One of the most disturbing facts about the media’s images of female beauty is that they are attainable for only a few select women. The media is setting an unrealistic standard for women to look up to. The problem with this is that young girls idolize the models that they see in the media. They are trying to mimic looks that are impossible for most to achieve. Women of all ages are striving for a perfection that cannot be met. Even Barbie is portraying an unrealistic body image to little girls who know no better than to believe what they see. Researchers have found that if Barbie were a real woman, she would have to walk on all fours and because of her unrealistic proportions, she would not be able to balance on her long slender legs and tiptoes. They also found that if mannequins were alive, they would be too thin to menstruate and bear children (“Food”). Another group of researchers did an experiment by generating a computer model of a female with Barbie doll-like proportions. They “Found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition (“Beauty”). The worst part about this whole situation is that the difference between the size of females presented by the media versus the size of females in real life is beginning to increase.
http://images.art.com/images/-/Barbie--C10088159.jpeg∞
One major thing that women do not consider when viewing the media, especially magazines, is the digital manipulation that is used to make the model look the way she does. Over the years it has become more and more popular to use computers to digitally enhance the photos of the models before they are seen by the public.
Digital editing of photography can duplicate the parts of pictures in micro-seconds by cutting and pasting, cloning and morphing. These digital changes allow creative directors to imagine women who are thinner and more perfect. Digital manipulation can easily stretch body torsos and legs, digitally liposuction fatty areas, and miraculously grow muscles on a body that is later perceived by readers as belonging to a living woman. It can alter a model’s skin tone so that it becomes impossible to discern the true coloring, and what is being sacrificed for her to conform to the norms of a dominant culture (Hitchon).
Digital manipulation creates a problem because women are unable to distinguish between what they see and what is real. Teenage girls in particular view magazines and are not aware of what the publishers have done to the models. They only focus in on what is presented to them and try to recreate this vision in themselves. At this crucial time in a young girl’s life, the media is a powerful shaper in her mind and helps her to form her identity. Unfortunately, since girls are basing their looks on models that have been digitally enhanced, they are developing a false view of their own self-image. Through the use of digital manipulation, the fashion industry is basically telling its viewers that even the most beautiful women are not beautiful enough.
http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/blonde/index.html∞
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