Dying America's Body Image Analysis

The issue of distorting body image in the media and its effects on people is not a new concept to modern time. There is a long history of body image’s powerful place in society because of people’s impressions of each other based on body image. Research has been done on the effects and outcomes of this issue. Recently, consumers have fought with the media to try and achieve a safer way to spread information and let these media outlets be successful without having severe impacts on adolescents especially, among other age groups. The general ethical principle that the stakeholders use in this fight is similar to utilitarianism, because each stakeholder believes they are bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. The stakeholders

By taking a different approach and using comedy and entertainment, Tina Fey has brought people together to understand the important topic of body image in a way people will listen. Body image for women has been a major issue in our world and there has been little change to stop it. “‘Why can’t we accept the human form as it is?’ screams no one. I don’t know why, but we never have. That’s why people wore corsets and neck stretchers and powdered wigs” (142). Everyone wants perfection. Everyone wants what they don’t have. No one is perfect. Everyone has flaws. If the world cannot accept this, people will continue resorting to modified images to produce this “ideal beauty.” One of Fey’s more interesting stories is when she talks about photoshop. Photoshop is a tool which contaminates how people see the human body. But this “perfect body” is intangible. Fey states that everyone is beautiful, and it takes a strong society to believe it. “Photoshop is just like makeup” Fey states, “when it’s done well it looks great, and when it’s overdone you look like a crazy asshole” (142). She relays on the idea that we are taking away the reality of our bodies when using photoshop. Fey’s attachment of a joke with the large and complex idea that photoshop dehumanizes a person is what keeps the reader captivated with the story and wanting to know more. Fey is able to reveal that a picture is an alteration of the true beauty of a person when put through photoshop. The reader is therefore able to assume, beyond all of her funny jokes, Fey

This brings me to the controversy surrounding enhanced photos and image editing software that erases flaws and allows for skin whitening. Therefore, the audience is cultivated from a young age to an unrealistic view of society.

Susan Sontag discusses the reality of the modern person’s addiction with “needing to have reality confirmed” by photos. Sontag says “we accept it as the camera records it” then goes to say “this is the opposite of understanding.” I agree with her wholeheartedly, as accepting photos as they are limits ones understanding of the world. The trust in photography led to the rise of pictures hoaxes, in which people take pictures out of context and assign it a new background; as well as Photoshop, which becomes increasingly popular as the years go by. Photoshop allows one to manipulate a photo to portray what they desire it to.

Critics of digital photo alteration base their vocal disapproval in arguments derived from medical evidence, social global standards, and professional ethical guidelines, and thereby profess that use of Photoshop for entertaining an impossibly unrealistic cultural standard for beauty can pose a psychological risk for consumers at large, misguides the scope of socially acceptable preconceptions about beauty, and is decisively unethical on a professional level.

Why does the media use Photoshop? The internet, magazines, television, and advertisements in any public or private places uses Photoshop to create an illusion of what a perfect girl or person is. The photoshop the media is used to erases cellulite of the models and cuts parts of their body to make them thinner. But some people may say they might not like seeing someone fat or a more realistic picture because it would make them feel bad. The problem in that is these younger or naive girls are being affected and feeling bad about these unrealistic pictures of these super skinny models. Using photoshop is creating illusions of these models that look anorexic and if the media used something more realistic they would realize they are normal and not need to drastically lose weight, go tanning or whiten their teeth. Ashley Brown said “Photoshop has the power to manipulate appearances beyond recognition.” She writes in an scholar article how Photoshop can change appearances in a

In 2005 more than 10 million cosmetic procedures were done in America. People can not stand how they look, they want to look better. Almost as if there is a competition going on about who can look the best. A large majority of people do not have a good view of their body image. Body image in America has changed for the worse due to the media, a lack of self confidence, and a growing obsession with beauty.

The false looks created by photoshop are a daily occurrence in the common peoples’ lives through multiple media outlets such as magazines, entertainment tv, and advertisements with headlines that center around the idea of “shedding weight quickly” or “the ideal beauty of the year.” Photoshop is not just a celebrity problem it as an epidemic in all photography, newly engaged couples, or seniors about to graduate all take pictures that usually have some sort photoshop. If they are out in public, photo editors will still distort their bodies into something completely unrealistic whether they look better, or worse it is all about money. Photo editors will make a girl from a size seven to a size zero, or give them a whole new skin tone we have never seen before. The crazy amounts of photoshop drive people to extreme diets, or in more dire situation severe depression, or even death. Many celebrities have taken to their

Perfect, thin, flawless, tall, big eyes, and perfect teeth. That is the type of unrealistic model you will see on the cover of a magazine, a photoshopped human being. Photoshop is a program that allows the user to edit any photo. They can give the model a smaller waist, clear their skin, make them tanner, they can even change their bone structure. This is the hard reality children these days have to live with. Young, impressionable children have the idea of perfect lingering in their heads, and it’s time to stop it, it will start with getting rid of photoshop.

After having their image altered, many public figures have protested the PhotoShopping culture and have spoken out against it publicly. They know that they are idolised

Unlike what people see in commercials and magazines, the girls aren’t what they seem. Computers and lighting can change what the naked eye sees. So no one gets to see the natural beauty of women behind the photoshop. Girls constantly having to stare at photoshopped images can lead to eating disorders, depression, and other mental illnesses.

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

Media plays a huge role in today’s society. Technology associated with media such as the internet has connected the world together, started revolutions, and has achieved many things that have benefitted us for years now. Although all of this rings true for media, some portrayals in media have had devastating effects that continue to increase. Photoshop has become increasingly popular to magazine and brand editors, celebrities, and models. This affects the way teens see themselves resulting in drastic measures such as eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and bullying one another for being different.

The world of magazines, media,tv and more know exactly what they are trying to persuade as a whole. This allows them to have an increase of products that doesn’t even have a good affect on their body or help with what they brought it for. We as women should embrace what we are blessed with even if it’s not what we won’t many people wish they could have what you have. So this photoshop making teens think they aren’t perfect can cause depression and stressing. It shows a message that's who they are isn’t good enough for the world and they mean nothing. They are just there just to be there. 64% of teens have been bullied because of their weight ,that percent shouldn’t be so

The use of photoshop has a major impact on the plastic surgery industry. Min Kim Park an assistant professor of photography in the department of art and design states, “The search for perfection drives us to create these unrealistic