Brittany Berg
Do you ever look at a celebrity and
wish you could look just like them? Maybe they actually have imperfections just
like you do. While you continue to stare at a photograph of your idol, do you
ever think maybe they do not actually look like this and he or she has used
Photoshop? This Photoshop epidemic has spread throughout the media culture.
There are certain expectations and
consequences of trying to fit a certain standard. This distorted body image has
become so ingrained in our heads because of the media’s portrayal of women.
Media has had such a huge impact on today’s society. Media has formed and
defined an ideal standard for women causing them to face negative stereotypes
and obstacles. It has stereotyped a woman by focusing on her body parts, such
as her chest, her butt and her thinness. This terrible portrayal of women has
affected women’s weight, figure and looks because it is focusing on the perfect
body, which does not exist. Women have become trained to think that they must
fit a certain standard because of the celebrities and advertisements in today’s
society. “As women, we have used our looks for a long time. We attract people
with our looks. There are great studies showing women who are better looking do
get by easier in life.” (Newkirk- Thompson) It almost seems that looking good
is a tradition in order to succeed in life. Do you believe that looking good
has helped women do better in life? Do you think that advertisements have
caused women to believe in fitting a certain standard?
There has been much controversy in
the advertising industry over the past few years, especially with unrealistic
photographs. According to Advertising Age, regulating the truth in
advertisements has been an on-going discussion since 2011. “Cosmetic companies
getting to use overly Photoshopped images of models and actors as ‘proof’ of
the efficacy of their allegedly youth-restoring skin creams is obviously wrong”
(Dumenco). For example, L’Oreal, a cosmetic and beauty company, is the number
two leading marketer investing in magazine advertisements (Magazine Media
Factbook). Photoshop does not only affect cosmetic companies and
misrepresenting faces, but it also creates thigh gaps for women. Advertisements
have altered the physical characteristics, specifically face and bodies.
Three examples of famous
celebrities that have been accused of Photoshop in one way or another are Iggy
Azalea, Beyoncé and Kerry Washington. First, Saturday Night Live removed Iggy
Azalea’s moles from her face in her promo pictures. After the photos were
posted, Iggy replied back on her Instagram saying that she loved the pictures
but wish they kept her moles. Iggy Azalea embraces her moles/ beauty marks and
chose to stand up for herself against the inaccurate photographs (Schaefer).
Second, Beyoncé has been accused of Photoshopping her own Instagram photos. She
chose to Photoshop her thighs, to make it seem as if they do not touch.
“Apparently, a lot of women who deal with eating disorders fixate on the ‘thigh
gap’ issue, and there are countless Tumblr blogs dedicated to the potentially
unhealthy phenomenon” (Kornowski). Beyoncé is falsely portraying herself giving
the wrong idea to young girls. Third, Kerry Washington was the cover of
InStyle, March edition. Kerry Washing was beyond thrilled to be on the cover,
but received negative feedback due to her skin tone being lightened. Although
InStyle claimed that they did not deliberately lighten her skin, the consumers
were extremely disappointed (Puente). Do you think Photoshop is wrong? Why?
What do you think celebrities and/ or companies can do to avoid this Photoshop
epidemic?
Most adults are aware of this
misrepresentation in advertisements, but young girls may be negatively
impacted. Educating young girls on proper nutrition, as well as the
consequences of poor nutrition, will not only help the future of young girls
and certain body images; but, it will also allow them to participate in sports
and be healthy and satisfied. This belief of fitting a specific body type needs
to be reevaluated in order to better our society. Do you agree that young girls
are impacted more than adults, they are impacted the same, or neither are
impacted? Why?
 |
| Iggy Azalea: Moles/ Beauty Marks |
 |
| Beyonce: Thigh Gap |
 |
| Kerry Washington: Lighten Skin |
Works Cited:
Dumenco, Simon. "The Truth in Advertising Act: Can the
Government Really Regulate
Photoshopping?" Advertising
Age The Media Guy RSS. AdAge, 14 Apr. 2014.
Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
<http://adage.com/article/the-media-guy/truth-advertising-
congress-regulate-photoshopping/292619/>.
Kornowski, Liat. "Beyonce's Thighs Are The Center Of
New Photoshop Controversy."
The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 Feb.
2015.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/beyonce-thighs-
photoshop_n_5134346.html>.
"2014 Magazine Media Factbook." MPA: The
Association of Magazine Media. 31 Jan.
2015. Web.
Newkirk-Thompson, Cristin. "Tie between Self-worth and
Image Highly Destructive."
Daily
Herald Media. Gannett, 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20140323/WDH04/303240048/Tie-
between-self-worth-image-highly-destructive>.
Puente, Maria. "Kerry Washington 'InStyle' Cover Raises
Eyebrows." USA Today.
Gannett, 05 Feb. 2015. Web. 21 Feb.
2015.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/02/05/kerry-washington-instyle-
cover-raises-eyebrows/22946777/>.
Schaefer, Kayleen. "Iggy Azalea Might Like Her Moles
(But 'SNL' Apparently Doesn't
Agree)." Iggy Azalea Might
Like Her Moles (But 'SNL' Apparently Doesn't
Agree). Yahoo Style, 29 Oct.
2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
<https://www.yahoo.com/style/apparently-saturday-night-live-didnt-think-they-
101284232643.html>.
It is almost impossible to talk about body image without referencing the influence of the media industry and role it plays in negative self-perception. It’s not a secret that magazines and advertisements alter the way men and women look, just as it isn’t a secret that sex definitely sells for the average American consumer. While I don’t condone the use of photoshop, I understand it. Companies want to appeal to as many people as possible, and sometimes that only works when the people representing your brand look a certain way or are sexualized. This does definitely create a standard for how audiences judge who is attractive and who isn’t. Brittney makes a good point about women being more susceptible to media scrutiny than men, but I do believe that men fall victim to the same kind of criticisms. It’s all too easy to talk about women and eating disorders, but people rarely talk about how the attractive man is thought to be over six feet tall with rock-hard abs, when the reality is that many men do not fit this Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch model image.
ReplyDeleteI may be making a huge generalization, but I think that for the most part, people are less inclined to accept the TV, magazine, and advertising industries’ idea of attractive. That isn’t to say it isn’t influential in the way we judge others and the way we judge ourselves, but I think that a lot more pressure is coming directly from social networking sites and mobile applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. These are platforms in which most of the content is photography, and the photos are, for the most part, of people. Not just people, but beautiful people. I personally am an avid Tumblr user, and I do often reblog photos of women and men who I find aesthetically appealing. Granted, Tumblr is used less frequently than Facebook and Instagram (Lunden), but there is still a proliferation of photos of models and should-be models that reach users when they are active. Instagram and Facebook also have reblogging features, but, for the most part, the photos we see are those of people in our immediate social circles – people we know – so we may “like” them but not reblog them.
This constant exposure to pictures of others is doing more than just making us feel bad about ourselves (as TV, magazines and advertisements usually do). Arguably, they don’t make us feel that bad, but they definitely influence the way we choose to portray ourselves on Instagram and Facebook. There are many mobile applications designed specifically for editing and altering photos. Essentially, what the growth of social media and mobile app industry has done is turned anyone with a smartphone into a photoshop expert. My eighteen-year-old sister can magically conjure up a thigh gap, very much like Beyonce can. Why? For the “likes.” Roughly 8,500 users are “liking” photos on Instagram every second, averaging up to almost 1.2 billion likes a day (D’Onfro). We are a culture that is so obsessed with being liked that it isn’t shocking that some people go to such lengths to change the way they look, even if just in photos. I wouldn’t say the media is entirely to blame for this, but frequent usage results in unhealthy behaviors and general misunderstanding about what is and isn’t beautiful.
Works Cited
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." TechCrunch. N.p., 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
The media is highly influential in all aspects of life, but especially when it comes to body image. In Magazine Media Factbook, it shows just how influential magazines are. People are influenced by what they see in the magazines. They see the celebrities and the models and are inspired. Everyone wants the ideal look but what they don’t realize is that, that image doesn’t actually exist. A lot of people know what Photoshop is and that companies use it in their pictures, but people still want to look like the people in these pictures. The companies use this look solely to sell their products, to make them more desirable to the consumers. They put it in people’s heads that if they use the product that is being advertised then they will look like the people in the ads themselves. They have been criticized for this for years yet they continue to do it, even though there are links between body image disorders and the advertisements. The advertisers don’t care as long as they sell their products. Some companies are trying in a way to respond to this controversy by using “plus size models.” They are getting people who are a size 4 or 6 and calling them plus size. Although they think this is a better solution and that more people can relate to it, they are in fact wrong. What they are really doing is taking normal sized, everyday people who don’t see themselves as plus size and making them feel like they are because the model that looks just like them is being called plus size. This is even worse than using size zero models. Now it’s like saying you should look super skinny because if you are a size four or six then you are too fat and would need to buy plus size clothing.
ReplyDeleteCelebrities also play into this media peer pressure. You made a good point about how Beyonce edits her Instagram photos to make it look like she has a thigh gap. Beyonce is not over weight but she wants to stay an inspiration to people so she goes along with what society wants. People look up to her the same way they look up to the people in the advertisements. They want to be just like them and especially look just like them so she thinks that is what they want to see and maybe that’s what she wants to look like as well.
This goes to show how social media sites also play into body image problems. More and more sites are out there now so that people can share pictures they have taken. Instagram is one of the biggest sites for this and is continuing to grow. ” Instagram also gets 1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second, totaling 1.2 billion likes per day, according to L2. About 16 billion photos have been uploaded to the app since it launched.” (D’Onfro) People are constantly posting pictures on these sites hoping that they will be seen by as many people as possible. People will do anything for the perfect picture so that they can get as many likes as possible. This includes editing the image so that it looks ideal. People want to look their best in pictures. They don’t want a bad picture of themselves on any social media site because everyone will be able to see it. They want to be known for looking good in their pictures. They want people to believe that they look just like the celebrities or people in the advertisements do.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
"2014 Magazine Media Factbook." MPA: The Association of Magazine Media. 31 Jan.
2015. Web.
Julia Timpanaro
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society, it is almost impossible to say that not every man and or woman, have self esteem issues due to social media. In particular, I feel that women tend to judge themselves more harshly then men do when it comes to their physical appearance, whether it is their body and or their face. I would consider myself a young, independent, and self driven woman, who has a high self esteem and is determined to work my way to the top, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I have never critiqued myself occasionally. When I was reading Brittany’s blog response, it made me reflect more than normal.
If I had to answer her question whether or not a woman’s physical appearance has an effect on a woman’s success in the job market, I would have to say it truly depends on what field she is in. Lets look at women on television. Since I have been little, I cannot recall many women who have been on air who are unappealing, and or not relatable. Oprah Winfrey is a great example. Oprah is “one of the richest women on the planet.”(Rose) Though she is successful, I can’t help but think is it solely due to her hard hitting interviewing skills, her dedication to the studio, or her looks? This makes me think that there has and will always be a double standard. Another example of this would be women in politics. Even though I wouldn’t personally say Hilary Clinton is a typical “American Beauty”, she definitely is always well put together when it comes to her physical appearance. However, if we look at a female police officer verses a woman in a corporate setting or even women in the limelight, you see a drastic difference. I have a family friend who is a female police officer and she always says how she is discouraged to wear her hair down and to wear makeup. Although my family friend considers herself successful in her own right, she still isn’t necessarily what social media’s standard of “beautiful” is. I strongly believe that advertisements have tainted our views on how we should look.
Lets take a look at Photoshop for a second. We see companies posting pictures in magazines and on billboards of flawless women, we tend to feel obligated to look like them. I think that using Photoshop is one of the worse things you can do. By using Photoshop, you are creating an unrealistic “standard” for people to attempt to live by. I think maybe further in the future we might see companies stop using Photoshop. In fact we see have started to see this trend in companies such as American Eagle.
To answer Brittany’s last question regarding who is affected more, young girls or adults, I would have to say that although, in my opinion I believe both parties are affected, I think that there is a greater impact on the younger girls. The reason why I feel that younger girls are affected more is because this is the time during their lives where they are looking for role models and if we have people on social media and in magazines and or television shows that are looking unrealistic, then companies are setting horrible examples. Lets look at the amount of viewers that are tuning into Disney. According to Kissell, Disney comes in taking the number four spot with 1.94 millions viewers. (Kissell) Realistically, we know that the majority of viewers who are tuning into Disney channel are between the ages of 5-16 (which is a huge age range). If you ever have watched a series that is on Disney channel, you’ll notice that most of the main actors or actresses are attractive, slender and airbrushed (with makeup). Personally, I think that this is cruel to do to younger children. I ask you to ask your selves, is this really what young kids should be molded by?
Works Cited:
Kissell, Rick. "ESPN No. 1 in Cable Ratings for 2014." Variety. Variety, 02 Jan. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Rose, Lacey. "Oprah Winfrey on Forgoing Motherhood, Being 'Counted Out' and the Meeting That Turned OWN Around." The Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood Reporter, 11 Dec. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Brittany Joyal
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Monroe once said, “To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero you’re the beautiful one; it’s society who’s ugly”. Unfortunately, it seems as though society has not only remained pretty stagnant in their unrealistic views of women’s beauty but some may even say it has retrogressed.
Brittany, you bring up a plethora of interesting points in regards to the relationship between Photoshop and the media. Although assumable rhetorical, you ask if I as a consumer ever look at a picture of my favorite celebrity and wish to be just like them. My answer to that question is no; I say no not because I don’t wish to be skinny, beautiful, fashionable, rich etc. but rather for the mere fact that the look of a celebrity as seen in many magazines or advertisements is simply unattainable and unrealistic. Having taken a handful of graphic designing courses and becoming well acquainted with the inner-workings of the Photoshop program, I am aware that a peasant can easily become a princess with a few clicks of the airbrush and shrinking tool. For those that have not had hands-on experience with Photoshop, or simply aren’t aware of its capabilities (and/or how often it’s used in the media) there are certainly, as you say, consequences to attempting to fit this mold of ‘perfection’.
Whether it is morally right or wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that the attractiveness of a woman is highly correlated to her success rate in almost every facet of life. Taking a more specific approach, one is able to see this arguably most clear when it comes to the job industry. An article in the Business Insider states:
Studies have shown that attractive people are usually hired sooner, get promotions more quickly, and are paid more than their less-attractive coworkers. Attractive people earn an average of 3 or 4 percent more than people with below-average looks, according to Daniel Hamermesh, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful.”
When women are able to break through the glass ceiling and attain a job relatively high on the corporate ladder, her approach to leadership and work in general is expected to be vastly different from that of a mans. For instance, if a man comes into an interview with a few days old scruff it is highly unlikely that anyone would think anything of it. However, if a woman is to come into work looking anything but a mixture between feminine and professional, there would be comments circulating around the office in a matter of minutes. Why is it that a man can pull off the ‘messy’ look in the workplace with ease and without judgment whereas the woman would most likely get chastised for a lack of professionalism and/or skill? I tend to think advertisements’ display of the ‘professional woman’, and women in general have a large influence on why women believe fitting a certain mold is so vital.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Photoshop without a disclaimer is wrong. According to The Association of Magazine Media’s “2014 Magazine Media Factbook” magazines are the most popular media form that inspires consumers in their own lives, inspires them to buy things, and that they trust to tell the truth. When a consumer sees an advertisements for a foundation, per say, they may not be aware that the foundation they plan to spend their money on is not what made the model’s face flawless but rather it was Photoshop that allowed for that look to be attained. Many companies in the past few years have been trying to combat this epidemic by releasing videos that show the reality of models pre-Photoshop. For instance Global Democracy posted a video of the transformation of a model’s picture after Photoshop alterations. Dove also released a similar video during their “Real Beauty” advertising campaign.
I completely agree that girls are more impacted by this epidemic than adults. Take the ‘Am I Pretty’ YouTube trend that was taking over the Internet circa 2012. During this time there was a surge in uploaded videos by teen and tween girls who would show pictures of themselves and then proceed to ask viewers to comment whether they were pretty or not. Elizabeth Perle addresses this trend in her Huffington Post article by saying, “Another way to look at it is this: Teen and tween girls are using these online platforms as a way to have control over or participate in a conversation about their appearance that they feel is already happening around them. Scratch that -- a conversation they know is already happening around them” (Perle).
Finally, taking a look at present-day social media platforms are succumbing to the trend of photo altering; take Instagram for example. Jillian D’Onfro states in Business Insider, “During 2013, the company [Instagram] gained more than 60 million new monthly active users” (D’Onfro). Instagram is an app that revolves around photo editing and many times it is not a users first or last stop; many times individuals are using multiple other photo (VSCO) editing apps before even beginning to edit the photo in Instagram.
Will we as photo sharers and consumers ever get to a point where we are disseminated or consuming non-edited content? I highly doubt it.
Works Cited
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Perle, Elizabeth. "What The 'Am I Pretty?' YouTube Trend Is REALLY Saying." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 Nov. 2013. Web.
Stanger, Melissa. "Attractive People Are Simply More Successful." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 09 Oct. 2012. Web. Feb. 2015.
"Time Lapse Video Shows Model's Photoshop Transformation." ABC News. ABC News Network, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
"2014 Magazine Media Factbook." MPA: The Association of Magazine Media. 31 Jan.
2015. Web.
“With 1.35 billion active monthly users, Facebook continues to be the world’s largest social network by some margin, but when it comes to picking up new users, it appears to have reached a saturation point…To put Facebook’s dominant position into some context, the ITU yesterday announced that there are now 3 billion people online worldwide. Facebook’s active user base of 1.35 billion means that over one-third of the world’s population is now on Facebook.” (Lunden) Social media has not only emerged as a media outlet where we obtain our news, entertainment, etc. but it has also created multiple issues for all of its users. Although many people use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media outlets to communicate, I agree with your argument on the issue of the media’s portrayal of not only women, but men as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the media we typically see photos of famous celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé, Kerry Washington, etc. that look flawless. As these pictures are spread across all forms of social media, the way we perceive how women should look changes. From my personal experience, in high school there were multiple girls who believed music artists Beyoncé and Rhianna were perfect from a physical standpoint. Through social media many girls tried to dress, cut their hair, get tattoos, and talked about shaping their bodies in comparison to Beyoncé and Rhianna. Although many people are aware of the distorted body images and editing these artists use in their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, magazine cover photos and other social media platforms, the media still has formed the standard for women which causes problems for all women. Because of the media’s perception of women, major health issues, deaths, accidents, etc. have been an ongoing issue with the young teenage girls and adults. At Quinnipiac, there have been a number of instances where I would hear women talk about “wanting to look like” a certain celebrity from a physical standpoint.
Most people follow their favorite celebrities on either Instagram or Twitter page, where pictures and information is typically displayed on a daily basis. On these social media platforms people see the edited pictures that make these celebrities look flawless. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé has over one million followers on Twitter and Instagram. The majority of their photos look edited to the point where it gives their followers the idea that they’re perfect. Jillian D’Onfro, author of the Business Insider states “Instagram grew its user base to 150 million monthly active users in half the time it took Twitter and in two years less than Facebook, according to research by the think-tank L2 intelligence. The company gained more than 60 million new active users.” (D’Onfro) If celebrities and advertisers continue to edit the physical characteristics of women in the images we see through social media, our perception on how women should look will change to something that’s not even real without Photoshop.
Going forward I think there needs to be more social media that captures natural images and people without editing before it’s published for the public. Over the years we've made strides towards accepting natural body images of women by the publishing “plus size” models. Although we occasionally see ads with these models, we've yet to see a splash on our media with images of our favorite celebrities without Photoshop and other editing tools.
Works Cited
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." Tech Crunch. 25 Nov. 2014. Web.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. 18 Feb. 2014. Web.
Katie Phillips
ReplyDeleteAccording to Brittney’s blog, “Media has formed and defined an ideal standard for women causing them to face negative stereotypes and obstacles. It has stereotyped a woman by focusing on her body parts, such as her chest, her butt and her thinness. This terrible portrayal of women has affected women’s weight, figure and looks because it is focusing on the perfect body, which does not exist. Women have become trained to think that they must fit a certain standard because of the celebrities and advertisements in today’s society. “As women, we have used our looks for a long time. We attract people with our looks. There are great studies showing women who are better looking do get by easier in life.” (Newkirk- Thompson)” The way media falsely advertises with the help of Photoshop is ruining our younger generation’s idea of what beauty really is. Younger girls are becoming more and more obsessed with their looks compared to anything else because of this.
Brittney explained how three celebrities have been accused of using Photoshop which made them look like something they’re not. Apparently, Saturday Night Live had removed Iggy Azalea’s moles from her face in promo pictures. However, once the photos were posted Iggy explained on her Instagram how she loved the pictures but she wished they had kept her moles. Unlike most celebrities, Iggy likes her moles and beauty marks and she made that clear on her Instagram post by sticking up for herself. Secondly Beyonce has also been accused of using Photoshop to make herself have a thigh gap for her Instagram photos. Lastly, Kerry Washington was on the cover of InStyle last march but had received negative feedback about her big debut due to the fact that her skin tone had been lightened. In Brittney’s post she asked the question, “ Do you believe that looking good has helped women do better in life?” The answer to that question would be no, it may make a women feel better, but it will not make her do better in life, looks are not everything personality is a huge factor too and that seems to be something that everyone is forgetting. She then asked, “ Do you think that advertisements have caused women to believe in fitting a certain standard?” Yes, of course I do, I don’t even think it is just advertisement’s that have caused women to believe in fitting a certain standard, something like a Photo shopped Instagram post like Beyonce has done in the past can even make women believe in fitting a certain standard.
According to GWI, “One takeaway from this is that while Facebook is ahead of the rest of the pack by a big margin, there is a lot of flux among the rest of the field of social platforms. Indeed, when GWI released numbers earlier this year, Instagram topped the list for fastest-growing social network.” That just goes on to show even further how so many people are on one form of social media that has pictures on it that falsely advertise to their followers without them even being aware of it. Most people would not look at an Instagram post and think, “Those aren’t Beyonce’s legs those had been Photoshopped?” According to the Business Insider, “Instagram also gets 1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second, totaling 1.2 billion likes per day, according to L2. About 16 billion photos have been uploaded to the app since it launched. “ Most of these Instagram accounts are celebrities, which as we have learned are not showing their true selves while using the app which is falsely advertising to our society. Finally Brittney asked, “ Do you think photo shop is wrong?” No, I do not think Photoshop is wrong, it is not wrong if it is used in the right way.
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." Tech Crunch. 25 Nov. 2014. Web.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. 18 Feb. 2014. Web.
Jessica Betsy
ReplyDeleteIt would be a lie if I didn’t say I have looked through magazines whether it be Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire and never wished I had a body like a model such as Candice Swanepoel or a body like Heidi Klum. To me, they’re perfect. And like me, I bet there are millions of other people, especially women, who think the same. In fact, according to an article from Magazine Media, “Magazines are more trusted, inspiring and influential than any other media” (2014 Magazine Media Factbook) and I couldn’t agree more. Certainly so, people rely on magazines daily for the latest look, which means that yes, magazines and media in general are influential to us as consumers.
Believe it or not, the media does heavily influence our decisions and truly does play such a profound role in our world, like Brittany mentioned. Beauty is shown in nearly all forms of media, including magazines, which provides us with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal look, especially the perfect body. Whether we flip through pages of a fashion magazine, follow a celebrity on a social media platform like Instagram or even tune into the Victoria Secret Swim Special this Thursday on CBS, we are constantly being exposed to these so called “perfect” ways of how we are supposed to look.
It seems as though we are grown into this world where we need to meet these high expectations that the media sets for us to not only please ourselves, but to please others. And it truly saddens me. Its sad that we have to live our lives trying to please others to get their approval. To me, it should not be like this since I believe the only person you should be satisfying and making happy is yourself. However, we are so absorbed with the fact of being liked by others, that it’s hard to escape. For example, a person may take to Instagram to show their followers a photo that they may have taken of themselves at the beach this spring break in Cancun. Therefore, they will do everything in their will power to make it look as perfect as possible by possibly photoshopping their photo to ultimately get the hundreds of likes that they believe they truly deserve. Actually according to an article from Business Insider it stated, “Instagram gets 1,000 comments per second and 8,500 likes per second, totaling 1.2 billion likes per day” (D’Onfro). This amazes me because there are so many people who rely on social media platforms like Instagram to get recognition and gratification from others.
Truth be told, there is no such thing as perfection. Yes, people may try and come close to being perfect, but there is no such thing that exists, especially the “perfect” body. And thats okay. Why? Because everyone has their own imperfections and we need to accept it. Accept that we are all different in our own little ways [whether others like it or not] and be happy with the unique individuals that we truly are.
Works Cited
"2014 Magazine Media Factbook." MPA: The Association of Magazine Media. 31 Jan. 2015. Web.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. 18 Feb. 2014. Web.
Antonia Jones
ReplyDeleteWhat is the perfect body? And who has the perfect body? Like all my classmates have stated, society and media have undoubtedly swayed our ideals of what perfect is. But I also think, we as consumers, forget two major factors. The first being that everyone has different opinions of what perfect is. Some people think being skinny is perfect while others think being curvy is. Some people think being blonde is ideal while other think being brunette is classic. You get my gist. But these ideas of what we think is perfect changes with age and sometimes even on a day to day basis. For example, I remember being 9 years old and thinking Hilary Duff was so pretty. I’m now 22 years old and think Sofía Vergara and Jennifer Anniston are true beauties. Take a second though and think about how different those two women are.
You rhetorically, I think, asked if I wish I looked like a celebrity? Some days yes and other days no. It all depends on my mood and how I’m feeling about myself. I also am very aware of the fact that I will never look like Sofía Vergara. You know why? I would have to miraculously grow 7 inches, get a boob job, and undergo buttock augmentation.
Now to my second point, we wonder why celebrities are on the front of our magazine covers? We as consumers have put them there. There are plenty of statistics that prove celebrities work for us. They do, whether we admit it or not, make us want to buy stuff or at least try stuff. As written by the Association of Magazine Media, “Luxury goods buyers are print magazine readers. Beauty is at an index of 180 and fashion is at an index of 174” (2014 Magazine Media Factbook). When we flip through magazines like Glamour or Cosmopolitan, what do we see? Top selling beauty products, updated fashion trends for the coming season, fine jewelry pieces, etc. And who is using and promoting these luxury goods? Celebrities.
Let’s now discuss photoshop. I have to state that I’m bias about this subject because I have spent an incredible amount time and money learning photography and using Photoshop. In fact, my dream job is to be or work for a high fashion magazine or celebrity photographer. I’m not going to argue with anyone that young girls are easily impacted by what they see. They are. But in this day and age, I think young girls are much more aware of the photoshop epidemic. As stated in the article, This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter, “FB CFO David Ebersman revealed that Instagram doubled its user base, which should put its total around 180 million monthly active users” (D’Onfro). When Beyonce was accused of altering her Instagram picture to have a thigh gap think about how many young girls of the 180 millions Instagram users saw it? This “news” circulated on all forms of social media. I even heard it on the radio. But take note that some of these young girls idolize Beyonce. And realize that it can go one of two ways. They can conclude that she altered her picture because she too has flaws and insecurities or they can conclude that they too must have a thigh gap. But at that point, I think it’s up to parents to have a discussion about these two conclusions and point their children in the right direction.
But do you want to know what is truly amazing and what I think magazines have done right? All different women nowadays can sport the front cover of a magazine and have stories written about them. Vogue has featured Lupita Nyong’o, Lana Del Ray, Penelope Cruz, and many more on their cover. Have they been photoshopped? Yes. Are they all beautiful and different? Yes. Does being photoshopped take away from their accomplishments or talents? No.
ReplyDeletePhotoshop is a powerful tool. In fact, you can change the appearance of anyone just by putting makeup on them, shooting from a different angle, or by putting them in a certain light. All these “tools” make it possible to alter the way someone looks. Does that make them evil? No. Personally, I think even if we put a disclaimer that states what’s been photoshopped that it’s not going to make a huge difference. We as Americans and as consumers have been engulfed by this notion of perfection in all aspects of our lives. Not just in beauty. And I think when it comes to beauty, there are no limits on what is or is not perfect. What’s that cheesy quote? Beauty is in the eyes of its beholder.
Works Cited
"2014 Magazine Media Factbook." MPA: The Association of Magazine Media. 31 Jan.
2015. Web.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "This Chart Shows How Instagram Reached 150 Million Users In Half The Time Of Twitter." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.