Growing up I loved reading magazines. I still do! Back in the day I would read Seventeen, Teen and YM. Like many girls I would look at the beautiful, thin ladies on the cover and wish to have their bodies. My body was changing and becoming more womanly with hips and curves. The models seemed to be thin and still have a chest. Their hair was perfect and their clothes were cool. They were confident and I was not.
It was not until later that I thought about and realized all the work that went into making the models look that PERFECT! I feel like a lot of people could look model-like with a someone to do their hair and make-up and select their clothes. Perfect lighting and the right angle always helps too! And of course let's not forget photo-shopping. Faith Hill was photo-shopped for RedBook.It has been suggested that Kelly Clarkson was photo-shopped on Self's cover. Now both women are beautiful! Why not just leave them alone? The average woman has wrinkles and curves. Why not show them?
As a teacher and future mother, I worry so much about trying to instill good self-confidence in my girls/daughters. I want them to value their body but know they are so much more than their body. I teach in the lower grades (thank God!) and don't have to do deal with too many body-issues but am always cognizant of comments about I hear about Miley Cyrus or the cast of High School Musical. I try to stress their inner beauty and accomplishments. I wish there was a way that I could shield girls from these kinds of influences. I wish there was a bane on photo-shopping. Real life can't be photo-shopped so why do we allow these images to seem like reality to readers? Can we add a warning to every picture (much like the Surgeon General warning on cigarette's and alcohol) stating that this image is not real and if you think it is real it can have a detrimental affect on your view of your body and self? I would gladly subscribe to a magazine that promises no photo-shopping on any of their stories, models or advertisements. Let's show some cellulite, wrinkles, and reality!
(image borrowed from jezebel)
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10 comments:
AMEN sister!!
You took the words right out of my mouth! I'm always saying how I want to see *real women* on the front of magazines. Wrinkles and curves are beautiful...and real!
I absolutely LOVE, love, LOVE this post and I think more women and girls need to hear this. And I love how you talk about the inner beauty and accomplishments of popular celebrities with your students, by the way. You sound like such a great teacher. :)
Keep it up! :)
What a great post! And this is one of the very reasons I stress being healthy with my daughter (who is going to be 12 in 3 weeks!). It is such a challenge. Right now, she really doesn't say much about body image, but I just try to give her healthy options in the house. Seriously, this is one of the best posts I've read in a long time!
My other pet peeve is all these around 40 actresses on the cover of magazines with the line "Back in a bikini at 40"..... makes me sick! Being 40 very few of my friends could even think about being in one.... and they look good!
I totally agree with you!!!! I can see the point of photoshopping a pimple of flyaway hair in a beauty magazine, but it's getting to the point where people don't even look real...both faces and bodies. It's a bit ridiculous that even the most beautiful women in the world (like Faith Hill!) are photoshopped so badly. I'm pretty sure every cover of Shape magazine uses the same body with a different person's head, too.
I agree with you too. Unfortunately, most pictures are retouched or altered in photoshop. I think we promote skinny too much and not healthy. Just because someone is skinny does not mean they are living a healthy life.
I couldn't agree more with you! That picture is shocking. She looks amazing without photoshop. Why would they need to change anything?
I too worry about my future children and all of the girls growing up now. Did you know the average age girls starting dieting is 8?? That is just scary!!
Great post!
I completely agree. I hate photoshopping.
Did you ever see this photo shoot with Jamie Lee Curtis? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2002/08/27/ED242187.DTL&o=0 I love that she is so open to showing what a real woman looks like!
Fabulous post! I couldn't agree with you more!
I totally agree! No wonder young girls and women in general have so many body issues when we aren't ever shown the real thing!
Amen to this! I think there should be a warning on the photo if it's photo shopped. So many magazines nowadays even will tell readers that they don't when it's so obvious they do.
It's really great that you're a teacher and will be able to instill a little bit of your knowledge about this stuff to your girls.
I agree!
That false sense of "beauty" is superficial and fake. Why bother to alter already beautiful women?
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