Photoshop Extreme make-over!

Playboy or not...

Extreme Makeover Photoshop

How is this possible...

Introduction

Welcome to my blogspot! My name is Bianca and I have dedicated this page to my interest in how the media manipulates the people on television with secret techniques such as airbrushing in order to make them appear "perfect." So, with my title, I am revealing that the media's secret weapon is airbrushing, also known as digital alterization. By doing this they are tricking people into beleiving it is real which results in people setting unrealistic goals. I find it intriguing how the media truly impacts the society into believing that one must look a certain way to be beautiful and desirable. Sex is used to advertise almost anything and everything, from alcoholic beverages to fast food chains! These gorgeously sculpted bodies that are used to sell have all been digitally altered and are totally fake. I find it disturbing how these images are created and then people assume that they are real. This portrayal of women that the media has created has a huge impact on people all over the world, especially women. Popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue feature only ultra-thin women who they create into barbie dolls. What people refuse to realize is that this is all so fake. The pictures are taken by professionals and then airbrushed and edited to erase every single imperfection until the model appears flawless. In my opinion this is quite ridiculous, because people are doing everything to look like these “fake people.” Eating disorders are more common now than they have ever been before, in the fifties, Marilyn Monroe who was a voluptuous size eight, was the ideal. Today they are creating a size double zero! That is insane! I feel this issue is quite important because people need to know that the media does not always reveal the truth, and although this sells and is extremely eye-catching, people need to know what is going on behind the scenes so that they do not get caught up in all the falsified glamour.

Current Event

Celebrity Faith Hill was featured on the cover of "Redbook" in July 2007. The well known country singer, who is over forty years old appeared surprisingly young in her selection of pictures displayed in the magazine. As you can imagine, airbrushing has many, many critics who argue that it is harmful to real people due to the fact that it creates an unattainable ideal of beauty. So, people really were in a total shock when they saw how Faith appeared on the magazine cover. "Redbook" is a magazine aimed mostly towards mothers and mature women. The editors of "Redbook" wanted to meet the standards of Cosmopolitan which is a magazine aimed towards teens and women in their 20's. Basically, readers and critics were became irritated with the magazine because they are trying to improve women's self esteem and give them tips on how to look and feel better. How can they claim to be doing these things when behind the scenes they are airbrushing and photoshopping the celebrities that people look up to. How can people set their goals to be more like someone who is not even real? The magazine lost a great deal of fans due to the fact that they are being fake and saying that everyone is beautiful in their own way, while in reality they are airbrushing and doing everything they claim is not ncessary to look good.

What I really think...

The media is its own world, full of stereotypes, digitally altered images, gossip, exaggerated truths, and a great deal of sex. Although the media world is full of lies and fakeness, people get extremely caught up in it and tend to forget what is real. Many people are truly obsessed with celebrities and will go to any extreme in order to look just like a particular one. What a lot of people do not realize is, the huge process that these celebrities go through in order to look like they do...and it still is not enough. "The media enhances models' body parts and facial features with lighting, props, lots of makeup, and techniques like airbrushing. Blemishes, freckles, and other "imperfections" are erased to make images look as perfect is it can. This proves that no one is that perfect, not even models, otherwise their photos would not need to be touched up" (Flynn 1). In movies, magazines, advertisements, commercials; basically every image displayed in the media has been digitally altered, so one can simply assume it has been. The problem faced is not only with airbrushing and using photoshop, it is actually amazing that technology has come so far and it is possible to basically change a whole person with the click of a mouse; The real problem is that there is not enough knowledge among people of what is going on behind the scenes, not even a mere hint. It is absolutely necessary to let people know that their idols are not perfect, that they have undergone a full makeover on top of digital editing in order to acheive the final result that we see. Nowadays digital altering has gone to the ultimate extreme, even athletes and politicians are getting in on it! This manipulation of photos which are producing these fake images of people are getting out of control, even the President participates. In more serious cases, for instance if a celebrity has a child or has gained a massive amount of weight, they can hire a body double for a film or music clip. So if their body is not theirs and their faces have been defined, then who are these people? Young people really do not comprehend that the images they see of their favorite hockey player or singer has been totally manipulated. A survey determined that seventy percent of girls want to look like a character on TV. That is a huge percentage of girls that want to look like a fake person. Recently there has been controversy over the new cover of "Redbook," actress Faith Hill. She is over forty years old and appears flawless, no wrinkles and a petite frame. These are the images that make people insecure and depressed. When a woman has delivered children and has stress and simply ages, wrinkles appear and some weight can be gained, it is not natural to show portray these celebrities as superhuman when in reality they are just like the rest of us. If people truly care about the human race and want others to grow up to be healthy and nowhere near depression and eating disorders, then they need to make it a well-known fact that the media is manipulating photos and that it is not normal to look twenty when you are actually fourty-five. The media needs to stop encouraging people to set goals that are totally unacheivable, let the world know what is real, that celebrities, politicians, athletes, and everyone else in the media is a real person with flaws too.

Links for Further Information...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/08/17/nosplit/ft-airbrush-117.xml
The links above leads to an article discussing airbrushing and how it is available for everyone to practice now. You can't tell what is real and what is not anymore! There is a piece about a woman who was digitally fixed and includes a "before and after" photograph to show the significant differance after airbrushing.

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/
This article includes a timeline beginning in 1860, when digital editing already had begun and leads all the way to 2007. This shows how photo editing is extensively practiced and grew more and more popular over time.

http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/031111.Grauerholz.tales.html
This article discusses fairytales and how they can influence a child's self esteem before they even learn right from wrong! The Princesses in the fairytales are unrealistic and appear flawless just like the airbrushed images in the media.

Poor Barbie

Poor and unfortunate Barbie, she could eventually marry her beloved Ken but most likely they are never going to be able to have children together. Research conducted by Radar programs has concluded that if Barbie were a real person, the percent she holds of body fat would so low that she would not even be able to hold a regular menstruation. If Barbie were a real live human being, she stand six feet tall, weigh 100 pounds, and wear a size 4 in pants or dress. Her measurements would then be 39"/19"/33". Because of the size of her bust, it would be necessary to have a back surgery to to the weight of her top half. The average American woman stands five feet four inches tall, weighs approximately 145 lbs., and wears a size 11-14 in pants or dress. The average American woman's measurements are about 36"/30"/41". This is way out of reality, how can someone attempt to be like a "barbie doll" when it is not even possible!

http://www.switched.com/2007/10/22/worst-airbrushed-celebs-of-2007-so-far/

"Believe it or not, celebrities are fat and zitty like the rest of us -- they just happen to have a secret weapon to fight flab and flaws that we mere mortals don't. We're talking about airbrushing, of course." The article begins with that statement. This article discusses photoshopping also known as digitally manipulating photos. Photoshop is practiced so much that it can be automatically assumed that any posed photo in a magazine has been edited. The article discusses how it is dangerous to portray these unrealistic images to people. Celebrities have many fans including ones who are desperate to look just like them. By displaying an airbrushed photo in a magazine, people truly become convinced that this is real and this is how they need to look. The article explains that not just singers and actors are being airbrushed....but everyone from athletes to Presidents. After the explanation about airbrushing and how it affects people, there are many comments left by real people with their opinion on this matter.