Beauty retouching is everywhere. Its purpose? To make the everyday seem extraordinary. Do we fall for it? Most of the time.
We know it’s fake but we still want to achieve this unattainable beauty, figure, car, home, face; you name it it’s been retouched. The Kardashians are prime examples of retouching or as it’s more commonly known to this generation filtering. This basically means changing something in the picture to make it better.
Of course we’ve all heard of campaign retouching in makeup like the infamous retouching scandal featuring Beyoncé who had become a lot paler for a L’Oréal product.
We have all seen the fails of Photoshop of people trying to shave inches of already beautiful bodies including chopped off arms, pixelated legs, warped settings.
So what is it that makes retouching so popular? We all know it’s not real but would you really buy a product featuring makeup on bad skin in its marketing campaign? No as we would assume the makeup should make us flawless.
It’s not aesthetically pleasing to see something plastered all over magazines and TV that isn’t immaculate.
We are superficial to a certain degree whether we like it or not. We expect a standard if we are to be sold a beauty product.
However this practice is being shunned more and more by models, photographers and the buying public.
Not only is it damaging to impressionable teens who believe these looks are natural and achievable but companies that are trying to sell these ideas are being judged on their actions.
photos credit: http://viralscape.com/celebrities-before-after-photoshop/
How many of us are not happy with our bodies? You probably think I’d love to lose a few pounds for this that or the other reason but think about it. If it was accepted in Hollywood to be the average size 14-16 which is the norm in Ireland and UK, things would be a lot different.
I did a little survey asking 20 women (all peers of mine so similar in age) I know would they be ok with being a size 14/16. The answer was shocking.
The average said no…if they had been that size previously, they lost weight. If they were over a size 16, they’re goal was a 12. If they were under a size 12 at the time of the survey they wouldn’t be happy to be a size 14. If they were a size 14 they felt fat.
Now onto the men I also asked 20 men (all peers so again the same age) was a size 14-16 acceptable. Did they find it sexy? And would they go out with a girl of that size.
Most said a 14 was the size limit they would be attracted to but prefer smaller girls.
None of these people asked are particularly superficial or take any extra interest in media but they all felt that the average was higher than they would like to be or be with.
Pressures to be perfect are everywhere and I can understand why celebs feel the need to be the best they can be. They are judged and picked apart for every last detail. The thing that’s really grates on me is how they try to pass it off as natural.
Women young and old criticise themselves because they don’t look like Kylie Jenner or Megan Fox and they are seem as the faces of beauty. Funny thing is these girls don’t look like their real selves either! They have been surgically enhanced and then take posed and filtered photographs so we don’t have a chance.
Once we don’t pressure ourselves to keep up with people in the spotlight there’s no real harm in admiring. There’s certainly a huge difference admiring a picture and aspiring to become that picture.