And so do newspapers, ad agencies, billboards, photography companies, graphic designers…. We’re all liars.
I mean, it’s not really the BAD kind of lie, but we’re definitely not showing the truth.
Truth is, I’m a troll most of the time. I don’t do my makeup regularly, I don’t style my hair, I have permanent bags under my eyes, and most people who see me frequently will see that.
I posted the picture on the RIGHT as my profile picture on Facebook the other day and the response was astounding… as if I underwent some sort of amazing transformation. In reality I didn’t, but on the screen I definitely did.
I took the image on the left very late at night on a caffeine induce whim. I was only playing around, but then I got the idea to use it to make point.
What you see in print and digital media is not what you get. It’s just not. Sometimes there is truth in advertising, but even the DOVE commercials, whose company takes pride in showing real women, fixes the final image to be more perfect.
Since I’m not comfortable using other people’s work and ads as an example, mine will have to do.
Please bear in mind I’m not a professional photoshopper. I’ve not taken classes on perfecting skin texture, although, I think I do an ok job. The people who work for the big media outlets DO specialize in this they DO know what they’re doing and do it a LOT better than I do.
Anyway, here’s the before and after of my personal vanity lie:
The details are in the image.
Obviously it could have been better, and I’m embarrassed that it even looked the way it did in the beginning, but it was 2 in the morning, and I was just messing around, BUT it’s a pretty good example for how much can be changed in an image. Even a bad one.
I’m not saying it’s horrible to make edit pictures, I’m not saying that the media needs to stop doing it.
I am however saying that we need to understand that people (including celebrities and models) aren’t perfect, they don’t wake up airbrushed and they DO have flaws….
When we see ourselves in the mirror, I know a lot of people wonder why they can’t/don’t look like the magazine models.
Well, if it’s any consolation, even the magazine models don’t look like magazine models.
Please PLEASE do not compare your looks to a piece of paper/screen shot. Most of the time, it isn’t real.
::Addition: my assistant/friend mentioned also, that there is a very fine line between enhancing and full-on manipulation… it’s one thing to have a zit removed and bags lightened in a picture… it’s quite another to go from a B Cup to a DD in a picture, have different shaped eyes, or lips like Angelina’s when they normally look like Tilda’s.
Be YOU. LOVE YOU. Don’t waste your time trying to be a sad imitation of the real thing, or hating yourself because you don’t look like someone who only exists because a computer says so.
Love Love Love, L
