I just read an article about Verily magazine which promises not to alter the bodies or faces of models with photo software. I was enjoying it until I get to the comment section full of “righteous annoyance” towards the “unfairness” that model should no longer be allowed to continue with the unhealthy status quo of the anorexic look (and let’s not forget the need for light skin tones). Was everyone trying to be diplomatic or do they actually think media made beauties are actually on the losing side?
We NEED to stop photo altering bodies to make women feel bad and spend all their money on “improvements” and instead change images for artistic reasons. I am tall and thin, but I still spent 17 years hating my body because I wasn’t ideal, my features are not assymetrical, my breasts were never large enough, and I supposedly had just enough fat to be considered unattractive. Throw in eye-glasses and clothing a little too small and not quite tendy enough and I agreed with my “ugly” label. My peers also agreed with the magazines that I wasn’t good enough. While adults told me I was beautiful, at 14, 16, 18, 25, what matters is what I absorbed from the media and my peers. From when I was young people have said that I looked too skinny so I understand not wanting to skinny-shame people, but that’s not a serious issue in this world.
Luckily I’ve never had a dieting prolem like a few of my beautiful friends, but I’ve seen enough who have to know that our mass media is screwing us up! Stop arguing that tall and thin is going to be underrepresented. It’s really not. It’s fine, and natural, but not the only version of beauty. There is no normal, but there is an average and it’s NOT sizes 0-6. We need the media to embrace more skin colors, sizes, and abilities and we need it NOW!
I’m not linking to the Verily website in this article because their home page only features very light skinned women and that’s not what I want to promote. You can search for it yourself and like I just did, ask them to really represent women of all colors and disaibilities.
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