Essay on Why is Retouching Photographs Necessary?

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

The dove beauty campaigns are again a perfect example of this, as they depict a digitally altered photo of a woman being presented on a billboard (Tpiper). Depicting a remarkable transformation of an ordinary woman, this video shows a billboard model being produced through means of excessive makeup and hair styling in conjunction with digital editing after the photo was taken. This woman is not natural. She has pounds of makeup on her face, as well as photoshopped touchups, and yet she is perceived by the public as the standard of beauty. Nobody is able to compare with such a carefully sculpted face, and therefore this establishes unrealistic expectations

“We are constantly surrounded by all sorts of media and we construct our identities in part through media images we see.” Social media plays a huge role in constructing our idea of the perfect body. But it hasn’t always been the same idea. Over the years, the perfect body image has changes. The ideal body image has changed so much over time because media never stays the same, fashion trends are always changing, there’s such a diversity of bodies in this world to choose from, and different cultures consider different bodies beautiful.

People have been fighting with themselves, and with popular culture at large, for years, regarding the idea of the “perfect body.” Though it could be argued that this battle is being waged mostly by women, there has been a shift in today’s society, where the quest for the perfect body includes both sexes. And as the 20th Century marched on and became the 21st, this idea of a beautiful body became thinner, waif-like, less and less substantial, and most definitely much less healthy. In addition, in her article “Never Just Pictures,” author Susan Bordo argues fashion photography, primarily, but definitely not independently, has been scaling down and thinning out the image of idealized beauty, making it harder and harder to achieve healthily or socially. Bordo explains images, of angular beautiful models has informed all of popular culture, growing beyond merely the realms of fashion. And this, Bordo tells us, contributes to a sense of societal longing and lack of

This article talks about how photoshop allows advertisers to give models different body types that they did not had before. The false images affects the way that people see beauty in an unrealistic way, also false image cause low self-esteem and negative impact of people body image. With false advertisement women feels pressure to have the perfect body either by plastic surgery or unhealthy diet plans. This article is useful to use because it shows what the media uses to bring people self esteem down and how people would look at their body image differently

Artists, editors and photographers plead the fact that they were provided with such great tools, but are constantly criticized for using them. Although there have been some very questionable fails in ads that deal with Photoshop, there have also been some very successful trials with Photoshop. Even though Victoria’s Secret models’ are retouched to have the ideal “beach bod”, they are also and inspiration for most people. According to Holmstrom in 2004, “results of studies done by both Crouch and Degelman (1998) and Biocca (1992) have shown that media increases positive body image, rather than a negative body image, in young women.” The exposure to these models’ beautiful bodies supposedly raises a positive body image amongst young women. Self esteem is raised because they aim to achieve the bodies portrayed to them in the media. Victoria’s Secret is obviously reaping benefits from this as well. Being one of the most famous lingerie stores in the United States and selling their bras from prices anywhere from $20-$258 (for one of their Designer Collection lingerie sets) along with the millions of women and teenage girls shopping at the store for the perfect fit that makes more self-confident, even if they’re the only one that ever sees their

The usage of certain software programs that are used to alter the body in most magazines, producing unrealistic expectations to general public. Visit any magazine stand and all you see gracing the cover are thin, curvy women with flawless skin, Almost all of these women have been digitally altered to achieve the look that media has deemed as beautiful. In recent years, there

A study was done that showed women two pictures of a model: an edited photo and the original photo taken. Each edited photo had a variation in fairness of the skin, physique, and leg length. It was discovered that while women find the altered women attractive, they prefer the unaltered images and in fact, also felt better about their own bodies after seeing the originals (Belkhir, 2004). After seeing how much advertisers had altered, women expressed that they were more likely to protest against photo manipulation to advertisers. It is proposed that getting the public educated on the subject is the solution to the unending cycle of body dissatisfaction, companies profiting off the public’s sorrow, and then advertising warped and unattainable body

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.

Media institutions should begin combatting unrealistic body image by discontinuing the practice of photoshopping and airbrushing models. Over the course of the past decade in particular, as the influence of the media has increased at a steady rate, the epidemic of photoshopping and airbrushing models, often past the point of recognition, has proven to be harmful in its lack of attainability. Many institutions have relied so heavily on these methods of obscuring natural beauty that they have corrupted their own models into viewing themselves negatively. A former Sports Illustrated model, Ann Simonton, recalls the moment that she realized the

These influences have a great impact on the self-esteem of women, since achieving the thin ideal is unreachable for most women. Images of women in the media today are thinner than images of women from the past, thinner than today’s female population. and thinner than the criteria for anorexia (Schooler et al., 2004). The media teaches society what is acceptable and normal. Botta (1999) identified the media as the strongest predictor of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and behaviors associated with eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia). Images of the perfect body are everywhere, whether it be in a physical form or a virtual one. These images do not represent the majority of women and many of these glamorizes images have been altered to embody the ideal woman. With the use of modern technology, a model’s appearance can be easily altered. The use of cosmetics, airbrushing for a flawless complexion, and using Photoshop are used to change the facial features and proportions of the body. These changes can be small, from simply changing an eye or hair color to completely alter the model’s body type and her

Clearly product marketers are trying to sell their products they are manufacturing so they go to the extent of photoshop make them appealing. French parliaments called for warning labels on manipulated ads which would help eliminate false expectations that men and women have for themselves and each other (Cohen). Guys are deceived into thinking that they need a girl straight out of a magazine with precise dimensions and features. Girls think that they need to look like the Barbie dolls on the billboards. Models themselves, feel the need to meet the never-ceasing expectations of the public eye. The more they are edited, the more they feel they are not good enough and need to look like they do in the altered images. Victoria Secret model, Miranda Kerr, has been known to edit pictures of her body to be slimmer for her personal Instagram account. Even when not being paid to work, these public figures feel a need to deliver unachievable

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.

With the media being a very popular way of communication and self expression in today’s culture, it influences the way of younger generations to be more involved in today’s technology, and to allow them to influence the world by the press of a button. But one of the topics that is very controversial is that in today’s society is the high expectations of what they think a girl has to look like, from girls not having stretch marks or scars, to magazines and photographers using photoshop to convince readers that the model looks like that. With all of these being factors that there is pressure is high for many girls around the world, this has to resolved.