In this summary essay will discuss about an article called “Touch It Up! The Art of Making “Beautiful People”” written by Lia Trageser, a cosmetologist expert. She talks about magazine photo cover are seductive advertisement to gain viewer’s attention. The viewers are led to believe in order to achieve perfect beauty that you must copy what the magazine is producing. However Trageser states that these photo cover are mere aesthetic painting to look at. The image of photo cover are manipulated to alter someone appears to be more attractive. The artful digital retouched used several techniques to produce the perfect image. She tells that anyone who is drawn to these desirable magazine cover knows that its artful piece with hidden flaws and improvement are meant to sell. …show more content…
The viewers are led to believe in order to achieve happiness; they must copy exactly the photo on the cover. The fashion and cosmetics industry profits millions dollar off of the viewers by tricking them to need purchase products to obtain happiness. And the models of the photo covers are look perfect but in reality they are fakes. Even famous models don’t like art of digital retouch because they felt misrepresented. Trageser said the viewers are led to believe these famous models are on a successful diet but don’t know these photo are just inaccurate.
Trageser said the first step to create the whole perfect image is to have a model that is almost perfect. A standard woman model has to have extremely feminist with tiny hips, long limbs, big lips and eyes. For male, they have to very build muscle, strong jawline, and extremely manly to photo well. She emphasizes on models that photograph effortlessly is because they were born good gene. Trageser states that make-up is next step to enhance look to make total appearance. Make-up helps to hide the model’s flaw and improve
Cover Girl cosmetics have been the top-seller since 1961 and are still going strong. It is hard, with all the advanced lines of make-up for one product to go as far as Cover girl has, so how does Cover Girl cosmetics do it? A lot of Cover Girl’s strong, on going successes are due to changing the look of the product, exceptional promotions which the public can’t look over, giving a cosmetic appeal to both older and younger aged women and most importantly by using near perfect women and teens to model their products. Although it’s wonderful that Cover Girl has been and still is so successful, it has put a dentation in today’s society in what women’s appearance should and shouldn’t be. Women and young adolescence are confused of what their appearance should be. Cover Girl has many famous models; one inparticular is the famous country singer Faith Hill. Faith is tall, skinny, and flawless. When women see models like her doing the advertising for Cover Girl, they automatically feel that they should look the same. Later in this paper I will go into semiotics which derives from the Greek word semeion meaning sign, it basically describes how people interpret different signs, such as models, and how these signs might effect one’s life and self-esteem. Proctor & Gamble are the owners and starters of Cover Girl cosmetics. To keep up the success of Cover Girl they must keep on top of the advertising game to stay above the competitors. To do this they do many promotions, some include using famous singers, changing displays, giving away samples and one of the most important advertisement of all is the models Cover Girls incorporates in their ads. Cover Girls did one promotion with Target stores to promote their product. They used the famous group 98 Degrees to make a sweepstakes called, “Fall in Love with 98 Degrees Sweepstakes.” The grand prizewinner of this sweepstakes is an appearance in the new 98 Degrees music video. This advertising doesn’t just take place in the Target stores; it also takes place in Teen magazine, stickers on the new 98 Degrees CDs, a national radio campaign, and the national Teen People magazine. Because it’s teens that mainly listen to the music that 98 Degrees produces, it’s the teens that this particular promotion is focused on. I s...
Media is one of the biggest factor in shaping our identity and how we see ourselves. In “killing us softly” Jean Kilbourne explains the meaning of the advertisements and how women can never achieve the scale of perfection that these advertisements set. Jean explains that these advertisements are saying that you will be beautiful and all the men will love you if you look this certain way. The problem Jean mentions is that they can never look like the models shown in advertisements because not even the models themselves can look like that. During the film/speech she shows how digital editors Photoshop all the photos to fix the model’s flaws and then you see that the models in the ads are a completely different creation. The digital editors even showed the process of creating a complete perfect non-existing being. By that they mean that the models shown in some ads are actually a combination different facial features of 3-4 models. These fake beings are setting standards that are an impossibility to obtain. This type of media is affecting how we see ourselves. ...
From the moment we wake up in the morning media is at our finger tips. As our day goes on we cannot escape all the visual media. One image after another a person’s self-confidence is either boosted or destroyed. Through the use of Photoshop a picture can be altered to get the perfect figure, skin, and hair, but when is the line drawn, when has it gone too far. Hailey Magee takes a stand when it comes to the ethics behind Photoshop in the world of beauty, “In this “Ethical Inquiry” we explore the ethics of digitally altering photos of individuals so as to make the subjects appear “more beautiful” in alignment with cultural standards of beauty”. Shiela Reaves, Jacqueline Bush Hitchon, Sung–Yeon parks, and Gi Woong Yun agree with Hailey Magee in the discussion of photo manipulation in beauty and fashion. “This study is concerned with the moral dilemma that stems from the digital manipulation of magazine ads to render models thinner. Exposure to the “thin ideal” has been linked to such damaging psychological responses as body dissatisfaction, loss of self-esteem, and to eating disorders”. Women and men are constantly affected by exposure to models that achieve the unrealistic beauty outcome of the media. Using the theories of social comparison and cultivation/ media literacy we are able to explain why photo manipulation makes women take on the thin-ideal. In the media driven world photo manipulation has become an accepted practice since it increases sales and fulfils the “thin ideal”, but the emotional and physical damage it has on women is catastrophic.
Who sets the standards for beauty? What must one do to truly look beautiful? What does feeling beautiful mean? When considering the concept of beauty one must differentiate between the universal and relative perception of beauty. Among the components of universal beauty are harmony, symmetry and utility. However, perception of beauty is also relative, when it is defined by the standards of the time that are subjective to the socio economic values of the era. One of the ways these values are communicated is through images portrayed in art and in modern times through the media. ‘Fashion’ is the carrier of theses values though physical appearance and self-image that define power, rank, acceptability and belonging. Having ‘fashion’ as the medium of these relative values bring advantages and disadvantages. Although there are benefits of matching the fashion of the time, positive self-image and satisfaction with a feeling of acceptance these are temporary because fashion is ever changing. On the other hand not conforming to the contemporary standards can have a detrimental impact on self-image that leads to feeling a sense negative self worth and marginalized. Eating disorders are a powerful manifestation that fashion has on the psyche. The underlying idea of what fashion ‘is’ is value. Amongst all the change of fashion, value remains ever present.
“You were born an original, don’t die a copy” - John Mason. Obsession is one of society’s most common issue affecting females in a way that it is almost depressing based on the fact that we are manipulated in to thinking looking perfect is the way to life. Truth is, the constant self-evaluation and compulsion to looking “perfect” is a potential threat to one’s well-being. We live in a world where we are consistently surrounded by advertisements, magazines, television, the internet, and much more in a way that is changing our perspectives of beauty. This essay will consist of Mill’s conception of the sociological imagination and the distinction between how I am personally affected by my obsession of looking beautiful and how the public has affected my perspectives, decisions and the overall urge to altering my physical appearance.
The photos seen in magazines of these models are also airbrushed and photo shopped before being printed. The body shapes of the models are unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable for the average person. In addition to the models, magazines are also filled with advertisements. Most ads in magazines are directed towards beauty in some form. Again, these ads all show photographs of women with the unreachable “perfect body” that can cause multiple victims to feel insecure and unhappy about their body shape and weight.
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
In our media-driven culture, our views of what women and men should look like are shaped by these unreal images. Older men and women, or people with disabilities, or disfigurements are rarely if ever depicted in these types of publications” (Ballaro 1) Ballaro is saying that what people or dehumanizing themselves for are pretty much fake, plastic surgery airbrush and can not forget the contouring the artist are doing before the flash. Everything is so unreal and natural people are more of the realistic type of humans out there. For example Kim Kardashian has fake everything, the camera and new technology enhances her beauty plus million-dollar plastic surgery done to here. The reader feels as that if she needs to look like to be loved and cherished and spoiled, so she goes back to beating herself up.
The top most entertainment in Magazines could be putting society at risks. Photoshopping or image software editing of models or celebrities for publication are creating debates of issues with an unrealistic body. Although models are edited for entertainment purposes, they should give warnings that explain photoshopping because it causes eating disorders, creates false body images to humans and influences models to meet measurements.
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like the girl in the magazine”. To have a good life, an individual must realize what they see broadcasted in the media is not always the truth. For example, in Russell’s TED talk, she compares many photos that were taken close together to display the difference of her actual life and what the magazines make her look like. She said that the magazine photos were “constructions by a group of professions, by hairstylists and makeup artists and photographers and stylists and all their assistants and pre-production and post-production, and they build this.
People want their bodies to be similar to the photoshopped models’ when not even the models truly appear that way in real life. The erasure of models’ imperfections instills the idea that those features are not normal and should be hidden, not celebrated for their unique beauty. (Diller) These unrealistic ideals can eventually become a gateway to more serious problems, such as anorexia and bulimia. These disorders are not as uncommon as people believe.
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
The attempt is made with this advertisement to define beauty with images of starved and malnourished models which Estee Lauder claims to be the standard for beauty. Estee Lauder presents its view of beauty to the consumer as the defining truth. The issue with the advertisement is the acceptance by the consumer that the Estee Lauder definition of beauty is truthful and factual. The targeted audience for this advertisement is women of all ages. Beauty is something extremely important to women and is constantly being reinforced in the society of today.... ...