The Photoshop Culture

[10sthai]

    When I first saw this video, I was pretty shocked. Of course, I’ve always known that most pictures we see in the media are photoshopped. But for some reason, seeing photoshop in real time, really hit it home for me just how much we are exposed to it everywhere we look—and how passive we are towards it. The social media dependency on photoshop has become a global epidemic. Young girls everywhere are being raised to believe that it is expected of them to look like the retouched models that they see all around them. These expectations are unhealthy and unrealistic, forcing them to dream of being hypersexualized, and unnaturally skinny; asking them to measure their worth in how much cleavage they have, and the size of their thigh gap. And lets not forget that this is not only a female issue. I’m sure that boys go through similar experiences, feeling inadequate because of lack of muscle mass, height, and what we have stereotyped as male “sex appeal”. I think the most jarring image for me was seeing the girl’s eye and nose structure completely re-shaped. And the fact that we can do that in videos, means that we can do it pretty much everywhere. Sometimes, I wonder if there are absolutely any images that we have access to nowadays, that haven’t been retouched.

    The culture of Photoshop has been an ongoing debate for a while, though we still seem not to be getting anywhere. There are thousands of Youtube videos, articles, social media movements, organizations, campaigns, and more, that are devoted to raising awareness of the harms of photoshopping. I have seen these videos, and I like to say that I’ve been touched by these efforts, yet I still continue to look at magazines and wonder why I don’t look like the doe-eyed, poreless, “perfectly-proportioned” girls on the front cover. Even though we know that we are being blind-sided, we still eat up the lies like insecurity-curing candy. We are stuck in a world of half-awareness, half-denial.

    My question is, why do we allow these images to have such power over our self-worth? If we know they are not real, why do we torture ourselves by expecting that we can ever look like them? The simple reality is that I will never, ever, be able to look exactly like the “perfect” girls in the magazines because I do not have the same genetic make up, the same body shape or bone structure, nor am I even the same race. But somehow, I am still desirous of change, and something inside of me believes that there is something wrong with me for not looking “perfect.” I frequently question the reasoning behind this, because I see it in almost every girl I meet. And what I’ve come to believe is that there is a certain need, a certain attractiveness, to degrading ourselves. By picking out our flaws, we give ourselves a kind of hope that we can change things. That we have control over our lives. And as a result, so much of our materialistic culture has become reliant on making us feel that by changing ourselves, we will feel more in control, and more happy. Simply put, we have become a society that is enamored with inadequacy.

[3zrheanna]

I agree completely with your message here, Thai. The technological universe we live in today is obsessed with "improving" everything we see, and the awful casual sexism that still exists in our world makes women and young girls especially susceptible to crazy ideas about body image. Photoshop and programs like it can no longer truly be considered "editing software" , because it isn't really "editing" anything. Instead, it is creating. Creating beautiful, perfectly toned, flawlessly proportioned people who cannot possibly exist in the real world. This is incredibly damaging to our society today, it leads people to believe that they will never be pretty or skinny enough to be considered "beautiful" or "handsome". Not only that, but this feeling of inferiority among the masses spreads the idea that you need to look a certain way to be considered worthy of living your life.. making people believe that the only way they will be happy and "good enough" for people to like them is to change their outward appearance. This message is powerful and incredibly dangerous, and is the one of the leading causes of malicious mental illnesses such as eating disorders and depression. Beauty pageants and contests enforce the idea that looking good will get you places in life, and in order to look good, girls need to wear pounds of makeup and lose weight, while guys need to bulk up. Not only is this mentality in our culture very literally making young people sick, but the cosmetics industry is making millions of dollars a day off of their insecurities. That's right, corporations are getting rich off of telling women that they are ugly, and unworthy of love because of it .If that's not one of the most disgusting things you have ever heard, I don't know what to tell you. I've been reflecting on this for a while and about three weeks ago I decided I want nothing to do with this anymore. I threw out all of my makeup and decided that I was no longer going to count calories and spend a half an hour every day fixing my hair. I realized that trying to be society's standard of "pretty" is a waste of time, I've decided to embrace the way I look and not care what anyone else has to say about it. There are more important things in life to worry about, and I'm not wasting one more second crying in front of a mirror.

[6cdeniseclaire]

As human beings, its kind of hard not to try to conform to standards issued by some omniscient character- A social norm or convention.

Whether we like it or not, as humans, we are instinctually hive minded so that we can become part of a group, or a whole. As part of human instinct, being a part of any group means safety, and a safety net equates survival. However, now a days, when everything isn't so much
about surviving in the wild, these urges must be channeled elsewhere, and often becomes a hinderance for our social growth.

This photoshop culture is very much a part of our lives an it terrifies me. I am consistently insecure, even when I tell myself that I shouldn't be and that, "Hey, they're only pictures!" Personal body image is a struggle for me, especially because I am
overweight and even coming to school, I sometimes feel inadequate in the wake of slender dance majors and well-dressed individuals.

However, I have quickly become more accepting towards myself, although I know FOR A FACT there are millions of girl out there who aren't in my state of mind.
I could give you some bull advice, but in the end, it is in one's own mind that one can come into terms with these struggles and one's own opinion as an individual. We are all human and we can not all be programmed to think the same. Beauty conventions vary everywhere and
personal beauty is a journey one goes on slowly and the results always vary.

A girl or a guy is more than what society has standardized us to be and it s up to a clear-minded individual to see that for his or her own self.

[10plauren]

www.estherhonig.com/#!before--after-/cvkn


I agree completely with what all of you said, and I think this article relates to the video that was posted on beauty. This article is basically showing us what each country thinks the idea of beauty is. When I looked through all of these photos, I was so shocked at the effects that were used on the original photo. Although, the effects made on this girl were more in terms of make-up, hair, and color, in comparison to the video, which changed eye and nose shape and altered the girl’s face in terms of structure.
The definition of beauty is “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that please the aesthetic senses, especially by sight”. Many see this to be the definition of beauty being based on what a person looks like on the outside. Meanwhile, true beauty depends on how a person acts and thinks rather than that of how they look. This topic can be so easily clichéd because of how people often say, “beauty is on the inside”, even though many don’t even believe that anymore because of these “beauty standards”. True beauty is idiosyncratic, where it is different to every person. A few decades ago, beauty was more related to curves and shape, but now, as Thai said, girls measure their worth in cleavage and the size of their thigh gap. In this article beauty had a bias depending on their own culture. Some countries changed her look radically, when few stayed true to the original picture. Watching the slide show play, and having the before next to the after each time you can really see the difference, and the “imperfections” that were changed. This was really moving because some of these pictures had such an unrealistic image; it just made me so surprised as to what the customary beauty is in each of these 28 countries. Something has to be done so young girls, and guys don’t fall victim to insecurities that can lead to lack of self-esteem, bullying, or choosing plastic surgery enhancements, etc.
Sadly, I think some part of me was not surprised by how drastic some of these unhealthy changes were. We live in a world where beauty is an unrealistic expectation, but people try to achieve that anyway. I don’t know what I was expecting when I saw the name of this article, but it made me really think about how our society impacts our definition of beauty, and what it is turning us into as a community. This article just goes to show that this is a worldwide problem.

[6hkaterina]

What I find most upsetting about this, is not the photoshopping itself, however, the fact that the girl is beautiful before they begin "fixing" through technology. Of course, using an editor to fix a blemish or two in a picture can just help self-esteem in a young girl. However, using photoshop to completely alter a face that inspires teenage girls is like hitting the self-destruct button in every young girl's head. Now, that we are so aware of the technology being used, I feel like it's even a win-win. With videos such as this one, where you see a beautiful girl turn into a "perfect" girl, as we follow the photoshop, you see how the work that goes into making this, and how she didn't just wake up looking as "stunning" as the photoshop makes her in the end. When we see pictures in magazines and models, we know that they're photoshopped, so this understanding should definitely help girls in our society, however, instead of conforming to this image of beauty, photoshoppers should conform to a real image of beauty.

[10cvictoria]

I think the discussion of how Photoshop has distorted body image is very interesting. I always hear everyone condemn Photoshop. Even some celebrities such as Kate Winslet and Brad Pittt have publicly stood up against these digital alterations. But surprisingly, there are as many people that do support and defend Photoshop as artistic freedom.
In the Huffington Post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/photoshop-body-image_b_891095.html), we see photographers and artist defend Photoshop by saying that Photoshop was created originally for” bringing a subject more into focus, not creating works of fiction.” Therefore, these supporters of digital alteration don’t believe that photography should be singled out as the reason why American has a distorted viw on beauty. Furthermore, some think that the ban of Photoshop in advertisement will cause more harm to the models who have to work that much harder to fit an image of beauty.
In my opinion I do think that Photoshop helps in creating a distorted body image. However, I don’t think we can put the full blame on digital alteration. I think we have to ask ourselves, why do we expect a women to look so unnatural? When did natural beauty become ugly? When we can answer these questions, we will be able to solve the bigger problem.

[10slena]

I think this topic is extremely important to the modern age. With our technology, it's easier than ever to alter someone's appearance in a photo or video - as shown in the music video that Thai posted. The question that was raised about 'why we expect a women to look this way' is important, but I think its more important to not look at ourselves but the media and society. We aren't born with these unrealistic beauty standards, we're taught them. The pressure a woman - particularly a young woman - feels is immeasurable. And then when women (and men) develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, people blame them, rather than the external forces that actually caused their illness. I think an important step in getting rid of the Barbie-doll standard is not to question why the girl wishes to look that way, but why society wishes a girl to look that way. Why does society care so much about women's looks? Why must everything to do with looks put a woman down, rather than make her feel more beautiful? Even buying clothing shows what is wrong with our concept of beauty - with sizes 0 and 00 (which are nonexistent in men's clothing). We're practically begging women to shrink down into nothing. But fitting into a size zero pair of jeans should not be a measure of our self worth. The only way to beat photoshop and the standards that society sets on beauty is to fight back by making companies aware of how destructive their influence is to women of all ages. We are all different. We are individuals with different genetics. You can not put a standard on an entire sex, it is simply unrealistic.

[6bvictoria]

I agree with this post. Photoshop originally started to help fix errors in a camera shot, such as removing a water bottle from a picture, or an small distortion to help maintain the original intended photo. However, over time it has slowly progressed from cutting people out of photos, to creating thigh gaps. It is very upsetting because human beings are now setting the bar for appearance unrealistically high. A lot of times when people see photoshop it usually revolves around women, however, men are also subjected to this issue. Men are so used to seeing buff men on magazine covers, telling them that having a "six pack" of abs will get them the girl of their dreams. It affects both genders, forcing them to attempt to reach these unrealistic standards that technology has given us today. What used to be a tool to enhance photos is now a tool that ruins the self worth and self esteem of millions.

[6REmily]

It is very unbelievable how much the Photoshop culture has evolved throughout the years. At first Photoshop was created to improve the lighting, clarity, position, and objects/people in a photograph. However, now Photoshop is being used to alter people's self-image and make it into what society sees as "perfect". Everything and everywhere today has Photoshopped pictures and images, such as in magazines, advertisements, social media pictures, posters, and so on. The Photoshop culture today is mostly put on people. Many well-known women today are Photoshopped to make them more "beautiful", when it is only someone "in the fantasy word" who looks "flawless".

Photoshopped photo are altered or so-called "improved", which sets a negative example to young girls today. For example, I once saw a video about Beyonce (I think), who was caught Photoshopping her thighs in her photos on Instagram in order to make her thigh gap more prominent. It is very sad to see a well-known singer doing that to herself because it basically sets an example to young girls that that is what makes women "beautiful" in society today. Photoshopping a body into a slim figure of what women wish to have is what makes young girls have eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. Many people today think that a perfect body is one with curves, a thigh gap, long legs, slim face, symmetrical body parts, long and tall nose, plump lips, arched eyebrows, hair that flows perfectly in a certain direction, and so on. NO IT IS NOT!

We all have our own flaws, whether it is a beauty mark, a spot, discoloration, body parts that are not symmetrical and alike, a pimple, a cyst, a wrinkle, or some freckles. However, it doesn't define who we really are. We are our own unique person who is beautiful and perfect in our own way. Ironically but honestly, Photoshopping today has a bad influence to people, since it sets a non-existent example of what people are supposed to look like and what "beautiful" and "flawless" really is. It is very depressing to see that our exterior image is what defines our identity and personality.

Photoshop is go back to taking unnecessary objects out of photographs, altering the colors on pictures to make it stand out a little more, and aligning things on pictures, not altering body parts to make them more symmetrical, perfect, and flawless. I am very fed up with people drooling over a fake and imaginary photograph.