photos saturate our daily experience? And just because you can edit your own imperfections out of every image, should you?
ASSIGNMENT
Read through the links on the following articles, and choose a minimum of two (to four) quotes to include in your response. Write a four paragraph, one page response to the prompt. In your response, answer the following questions:
As a young/developing photographer, do you think the editing software that is available changes peoples perceptions of what actors and models look like? Does it create unreasonable expectations of what regular people, and teenagers in particular, should look like? What do you base your opinion on, and how has learning to use this software changed your opinion? What do you think that your generation of young men and women think of their own looks and own bodies as a result of this kind of media manipulation?
Body Image Links
VIDEO ABOUT YOUTH AND ADVERTISINGhttp://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-25-thin-models_x.htm
http://nymag.com/beauty/features/42081/
http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/News+%26+Features/Body+Image/Getting+bodies+in+perspective/
ARTICLES
Is Photoshop Destroying America's Body Image?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/photoshop-body-image_b_891095.html
Has Photoshop gone too far? Kate Winslet and Brad Pitt are among several public figures who think so and the American Medical Association (AMA) is now backing them up.
Winslet was one of the first to break ground when she took action against GQ magazine for digitally altering her body in its photographs -- making her unrealistically thin. Pitt requested that there be no retouching on his Wmagazine cover, personally selecting, Chuck Close to shoot it, a photographer known for his extremely detailed portraits that expose skin flaws. While most people dream of magically removing their pounds and wrinkles -- and some celebs demand it -- more and more are seeing Photoshop as dangerous terrain.
Negative Body Image? Blame Photoshop
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-women/2009/03/16/negative-body-image-blame-photoshop
My friend Chrissi pointed out this YouTube video to me yesterday showing just how much Photoshop can do to turn an unattractive, obese woman into a size-4 stunner. Trouble is, most of us don't see our bodies digitally doctored and spend way too much time staring at our real selves in the mirror, comparing how we look to those "perfect" bodies that grace magazine covers. As a result, far too many of us punish ourselves with brutal diets or self-loathing thoughts. In fact, 1 in 10 of us partakes in behaviors—bingeing and overexercising, skipping meals, abusing laxatives—that are indicative of an eating disorder.
Do thin models warp girls' body image?
Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
When Frederique van der Wal, a former Victoria's Secret model, attended designers' shows during New York's Fashion Week this month, she was "shocked" by the waiflike models who paraded down the catwalk. They seemed even skinnier than in previous years."This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to send out. The people watching the fashion shows are young, impressionable women," says van der Wal, host of Cover Shot on TLC.
Psychologists and eating-disorder experts are worried about the same thing. They say the fashion industry has gone too far in pushing a dangerously thin image that women, and even very young girls, may try to emulate.
"We know seeing super-thin models can play a role in causing anorexia," says Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and vice president of the American Psychiatric Association. Because many models and actresses are so thin, it makes anorexics think their emaciated bodies are normal, she says. "But these people look scary. They don't look normal."
Celebrities are perfect; fans are adoring. When that contract is broken, out come the daggers.
My relationship with celebrities is generally simple: Stars dazzle me with unattainable good looks and glamour, and in turn I dutifully worship (and envy). They are supposed to be everything I am not: beautiful, thin, flawless. Because, really, isn’t that their job? While I am glued to a computer, munching vending-machine candy bars, aren’t they getting facials and doing Pilates? I hold up my end of the bargain (purchasing overpriced movie tickets and tabloid magazines), they hold up theirs (remaining perfect).
But recently a couple of these gorgeous women have had the audacity to gain weight and even … exhibit cellulite. On a beach. In a bikini. Not allowed! It’s a violation of the celebrity rules, as unacceptable as if I went to my boss and said, “Sorry, I’m not going to work today. But you still have to pay me!”
In the past, confronted with such nerve, fans would have no recourse other than to change the channel, turn the page, and vent to friends over coffee. But with the rise of the 24-hour gossip cycle, sites like TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com have given that anger a new, public, permanent venue. Blogs and message boards let Everyfan post spur-of-the-moment bile spews, anonymously and with no thought that the remote target of that spew might actually object.
Until now. TMZ posted images of the perky brunette Jennifer Love Hewitt, best known as the sexy ingénue from I Know What You Did Last Summer (and also for reportedly inspiring John Mayer’s ballad “Your Body Is a Wonderland”). She was wearing a bikini, on vacation in Hawaii, and the image of her rounded derrière—complete with dimples and ripples—unleashed a flood of causticity. The caption accompanying one photograph read, “We know what you ate this summer … Everything!” The public comments varied from “so gross” to “nasty” to “time to put down the fork!”
That’s typical now; what was different was that this time, Hewitt commented back the next day. In an entry on her personal blog titled “About the Hawaii Photos…,” she wrote, “I’ve sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women’s bodies are constantly scrutinized. To set the record straight, I’m not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.”
And then it happened again. “Everyone is so critical,” chef-personality Nigella Lawson told theTimes of London recently. “All must be sacrificed to the great god of skinny.” The curvy cooking-show host was responding to viewer comments on BBC’s Website criticizing her figure. One person called her a “porker.” Another asked, “What sort of an example is she setting, with her weight and her appetite for high-calorie sweets and cream?”
These two women obviously don’t think that just because they’re famous, they need to be Hollywood-flawless. Nor are they declining to comment. It’s doubtful the person known as “snomadd” on TMZ expected Hewitt to ever see the comment “Looks like somebody needs to do some jogging … badly!!” much less respond.
So Jennifer Lopez has cellulite, Justin Timberlake has eyebags, and Madonna doesn't have the skin of a 27-year old. Where does that leave the rest of us? In this beauty and youth obsessed society, how does one get a realistic idea of our own bodies, let alone the overly photoshopped made to look impossibly thin bodies of the actors and models whose photos saturate our daily experience? And just because you can edit your own imperfections out of every image, should you?
ASSIGNMENT
Read through the links on the following articles, and choose a minimum of two (to four) quotes to include in your response. Write a four paragraph, one page response to the prompt. In your response, answer the following questions:
As a young/developing photographer, do you think the editing software that is available changes peoples perceptions of what actors and models look like? Does it create unreasonable expectations of what regular people, and teenagers in particular, should look like? What do you base your opinion on, and how has learning to use this software changed your opinion? What do you think that your generation of young men and women think of their own looks and own bodies as a result of this kind of media manipulation?
Body Image Links
VIDEO ABOUT YOUTH AND ADVERTISINGhttp://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-25-thin-models_x.htm
http://nymag.com/beauty/features/42081/
http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/News+%26+Features/Body+Image/Getting+bodies+in+perspective/
ARTICLES
Is Photoshop Destroying America's Body Image?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/photoshop-body-image_b_891095.html
Has Photoshop gone too far? Kate Winslet and Brad Pitt are among several public figures who think so and the American Medical Association (AMA) is now backing them up.
Winslet was one of the first to break ground when she took action against GQ magazine for digitally altering her body in its photographs -- making her unrealistically thin. Pitt requested that there be no retouching on his Wmagazine cover, personally selecting, Chuck Close to shoot it, a photographer known for his extremely detailed portraits that expose skin flaws. While most people dream of magically removing their pounds and wrinkles -- and some celebs demand it -- more and more are seeing Photoshop as dangerous terrain.
Negative Body Image? Blame Photoshop
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-women/2009/03/16/negative-body-image-blame-photoshop
My friend Chrissi pointed out this YouTube video to me yesterday showing just how much Photoshop can do to turn an unattractive, obese woman into a size-4 stunner. Trouble is, most of us don't see our bodies digitally doctored and spend way too much time staring at our real selves in the mirror, comparing how we look to those "perfect" bodies that grace magazine covers. As a result, far too many of us punish ourselves with brutal diets or self-loathing thoughts. In fact, 1 in 10 of us partakes in behaviors—bingeing and overexercising, skipping meals, abusing laxatives—that are indicative of an eating disorder.
Do thin models warp girls' body image?
Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
When Frederique van der Wal, a former Victoria's Secret model, attended designers' shows during New York's Fashion Week this month, she was "shocked" by the waiflike models who paraded down the catwalk. They seemed even skinnier than in previous years."This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to send out. The people watching the fashion shows are young, impressionable women," says van der Wal, host of Cover Shot on TLC.
Psychologists and eating-disorder experts are worried about the same thing. They say the fashion industry has gone too far in pushing a dangerously thin image that women, and even very young girls, may try to emulate.
"We know seeing super-thin models can play a role in causing anorexia," says Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and vice president of the American Psychiatric Association. Because many models and actresses are so thin, it makes anorexics think their emaciated bodies are normal, she says. "But these people look scary. They don't look normal."
Celebrities are perfect; fans are adoring. When that contract is broken, out come the daggers.
My relationship with celebrities is generally simple: Stars dazzle me with unattainable good looks and glamour, and in turn I dutifully worship (and envy). They are supposed to be everything I am not: beautiful, thin, flawless. Because, really, isn’t that their job? While I am glued to a computer, munching vending-machine candy bars, aren’t they getting facials and doing Pilates? I hold up my end of the bargain (purchasing overpriced movie tickets and tabloid magazines), they hold up theirs (remaining perfect).
But recently a couple of these gorgeous women have had the audacity to gain weight and even … exhibit cellulite. On a beach. In a bikini. Not allowed! It’s a violation of the celebrity rules, as unacceptable as if I went to my boss and said, “Sorry, I’m not going to work today. But you still have to pay me!”
In the past, confronted with such nerve, fans would have no recourse other than to change the channel, turn the page, and vent to friends over coffee. But with the rise of the 24-hour gossip cycle, sites like TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com have given that anger a new, public, permanent venue. Blogs and message boards let Everyfan post spur-of-the-moment bile spews, anonymously and with no thought that the remote target of that spew might actually object.
Until now. TMZ posted images of the perky brunette Jennifer Love Hewitt, best known as the sexy ingénue from I Know What You Did Last Summer (and also for reportedly inspiring John Mayer’s ballad “Your Body Is a Wonderland”). She was wearing a bikini, on vacation in Hawaii, and the image of her rounded derrière—complete with dimples and ripples—unleashed a flood of causticity. The caption accompanying one photograph read, “We know what you ate this summer … Everything!” The public comments varied from “so gross” to “nasty” to “time to put down the fork!”
That’s typical now; what was different was that this time, Hewitt commented back the next day. In an entry on her personal blog titled “About the Hawaii Photos…,” she wrote, “I’ve sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women’s bodies are constantly scrutinized. To set the record straight, I’m not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.”
And then it happened again. “Everyone is so critical,” chef-personality Nigella Lawson told theTimes of London recently. “All must be sacrificed to the great god of skinny.” The curvy cooking-show host was responding to viewer comments on BBC’s Website criticizing her figure. One person called her a “porker.” Another asked, “What sort of an example is she setting, with her weight and her appetite for high-calorie sweets and cream?”
These two women obviously don’t think that just because they’re famous, they need to be Hollywood-flawless. Nor are they declining to comment. It’s doubtful the person known as “snomadd” on TMZ expected Hewitt to ever see the comment “Looks like somebody needs to do some jogging … badly!!” much less respond.