Monday, October 4, 2010

No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.

     I chose this picture of News Anchor Katie Couric because it shows how images of people, especially when used for ads, are doctored to be more pleasing to the eye.  This photo was edited by changing the contrast of colors - removing the yellow tinting. Also, Couric was slimmed down. CBS edited this photo for their magazine ads.  Is CBS saying that Couric is not good enough as she is?  Photo editing jobs such as these start to rub off on younger girls who have a now skewed image to what is beautiful - and many don't realize that they are being lied to.  This image is harmful.
     I have read many articles on the internet accusing magazines of editing the  photos of women on their front covers.  I remember one particular article about Kimora Lee Simmons, and her reaction to her edited photo in a Baby Phat ad (Simmons is the creative director of Baby Phat).  In her photo she was slimmed down considerably and she said that at her age she would take all the airbrushing she could get.

Airbrushing photos of women can be very hurtful to society.  Simmons is beautiful at her normal size, she didn't need to be digitally slimmed down to a size zero. That's not her and we all know it.  Also, this sends a negative picture to her two daughters - that lying is okay and it also sends the picture that to be perfect or ad-worthy, you must be a size zero, giving her daughters a skewed idea of what is normal and perfect.





This video shows just how easily a person can be transformed by photo editing.  Why can't we use normal women? - there is indeed such a thing as natural beauty and we don't need photoshop to create it.  This video, by Dove, shows that we are being lyed to all the time by ads and photos.  We need to work on our perception of beauty - especially those creating magazines and ads.

4 comments:

  1. Great blog, the video selection was good too, not too long but still got the point across.

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  2. Fantastic job, Betsy! And I happen to be a fan of that Dove Campaign...I myself have shown it to many people lol

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  3. Great job! That is way too much PhotoShop.

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  4. I like this:
    We need to work on our perception of beauty - especially those creating magazines and ads.

    ReplyDelete