I love this young girl & her mission! Really wish that Seventeen magazine had taken up her challenge (to be honest, I see it as a HUGE missed opportunity for them).
Every day I get messages from young girls begging for help to fix normal, everyday, common body ‘flaws’ (note: actually not flaws, but are perceived that way. Cellulite is no more a flaw than your ears are. It’s normal, common and something that 90% of women have: not that you’d know it from the way it’s represented in the media). Most young girls have no idea how SKEWED our notions of beauty are or how deep they’ve been internalized. Even though most teens women are aware of photoshopping practices, they still pine for the altered bodies they see everyday in magazines, ads, billboards etc.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a magazine that, even just ONCE A MONTH, promoted real bodies? As they are? With no digital alteration?
It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a step in the right direction. And you would think it’s not too much to ask (in fact, it may be just the kind of thing that boosts sales at a time when print media is struggling).
Excerpt via Modern Mom
Julia Bluhm, 14, has gotten more than 48,000 signatures for her online petition to “give girls images of real girls” in the pages of Seventeen magazine. The eighth-grader asked the magazine to commit to printing one unaltered photo spread per month.
In the petition written to persuade the editors, Bluhm wrote that girls are deeply influenced by the perfect images they see in the magazines and rip their own bodies and faces apart when they themselves fail to live up what they don’t realize are Photoshopped, airbrushed standards.
“Here’s what a lot of girls don’t know,” she wrote in the petition, “those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake. They’re often Photoshopped, airbrushed and edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.”
“For the sake of all the struggling girls all over American, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up,” Bluhm continued.
A step in the right direction? Thoughts?
via Gawker
The heads of Vogue’s 19 international editions have come together to form a six-point pact which promises, among other things, to stop the practice of working with models younger than 16, or those who, at the editors’ discretion, are determined to be suffering from an eating disorder.
“Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the wellbeing of their readers,” Condé Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse said in a statement.
Dove ad: The Evolution of Beauty (Time-lapse)
If you ever wanted to know why the ads & models you see look so ‘flawless’, THIS is why. If you’ve ever compared yourself to them, STOP. If you’ve ever felt bad because you weren’t perfect, know that perfect doesn’t exist. Even for models.
Be YOU. Do YOU. Love YOU.
Thanks crossfit1440 for sending me the link! It’s a body love MUST watch.
xo
Physically Photoshopping Ourselves Out of Reality - A MUST Read.
This article is so full of WIN, it hurts. Excerpts…
Henry Farid, a Dartmouth Professor who specializes in digital forensics, put it quite succinctly: “The more and more we use this editing, the higher and higher the bar goes. They’re creating things that are physically impossible. We’re seeing really radical digital plastic surgery…big breasts, tiny waist, ridiculously long legs, elongated neck. All the body fat is removed, all the wrinkles are removed, the skin is smoothed out.” But you don’t have to be a professor to see this impossibly high bar being raised higher by the minute.
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We are in the midst of a beautiful reality that is ours once we recognize it and grasp hold of it.And studies show that when we can learn to love ourselves – despite the beauty ideals we are surrounded by and cannot obtain – it shows! Recent studies show us that girls who don’t like their bodies or appreciate them – regardless of their actual appearance – become more sedentary over time and pay less attention to having a healthy diet. And that makes sense. If you think you’re gross and worthless, why would you take care of yourself?
On the flipside of that study, research has found that girls who feel good about themselves and respect their bodies – regardless of what they look like - are more likely to be physically active and eat healthy. They are less likely to gain unnecessary weight and they make healthy lifestyle choices far into the future. How we think about our bodies and our beauty has everything to do with how we treat ourselves. When we can learn to love and respect ourselves, regardless of how our bodies appear, it shows! We must learn this now and we must begin to teach the little girls in our lives how beautiful their realities are and can always be.
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Here’s an outrageous idea: What would happen if confident, happy, beautiful women decided to forego painful and expensive anti-aging procedures, breast lifts and enhancements, liposuction, all over hair removal or tanning regimens? How could that change the way their daughters, students, friends, nieces and coworkers perceived themselves and their own “flawed,” lined, real faces? Their own varied-looking and perfectly functional breasts, behinds, thighs, arms and abs? How could simply owning and (treating kindly and speaking nicely about) our so-called “imperfect” bodies affect not only our own lives, but those over whom we have influence? Is it possible to slowly but deliberately change the perception of these “flaws” as something to shame, hide and fix at any cost to something acceptable and embraceable in all their human, womanly real-ness?
We say yes.
The Knesset has passed a new law banning the use of underweight models for commercial advertising. The measure is designed to prevent the idealization of emaciation and anorexia as a form of beauty.
“Today the plenum ignited a revolution in the way beauty is perceived in Israel,” stated Kadima MK Rachel Adatto and Likud MK Danny Danon, sponsors of the bill. ”This law shatters the ideal of anorexic beauty, which has served as a model for the country’s young people who have tried to imitate this impossible illusion and have suffered from eating disorders as a result.
“This law will send a message to teenagers that being thin is acceptable, but slimness has its limits, and there is such a thing as being too thin,” Adatto added.
Models with a body mass index (BMI) lower than 18.5 will not qualify to appear in advertisements in the State of Israel, according to the new law.
In addition, any ad in which airbrushing, computer editing or any other form PhotoShop editing is used to create a slimmer image for a model must state that fact, clearly.
Superbowl Sunday is coming up this weekend! Still haven’t picked a ‘team’ to root for (I’m Canadian & from Montreal. Unless the Habs are playing, I’m torn) but looking forward to the game nonetheless.
So I’ll be watching. Pretty sure you’ll be watching too. In fact, over 70% of us will probably be watching. I’m not really a football fan, but I’ll be watching for three reasons.
1. I like seeing the players pat each others bums. I really like that they wear tights while doing this.
2. I’m a Madonna mega-fan. Since I was little. The sound of her name always makes me wanna get up and dance. I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but the Material Girl is my QUEEN. (I’m still waiting for an opportunity to show off my super-fan knowledge in some sort of trivia game).
3. The ads. I love seeing them first, and talking about them the next day.
When it comes to ads, most of us see the humor, but ignore the subtle messaging. I’m not easily offended, but sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between an ad promoting a product and an ad promoting degradation or stereotypes. Sometimes it’s obvious, and I’ll notice my face scrunch up almost immediately. Sometimes it’s not so obvious, and I feel guilty as I giggle lightly along wondering why.
I know we live in a world of extremes: those that are easily offended suffer through rolled eyes from those who think they should lighten up. And those ‘lighten up’ people tend to (wrongly) think that these ads mean little more than the 30 seconds of time they’re allotted.
Here’s the truth: I don’t believe every ad is intended to be offensive, and I think that there are good people sending bad messages simply because they’re not aware or ignorant to the ramifications. But I think it’s our responsibility to point out the offenses to make advertisers more aware of the shift that’s taking place: people are becoming hip to the crap we’re being fed, and we demand changes to the content we’re being exposed to.
We’ve come a long way, and there are BRILLIANT marketers out there who know how to sell a product using humor… without promoting stereotypes, degrading women, and hyper-masculinizing men. More and more examples are coming to the forefront everyday. It’s a skill, but it’s do-able.
The Miss Representation Team has put together a Superbowl challenge using the power of Twitter to send a message to advertisers about the content of their ads during the game on Sunday. I’ll be watching the game… and participating in the challenge. Read below for details on how you can participate!
The Super Bowl is by far the most watched television event in the U.S., and is increasingly popular worldwide. According to the Nielsen Ratings of the most-watched American programs of 2011, last February’s game came in first with 111 million viewers, followed closely by the Super Bowl “Kick-Off” show.
An estimated 70% of Americans plan to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, and nearly 50% of that audience will be women. Yet the programming continues to be largely targeted to a very specific slice of the male demographic, and is too often filled with sexist and offensive messages.
America’s most popular annual entertainment event is a display of male athletic skill, strength and aggression. The commercials take these themes to an extreme by selling products via images of hyper-masculinity. Women, meanwhile, are either hyper-sexualized or entirely absent from the conversation (save the frequent cuts to cheerleaders on the sidelines).
This week’s Get Healthy action is centered on being conscious of what we are consuming Super Bowl weekend. Over the past few weeks we’ve worked to avoid objectifying women and girls and have encouraged each other to be more comfortable with ourselves, but the media continues to present a constant assault on our sense of self. Now is the time to hold them accountable.This Sunday, if you’re watching the game, look for differences in the representations of women and men. Point out sexism as it happens and educate those around you by asking questions:
- Who was that commercial directed at?
- What was the message?
- Is that a true reflection of the women and men we know?
If you’re on Twitter, use #NotBuyingIt with #Superbowl to call out the offensive and sexist ads in real-time (read more about this action on our blog). Here’s an example of what to post to Twitter:
Hey @godaddy, your #SuperBowl ad was offensive and degrading to women. I’m #notbuyingit!The #SuperBowl is sure to be the most talked-about topic of the weekend in the U.S., so let’s flood the conversation with perspectives on sexism in advertising and American culture at large! Together we can influence an entire country to get healthy.Warmest,
The MissRepresentation.org team
“Maybe She’s Born With It… Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s fotoshop”
This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.
This ad is a tongue and cheek look at the makeup/beauty commercials we see on television EVERY DAY. The only beauty secret that magazines can count on, is digital re-touching. Everyone has flaws, and celebrities are no different (the commercial highlights some pre & post celebrity photoshopping that the celebs themselves released).
If you’ve ever wondered why on earth we’re so obsessed with perfection, and why even the most gorgeous women in the world are still insecure about their bodies, THIS is why. Everything is retouched. Everything. Even photos you wouldn’t think need to be.
Full post here with behind the scenes: http://jesserosten.com/2012/fotoshop-by-adobe
via Business Insider
Procter & Gamble has agreed to never again run an ad for its CoverGirl mascara because it used “enhanced post-production” and “photoshopping” to make eyelashes look thicker than they were in real life. P&G agreed to the ban even though it disclosed in the ad that the image was enhanced.
The move is the latest in a series of baby steps that U.S. and international advertising regulators have taken to ban the use of Photoshop in advertising when it is misleading to consumers.
Note: not talking about the bodies, but rather the clear and obvious distortion of them. In some cases, the distortion is rather horrific.
Support a photoshop free world with your dollars: save them instead of spending them on unrealistic ideals. While it’s great to be anti-photoshop in your words and posts, magazines will continue to give us what we’re telling them we want with our actions.
Cover models are so heavily photoshopped even THEY don’t recognize themselves. And in MOST cases, the model (or celeb) is not in control of the final product, as is the case for the image above.
FHM, December 2011
Probably the worst case of photoshopping yet is completely removing the clothes of a cover model. Here, Veena Malik claims that when she posed for the magazine she wore a bikini, hot pants and a thong, and although she was topless, she was never fully nude. She’s now suing the publication for $2 million. Good for her!
Photo: jezebel.com
See the rest of the gallery here.
Surprising?
A new study conducted by the University of Surrey suggests that messages contained in men’s magazines sound more like those coming out of the mouths of convicted rapists, than solid, lady-friendly man-advice.
The study took quotes from several men’s magazines and combined them with quotes from convicted rapists. They showed the list to participants and asked them to identify which were which. Not only could they NOT identify the quote sources reliably, but many were more inclined to agree with the statements made by rapists AND most found the quotes from the men’s magazines more derogatory in nature.
What’s terrifying to me, is that many of the messages or “quotes” they used are similar to those you’d hear in cases of victim blaming (in instances of rape, blaming the victim for ‘asking’ for it, instead of focusing on the acts of the rapist). Victim blaming is one of the reasons most (MOST) women don’t report their rapes, or feel hesitant talking to friends and family. And it’s not just men who mirror these sentiments… they’re used by women too.
Really, truly, scary stuff.
Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women [Trailer]
For Your Self-Esteem: Photoshopping IS Real, the End Result ISN’T.
It’s important to realize that what you see isn’t always real. I find it incredibly hard to remind myself that the images I see in magazines are photoshopped and edited by professionals because what I do see, I want to believe is real. I want to believe it’s achievable. Why? Because I find it beautiful, attractive, and coveted. I fall into the media trap just as millions of others do. We have to become aware and willing to look at the beautiful models and images and say, “This is a product. This is a message. This is a lie. This does not have to be me.”
via body-peace
Saw this gallery a while back, and while it is CRAZY fascinating to peek into a world where weight GAIN was the obsession, I can’t help but notice that the emphasis on looks and the marketing used was oh so similar to what we have today…despite the difference in ideal body trends.
I’ve seen these ads on several pro-curvy sites, and while I agree that they’re awesome to look at, they speak to the fact that women were still expected to fit an ideal. While women nowadays starve themselves, have liposuction and plastic surgery to attain what they consider to be the ideal body, in those days many naturally thin women engaged in unhealthy practices too: they spent money on products and special ’pills’, they ate unhealthy foods and gorged themselves way more than their bodies needed and avoided exercise all to gain ’attractive pounds’.
It’s not which ideal that’s popular that’s the problem. It’s the fact that we maintain and try to attain that ideal instead of demolishing having one to begin with. When we attack each other for reinforcing or ignoring the ideal, we hurt all of us. It doesn’t matter whether it’s size zero, or size 22: women across the ages have gone out of their way to try to fit whichever body type was popular. And there is no one that’s better than another. No one should be made to feel bad about the body they’re in.
There is no right way to have a body.
Food Porn and Advertising: Steamy Scenes of Pasta
A look at tabletop food cinematography — the art of making the food in restaurant, beer and snack commercials appear drop-dead gorgeous. Arf & Company has been the leader in the industry for years.
Ever wonder why the food in food commercials looks SOOO yummy, but in reality it’s kinda … blah?
Steamy, bubbly cheese made with paint stripper. Cold food. Scissors, tweezers, hypodermic needles. Full on camera choreography. Hours of work go into each 5-10 second closeup.
Suddenly those commercials don’t seem so delicious, do they? Lol.
Very neat!
I think it’s funny that even after we try everything, know it doesn’t work & spend money on the most expensive creams that we STILL don’t know that most beauty products are just hope in a jar. $35 hope in a jar. And that’s what we buy.
This is today’s weigh-in! Add your thoughts please!
