Photoshop

Photoshop.

Is it a tool to enhance a photo and make it look great, or is it a tool to create unrealistic expectations for women? In my opinion it is like everything else; it could be used for good or for bad.

When women are photoshopped in advertisements, it creates unrealistic expectations.

I took an advertising class this past semester (which I really enjoyed), and one of the things I learned is that the key to successful advertising is to make the viewers feel something. For example: Car commercials that show someone in an accident, or almost hit a kid riding a bike, but everything turns out fine because of a certain brand of tires. Those commercials make you feel afraid. If you feel afraid, you might be more likely to buy those tires because you feel it will protect you. But not just any tires, you feel like you need those name brand tires. 

It's the same thing with photoshop.

If I am selling make up, I want you feel like you need make up so you'll buy it. If you feel like you don't need make up, I won't make any money. If I am an company that wants to sell you a beauty product, I want you to feel like you need my product. So I'm going to show you images of "beautiful" or "perfect" women. If I show you those images, I'm saying, "This is what beautiful looks likes, buy my product and look the same."

Jean Kilbourne is an amazing feminist author, creator of the documentary Killing Me Softly (It is about women in advertisements. It's really great, I highly recommend watching it!), and speaker. She explains that "We will buy what we have to buy to buy" to look the way we think we should. She explains that

"Advertising sells more then just products. It sells morals, values and concepts of love, sexuality, success, and most importantly normalcy." 

Normalcy. Normal. The norm. Perfection is NOT normal. The way photoshopped women look is NOT normal. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you should try and be normal, I think you should try and be you! But what she means is that

perfection is not normal, 

and it shouldn't be. Trying to be perfect creates anxiety. Maybe that's why so many women are body conscious, and are anxious about how they look. We try to strive toward something that we will never reach because it's fake. It's not normal to be perfect.  

Thank you Julia Bluhm for inspiring the topic for today! Julia Bluhm started a petition telling 17 Magazine to not photoshop 1 image month! Well, thousands of signatures later, 17 Magazine met wit her and 17 is officially created a Body Peace Treaty! Julie said, "Those 'pretty women' that we see in magazines are fake. They're often photoshopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life."

Take a look and see if you can see the difference!!  

"Even I don't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford!" ~ Cindy Crawford  

No photoshopped image could ever be more beautiful then you. Do you want to know why? Because you shine. You don't need photoshop to make you look beautiful. Perfection doesn't mean beauty, it means fake. Being real and being true to yourself it the most beautiful thing you could ever be.  

Hey everyone who reads G4G I NEED YOUR HELP!!! I want to make G4G the best that it can be, would you mind taking a 8 question survey? It will only take about 3 minutes and no personal information required! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!! 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/58N8FQS

Love,

G4G and Tinamarie 

(If you want to read more about Seventeen and their pledge to not photoshop you can see more at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2138998/Teens-protest-Photoshop-use-outside-Seventeen-magazine-offices.html)