As a photographer I utilize Photoshop a fair amount. Mostly for resizing images, some basic color correction and sharpening. Occasionally I’ll do some blemish correction for portraits and every once in a while I’ll use textures and blending modes to create an overall effect that I believe adds to my work. I can rock photoshop pretty hard if I need to, but seldom do I utilize the full potential of this program. Today I was surfing the internet for retouching tutorials and came across this link:
These are incredible transformations! I think these skills are incredible, but at what point are we taking things to far?
I’ve posted about this very subject in the past, because I can’t help wondering how saturated our minds are with images of woman who don’t look like themselves. It’s no wonder eating disorders are prevalent and body image is a disaster zone for women (and some men) in the US. Check out Dove’s stab at these distortions of reality:
Here are some impressive statistics from colorado.edu’s wellness website:
– Two out of five women and one out of five men would trade three to five years of their life to achieve their weight goals.
– In 1970 the average age of a girl who started dieting was 14; by 1990 the average dieting age fell to 8.
– A study found that women overestimate the size of their hips by 16% and their waists by 25%, yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box.
– After viewing images of female fashion models, seven out of ten women felt more depressed and angry than prior to viewing the images.
– The “ideal†woman – portrayed by models, Miss America, Barbie dolls, and screen actresses – is 5’5, weighs 100 pounds and wears a size 5.
– Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.
– The diet industry (diet foods, diet programs, diet drugs, etc.) takes in over $40 billion each year and continues to grow.
– 30% of women chose an ideal body shape that is 20% underweight and an additional 44% chose an ideal body shape that is 10% underweight.
– The average U.S. woman is 5’4†and weighs 140 pounds whereas the average U.S. model is 5’11†and weighs 117 pounds.
Check out other ways mass media is skewing our collective perspective
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