Photoshop Research Papers

1) Colleen Thompson, an expert on eating disorders, explains, “Many teenagers need a role model and someone to look up to. Unfortunately, too many of them choose fashion models or actresses as role models, they paste picture of them all over their rooms, and some will resort to dangerous methods of weight control to try and look like their idols.” (J1)

Photoshop has many uses. It is used to design posters and create art. However, it has negative uses too. For example, manipulating images. Manipulation using Photoshop to alter model’s bodies in the media negatively impacts society by creating an image that imposes an unrealistic body standard and is the root cause of recent adolescent eating disorders. Peoples of all genders are impacted by the modification of model’s bodies. Whether it be one is not skinny enough or one does not have enough muscle, it generates a frequent belief that one’s body is not good enough.

In fact, media is contributing to many false advertisements and unrealistic images that cause eating disorders. Media gives us these false beauty standards by making teens think they have to be thin and tall. Meanwhile, many teens want to be like the models and they try to be thin but instead of doing it the healthy way. The way they do it is to skip meals and that develops eating disorders. For instance, Arnett says, “Marketing and advertisement agencies focus on models such as tall, thin women or a muscular man with a chiseled jawbone when casting for photo shoots and television commercial” (265.) Therefore, we experience and seen is that the media do give us a false beauty standard which makes teens want to do everything that is possible to become like models. This has contributed

Girls especially are told that they are supposed to look how famous people look, but are not told how vastly edited and corrected the models in the pictures are. Today, women as young as 11 and 12 have began developing eating disorders due to the constant media bombardment telling them to look a certain way—incredibly skinny—which forces them into starvation. Psychologists have coined the new disorder ‘”body image disturbance syndrome” or BIDS. BIDS is characterized by the incessant feeling of being ‘fat’ when someone is perfectly healthy usually turning to one of two options: anorexia or bulimia. Anorexia is the act of not eating to achieve a body image, but this often results in gross malnourishment. On the other hand, bulimia is characterized by binge eating large meals followed by self-induced vomiting. The motivation behind bulimia is that if they keep the food in their body just long enough to absorb the nutrients, they can vomit the actual bulk of the food that makes them look overweight. The sad reality of the fact is that not only are the nutrients not completely absorbed until they reach the intestines, but the stomach acid brought forth with their vomit virtually rots away their

“Companies should absolutely stand up against Photoshop, especially those that once endorsed it and now see the damage it has caused,” Legleitner said. You may be left wondering: “What damage?”. The damage left from the use of photoshop is immense and it extends much farther than what may come to mind. A research study done by Heather R. Gallivan, PsyD, LP Park Nicollet Melrose Center found that “53% of 13 year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time girls reach 17.” Her research shows that at approximately the age of 12 girls will have the most confidence in their body and then as the years progress of their youth that confidence will plummet. Another statistic that Gallivan shared was that in 2010 the Girl Scouts Organization did a survey with over one-thousand girls ages 13-17, the results noted that: “ 9 out of 10 girls felt pressure by fashion and media industries to be skinny.” It further explained that 60% of girls compare themselves to the models and use the images put out by magazines as an ideal body to strive for. Women and girls that feel this unethical influence by the fashion industry often times go through impacts including: depression, eating disorders, anxiety or even as terrible as suicidality. Knowing that women face emotional and physical impacts based off the unrealistic edited images put out by their brand should be disheartening to the companies at fault.

Walking into the library at most high schools brings to the eye an array of fashion magazines in the front shelves. Most schools acknowledges that fashion has a large audience, but the skinnier and skinnier models have created a large group of people with eating disorders and bad self-images. In her article “What’s Wrong with Skinny?” that discusses eating disorders linked to the fashion industry, Lisa Hilton states that women are “so pathologically stupid that they are unable to distinguish the fantasy of the runway from the realities of their own bodies”. Fashion is something that many girls let influence them into changing how they dress, feel, and eat; the skinnier the models are (or are “retouched” to look), the more it supports eating

People are often exposed to the media 's ideal body image, whether it 's through magazines, television, toys (e.g. Barbie dolls), or social media, it is almost impossible to avoid it. There are numerous of people who desire to look the way the world defines beauty. And although this may not seem like so much of a bad thing, this can lead to hardships for many people. This type of influence has caused countless individuals to endure an eating disorder in order to get the body they wish to have. Eating disorders are a worldwide problem that are very dangerous due to having many types of disorders and symptoms that occur, the effects that take place in a patient 's mental

Along with the unrealistic body images on social media it drags along obsession with dieting, food, and appearance in young adolescents creating eating disorders. “Adolescents diagnosed with serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia often report that their symptoms can be linked to the bullying they received from their age peers as well as the unrealistic media images presented as an ideal for them to follow.”(www.phycologytoday.com) The unrealistic body ideal that they feel they need to follow has a big impact on the way teens look at what they are eating, and their weight and shape which can lead to serious eating disorders. “Adolescent females who are unable to conform to the ideal being put forward by movie, television find themselves taking extreme measures to be more like their role models.” (www.phycologytoday.com) Teens feel that it is important to become like their role models that they see on social media and go to extreme measures to become the ideal weight and shape

An eating disorder is an illness that involves an unhealthy feeling about the food we eat. “Eating disorders affect 5-10 millions Americans and 70 million individuals worldwide” (www.eatingdisorderinfo.org 1). They also affect many people from women, men, children, from all ages and different races. People who have eating disorders usually see themselves as being fat when they really aren’t. This usually deals with women or teenage girls mostly. They watch television, movies, read articles in magazines, and see pictures of the celebrities whom they want to be like because they have the “ideal body” that everyone wants and craves for. The media makes us all think we need those types of bodies to be happy with ourselves, be more successful

The media can prompt anorexia when magazines give off the illusion of ideal bodies. According to study done by the US National Library Of Medicine National Institutes Of Health: “69% reported that magazine pictures influence their idea of the perfect body shape, and 47% reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.” (Field AE, Cheung L, Wolf AMH, Herzog DB, Gortmaker SL, Colditz GA). We can see a better understanding through photoshopping in magazines. In the blog Beauty Redefined they discussed how they make women thinner than they actually are. Typically models and celebrities appearing thinner all by the help of “ digital manipulation.” Photoshopping however, gives off an unrealistic illusion of how a woman's body should

Photo editing to get the “perfect” body makes women turn to eating disorders to obtain that look

To stop the negative impact of Photoshop on teenagers, photographers should only use Photoshop for the good of photography and not to give false images of the social norm. In opposition, many would state that Photoshop provides beauty and promotes financial in marketing. The primary objective is to get money for false looks. American culture is highly obsessed with beauty. Everywhere you go there are advertisements and misleading images. Whether it’s for models or food alterations are used to sell the image. Models appearances on these photos are admired and sought after from the society. Jessica Walker stated in an interview “I do not think Photoshop is bad I use it to make my photos better, but I don’t like what people use it for...The user and its intentions are bad not the program itself”(Walker). The issue is defined as the images being presented giving a false perception. These photos have been tampered with by professionals, in which they think that their model is what society wants to see. Both genders are being affected by the medias view of body image. However, women and teenagers changed the most. Teenage girls have continuously been presented with images that they are supposed to look like, which is unrealistic images. Photoshop causes some teens to have self-esteem issues and many other disorders.

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.

“The attention-grabbing pictures of various high-flying supermodels and actors on different magazine covers and advertisements go a long way in influencing our choices” (Bagley). The media is highly affective to everyone, although they promote an improper image of living. Research proved says those with low self-esteem are most influenced by media. Media is not the only culprit behind eating disorders. However, that does not mean that they have no part in eating disorders. Media is omnipresent and challenging it can halt the constant pressure on people to be perfect (Bagley). Socio-cultural influences, like the false images of thin women have been researched to distort eating and cause un-satisfaction of an individual’s body. However, it

In the first few minutes of meeting someone new, a person assumes they know everything about the person, strictly based on aesthetics and body language; and the media capitalizes on this idea. Unfortunately humans have developed a naturalized understanding of the structure of beauty based on the media. They assume beauty equals health or that the “beauty” illustrated is natural. In the True Life: I want the perfect body episode, one of the interviewees, Rebecca, loves the way the women look in the fitness competition magazine. She goes to a competition and moves to become a contender. She failed to realize the rigorous training the women go through and the stress they put on their bodies. Eventually she injures her hamstring and has to sit out of a competition. To her, these women illustrate health. If other women were to ingest this idea of health it may yield many more injuries like Rebecca’s and her obsession with this performance of health. The Youtube video entitled “Fat Girl to Skinny Girl Photoshop” demonstrates how simply the media manipulates the bodies and minds of the public. In the video a picture is taken of a plus-size woman and put into editing software where the editor shapes the woman into the image suitable for public consumption—a skinny woman. This same project can be found thousands of times on Youtube. It’s obvious that people shape and manipulate the