Check out Faith Hill, or can I say “Faith Hill” on the cover of a fashion magazine. She looks incredible, right? Thin, pretty, tan, with perfect makeup and the perfect body, all captured by a single photograph. I’d even go as far to say, she looks absolutely flawless.
I can’t begin to imagine the number of young women who have subconsciously or consciously thought, wow I wish I looked that good (I know that I have). I wish my face and my body could be captured that perfectly. In reality, however, that is not the real Faith Hill. That is a photoshopped, altered, perfected, or Stepfordized, as some call it, version of Faith Hill.
“One of her arms was thinned by about 40 percent, an unflattering roll of flab was removed, and her left hand was turned into a left forearm pose. Most disturbingly to me, her face shape was distorted, like a Barbie doll's can be molded by squeezing it.”
That picture, that flawless women, is not real. She does not exist. I do not walk around campus as the photoshopped version of me. She does not walk around Hollywood as that version of herself. So why should it exist online then? My facebook photos are certainly not photoshopped. Are yours?
Regardless of the idealized images in photoshop, women still today strive to be more like the flawless women on the cover of glamour magazines. The digitized, stepfordized version of Faith Hill is what we, as human women, desire to look like, as we walk the streets and go about their daily routines. Phlawless.
Effortless perfection is the condensation of the drive to be the physical version of the phlawless version of oneself. Photoshopping and perfecting photographs is the modern ability to transform flawed realities to flawless photographs, in a mere matter of minutes and clicks of a mouse.
Since I know you are all thinking it, what would you change? How would you photoshop your digital self to make you appear more stepfordized and flawless? For me personally, I’d say…. Add a little tan to my whole body, a little more bronze to my face especially. Add some definition to my arms, make them look thin but toned. Add some volume to my hair. Cut a few inches off my inner thighs. Define my calves. Lift and perfectly round my butt. Make my eyes sparkle. Now that is perfect. The new, phlawless me. Don’t I look great? But how sick is that?
“I am at a loss for ways to combat the media's standards of beauty. But seeing the curtains of digital magic pulled back to reveal reality can remind each of us to give ourselves a break when we look in the mirror.”
Yes, we all have those days, bad hair days, tired days, sweatpants days. Some days are just a struggle to lift those covers. But the media sure is not helping. There is a level of beauty that is universal and real, a beautiful that shines inside and out. A beauty that is envious. But the media beauty, the fake beauty created by magazines, is certainly not enviable. I’d go as far to say that it is sickening.
Interesting post Christie! I don't experience the same level of pressure that women do to be phlawless, but the media portraying women as phlawless does make me desire that perfect woman, even though I know there aren't any out there.
ReplyDeleteLast year I visited a website (blackjackskanz.com) that was all about models in the music industry, and even though many of these women would not be considered perfect by the mainstream media, there was still plenty of photoshop going on.
It is an interesting dynamic that has been part of American culture for as long as we've had print and television to tell us what to look like, and how to dress.
Will it ever change? I hope so, but I doubt it. I feel that many people are just too insecure about themselves, and also like having someone to look up to.
Like you said, you know that Faith Hill in real life doesn't look like Faith Hill in a magazine, but because she's Faith Hill many young women will look up to her anyways and aspire to be her.
Hi Christie,
ReplyDeleteI remember the controversy that surrounded this photo. It's upsetting that the standards of beauty we hold ourselves to are professional photoshopped images. I agree that the media is to blame for altering nearly every image of a person no matter how good looking they are to start with, but I don't think its entirely their fault. The media attempts to give us what we want and we want perfection...if the model on the cover of Shape magazine wasn't as toned would we still buy it? It's a frustrating cycle and I don't know what the solution is. Keep up the good work!