I just saw that a magazine retouched a photograph of Katie Couric to make her look slimmer:



Someone wrote a response on the site where I saw this that sums it up.

Apparently, the publication released an explanation for the retouch: "As far as the magazine goes, an insider insisted the publication was just following normal industry practice when it shrunk Couric."

...gotta love the "normal industry practice"

Huh. Figures.

Wow. She actually looks like a real person in the original instead of like a Barbie Doll. What kind of an example would THAT set?!?

I wonder if Katie knows? I somehow doubt that she would agree with this ...

What's wrong with looking like a real woman? Shame on those people who thought she needed fixing!

Okay, now for a rant that has been building but that I have not released:

I am actually a little (VERY) annoyed with the new advertising campaign for a hospital in town that caters to women. In this community, there are women of so many shapes and sizes and ethnicities. The women in the ad campaign? ALL BLONDE AND STICK THIN.

That's crap. Show some real women, with their beautiful faces and colors and shapes. Show a blonde, sure, and a brunette. Show a Hispanic woman, and a Navajo women and a Vietnamese woman.

I know intellectually it is 2006 but sometimes I feel like I have been warped back to the 1950s.

End of rant...please resume your regularly scheduled reading of 3FC.

She responded in an interview that she didn't know about it ahead of time.

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/tv...30113109990001

It's not even like she was big in the first (real) picture! She just looked normal.

I love the new Dove adverts playing here in England. Not sure if they're playing in The States or not. Real women of different shapes, sizes and colors. A particularly good one was showing different women talking about their problem areas but laughing and still looking so beautiful for the camera while they pranced about in undies. A very positive, uplifting commercial to watch. And it makes me want to buy Dove products to support the campaign (so obviously, it's quite effective)!

They are airing here in the States and they are fantastic aren't they. Oprah did a show featuring some of the women a while back.

BUY DOVE!

Thanks for that information, I'm glad she didn't agree...

They thinned her out, whitened her teeth, darkened her outfit, made her outfit look more sleek and tailored,did something I can't quite put my finger on to her eyes, and they made her hair slightly lighter with less "red" tones. They also enhanced the colors in the background.

I find this upsetting, but I guess it is what we have learned to deal with in society. It is aggrivating when magazines/TV/Misc. entertainment industries make something not real the "ideal" for feminine beauty. It hurts. It especially hurts preteen, teen, and early twenties girls who often feel they are inferior to the faces and bodies in a magazine or on TV. If only we could understand ourselves, and make these impressionable young women see real beauty starts within, and exterior beauty is not only temporary in life- but really not that important in the grand scheme of things. There is nothing wrong with looking and feeling beautiful on the outside- but it should not rank as high up there on the importance scale as it does.

I find it outrageous. In the past couple of weeks, there were a couple of posts in General Support from women who weren't happy with themselves, their appearance. They lost weight and still didn't feel THIN ENOUGH. How could they, when they are real women, constantly bombarded with unreality. Everything we see, magazine, TV, billboards, movies is airbrushed, edited, artifically slimmed down, glossy, sleek and fake. How can we measure up to unrealistic perfection? It's sad and troubling.

Unfortunately, this is extremely common in all forms of advertising and media. Look at any magazine and you're not seeing the real picture. A movie poster will often put an actresses head on a model's body.

Check out some of the links to see some examples of everyday retouching.

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/bikini/

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/dig...nde/index.html

http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouc...uch/index.html

http://www.fluideffect.com

Despite realizing that many of the images I see on a regular basis are not natural, it's still hard not to make comparisons.

Thanks for the links! This was an eye opening thread.

Wow!

Thank you for those links. I had heard about air-brushing and editing before, but I never imagined the reality of it before I watched the new Dove film (available at their website). I have to ask myself, by the last link - when I had seen it atleast 4 times before - why am I still so surprised?

I feel so much better about my laugh lines and skin, because even supermodels have them...before modern technology.

Have you seen the Jamie Lee Curtis spread where she specifically had no retouching or h&makeup and posted in her skivvies to let people know what a huge diff. all that cosmetic work makes? Good for her. Now if she'd only quit smoking!!