Posts filed under 'body image'
Ah, Photoshop retouching, how you pain us, how you confuse us all. Reading a very amazing (and very long) article in the New Yorker (May 12, 2008 issue) today, I learned about the techniques and life of master photo retoucher Pascal Dangin. I encourage About-Face visitors to take the time to read the entire article, either online or in the magazine itself.
[The Dove ads: Lots of retouching? Really? Did you have to break our hearts?]
My rose-colored glasses were cracked by this statement about his work on the Dove campaigns. From the article:
I [the article’s author] mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual “real women” in their undergarments. It turned out that it was a Dangin job. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”
Retouchers, subjected to endless epistemological debates—are they simple conduits for social expectations of beauty, or shapers of such?—often resort to a don’t-shoot-the-messenger defense of their craft, familiar to repo guys and bail bondsmen. When I asked Dangin if the steroidal advantage that retouching gives to celebrities was unfair to ordinary people, he admitted that he was complicit in perpetuating unrealistic images of the human body, but said, “I’m just giving the supply to the demand.” (Fashion advertisements are not public-service announcements.)
Of course they had some retouching done — but a LOT of retouching? Wait a minute. Aren’t they supposed to be “real” women?
In the article, Dangin comes across as an artist, but he’s still manipulating the public image. Then there are tons of other photo retouchers out there who, at the urging of their advertising and magazine clients, shave off too much hip, remove too much bulge, and create a Frankenstein’s monster. Case in point:
[Some bad image manipulation.]
The resulting image can have one of two effects: Girls, boys, women, and men can see the image and 1) perceive it as real, assuming that it is the way a beautiful woman should look, or 2) see it as a grotesque, malformed person. We make the choice, and the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty makes the point well: we often can’t tell whether an image is retouched. (See the irony here?) Will we continue to believe our eyes and try to get ever more “perfect”?
I don’t believe that photographers should never use Photoshop on their photos — everyone wants a pimple removed in their family picture for posterity or their MySpace or Facebook page — but completely changing a body to within a centimeter of its former self? And selling us a literally unattainable form of beauty we are told we must fit into? That’s where I draw the line.
- J.B.
May 8th, 2008
Speaking of body image and stereotypes of women, it’s not all about thinness/fatness, is it? Take the Tyra Banks Show from today, April 24.
Black women of various skin shades were on the show talking about whether light-skinned black women have things easier, and the answer seemed to be “yes.” Adding her very sensationalistic viewpoint, one medium-skinned woman said, “I don’t want my son dating dark-skinned girls because I don’t want him bringing home any dark-skinned grandbabies.” Luckily, her 12-year-old son said he hates when she says that, because she comes off as “prejudiced.” And another darker-skinned woman finally told her lighter-skinned sister (and I mean sister, by blood) that she feels her lighter-skinned sister has had the advantage during her life. She asked “When is it my turn to be called pretty?”
These two women are sisters. That’s Tyra on the left.
You can see clips on Tyra’s web site.
And while you’re at it,
here’s an ad that illustrates the skin-color issue pretty clearly, albeit with some ad-speak mixed messages thrown in. We show this ad to teenagers in our workshops and ask, “How does this advertiser want you to feel?” So tell us all, what do you think?
(click to enlarge)
Now, I’m not black, so I have no right to make judgments about how black women treat each other, and I can’t see it from their perspective. Maybe our black women readers won’t want to comment because they don’t want to discuss their community’s “dirty laundry.” But we can all learn something from this struggle. So if you’ve checked out the videos of the show, or you have anything to say on this issue, please post below so we can open up the conversation.
- J. B.
April 24th, 2008
The Devil Wears Prada meets a drill sergeant in this best-selling diet book, Skinny Bitch. Does that recipe sound unappealing to you, too?
Blech. It smacks of chick-lit friendly marketing with that totally hip touch of sass (read: swearing). So what is it really? A vegan diet book. Apparently it’s light on the recipes because it’s chock full of “tough-love for savvy girls”. Huh?
Look, I’m cool with veganism. And I’m all about eating less-processed foods. But it is a bald-faced lie to tell people that veganism will make everyone—no matter their body type or genetic profile—skinny. There can be health benefits that come along with cutting out meat and dairy, but that does not automatically result in elongated torsos, designer sunglasses, and a Hollywood-ready little black dress (right, front cover?).
Also, reading the title feels like chewing on tinfoil to me. There’s a lame smugness to it—it assumes that all non-skinny women are jealous of skinny ones, that all skinny women are bitches, that becoming skinny automatically lends you an air of superiority. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It’s dumb female-to-female hostility dressed up as faux empowerment, and to me, that goes down worse than last night’s barbecued seitan.
-A.I.
March 25th, 2008
I was Google-chatting with my good friend Rebecca the other day and we were rambling on about the Oscars. You know — our favorite dresses, favorite speeches, and so on. Out of the blue, she asks “Did you hear about Emma Thompson?” Apparently, Emma Thompson laid it down to the producers of her new movie Cassandra’s Dream when they asked Hayley Atwell to trim down her physique. Ms. Thompson used her leverage as a two-time Oscar winner and told the producers she would “resign from the film if they forced Atwell to lose weight.” Wow!
We’re hoping this story is true. Either way, we hope other high-powered celebrities heed this example of awesome-ship (of course, in an ideal world, this would never be an issue). After all, movies are supposed to be part of self-expression. When did this type of expression result in controlling women’s bodies?
–A.J.
February 26th, 2008
Once again Dove has spoken to the hearts of About-Facers. Their latest “Onslaught” commercial tells parents to “talk to [their] daughters before the beauty industry does” after showing clip after clip of advertisements, commercials, etc. parodying messages given to girls and women every day (or more acurately, every minute) by the beauty industry.
We hope you’re calling your daughter or sister or friend to tell her all about it. It’s wonderful to see an advertisement that doesn’t leave us feeling inadequate. Instead of telling us to get up and buy some product that will wipe out our bank accounts (not to mention our self-esteem), Dove tells us to take action and talk! Do it Dove. We hope you will keep it up!
–A.J.
February 18th, 2008
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