poliphilo | Retouching

Alesha Dixon had a really good show on BBC 3 last night- all about the retouching of photos in glamour and fashion magazines and how it makes young women despair of their bodies. Did you know that every image of every woman in every glossy magazine has been worked over- her pimples removed, her hair untangled, her eyes brightened, her figure adjusted, her legs lengthened? Well I suppose I did, but only at a semi-conscious level. Mostly we still think that if it's a photograph it's got to be true- because as some idiot once said, "the camera doesn't lie". Well the camera may not lie, but the computer does- and Alesha showed us just how its done and how far it goes. As an extreme example of what can be achieved one of the evil magicians waved his wand over an honest picture of Alesha's wrinkly (but handsome) old mum and turned her into a peachy-skinned 17 year old. And not actually so extreme, because these tricks are regularly performed on elderly celebs and the results are everywhere. Alesha challeged the glamour and fashion mags to run an unretouched picture of herself on their covers- but of course the editors were all in meetings when she rang. In the end the Mirror's Celebrities magazine- a supplement to the Saturday or Sunday paper- picked up the gauntlet and ran just such a picture- and very attractive it was too. Alesha is a phenomenally beautiful young woman; to think that her image needs tidying up- well, it's crazy!

Of course there's nothing new in the blanding out of images of women. Before there was digital retouching there was airbrushing and before there was airbrushing there was Thomas Gainsborough. And women have always punished themselves in an attempt to live up to the look they're being sold. Todays young women get boob jobs (we were shown one of them on the operating table- I had to look away- it was like watching a chicken carcass being stuffed); in the 18th century- Gainsborough's era- they used to poison themselves with slatherings of white lead. What's new is the overwhelming presence, the inescapability, of the propaganda of the beauty industry. You know what? I think the magazines that service it- that run the images- which means all the glamour, fashion and celebrity magazines aimed at women and girls- are worse than top shelf porn. The porn magazines only tickle lust (and is that so bad really?) whereas these others spread self-hatred and despair.

Bodies: we're stuck with them. We want them to reflect the beauty of our inner beings and they don't (though Alesha's comes close) and there's nothing we can do about it- though God knows we try. Down the years I've tried to educate myself to see the beauty in what's actually there- to get rid of the ideals that have been planted in my head and enjoy the quirky, the individual, the characterful, the jolie-laide- but its like dragging a barge upstream whilst swatting away mosquitoes. Our culture- in a degraded parody of the Grail Quest- is mad for an unreal, unrealisable beauty- and bombards us with its dogma and cult images. How does the individual stand against it? I don't really know- you just grit your teeth and put your head down and push on forward- but well done, Alesha, for trying!

Threaded | Flat

I meant to have watched it,so thanks for the review.
I've never understood what "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" really means. I'm thinking about that now.
The Bone Diggers should be good tonight
x

ah, I meant to watch that. I'll check it out on the iPlayer gizmo.

If only the iPlayer didn't lock out non UK residents!

One of my friends studies photography and he has a professional camera. He spends a lot of time taking portrait photos of his friends, and all my favourite photos of myself are from him. He uploads them on Facebook and tags me, and I download them to use elsewhere, or even to send my family.

Recently I found out that he uses Photoshop to airbrush all these photos. He showed me how he does it with a photo of his mum - not only did he take away her wrinkles, but he changed the structure of her face.

I don't look at photos of myself very much, and I don't even properly look at my reflection much. It was really weird to find out the image of myself I have been seeing is a computer-edited one.

The porn magazines only tickle lust (and is that so bad really?) whereas these others spread self-hatred and despair.

I think you're so right about that. Erotic imagery can sometimes be degrading, to men as well as women, but it doesn't have to be, whereas the flaunting of the unrealizable ideal is bound to do harm.

Maybe this is the beginning of how we stand against it - by bringing to light the lies everyone thinks is the truth.

What's even more disgusting about those magazines is that when women destroy their bodies to live up to the ideal, they are attacked for being anorexic...and if there are models and actresses who have a healthy weight, they are laughed at for being "fat." I'm reminded of the recent runway model who got completely ravaged for being fat on the runway. Yet these same papers scream because models are too thin. The same papers love to post eating disorder claims for too-thin actresses, and then excoriate Jennifer Love Hewitt for having curves.

Women are ridiculed for both, and it's horrible.

I've always admired Jamie Lee Curtis for making a similar point several years ago:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/28/48hours/main551362.shtml

I teach PhotoShop at work and I use this as an example of what can be done. It's not often you see the before picture, but in this case it's available here.

This is just an amateur playing around, so heaven knows what the professionals get up to.

The really bad stuff happens with 52 year old me has to complete with 25 year olds for jobs. As a new college grad, they are expecting a 25 year old. Then, when wrinkly fat old me comes walking in, that is often the end of the interview. It's a real problem.

but its like dragging a barge upstream whilst swatting away mosquitoes. Our culture- in a degraded parody of the Grail Quest- is mad for an unreal, unrealisable beauty- and bombards us with its dogma and cult images.

I've always thought that British films more often gave parts to fine actors who didn't necessarily look glamorous or better-than-life, regular, normal-looking people, whereas American movie stars are so perfect that no one can ever look like them in real life, and therefore their careers tend to end at forty when they get their first wrinkles that can't be glossed over (because they are two-feet wide on the screen).

Sad. Sad that we think that way, and discouraging for women especially who leave the theater feeling frumpy, dumpy, ugly, and poor. With regular unshiny white teeth and graying hair.

One thing that always irks me is when I see movies with female characters who are supposed to be ugly, but they are played by women who aren't ugly at all, they just aren't Uma Thurman.

A great example is Janeane Garofalo, who always seems to get stuck in the "ugly fat girl role," even though she's neither ugly nor fat.

I think about it sometimes - what if I have been this fake "beauty-" and fashion-conscious. My life probably would have been much harder. Luckily (and I say it with due amount of irony) my mother chose to tell me again and again that I was not pretty at all (as in "You're so ugly, such a pity, - because you have been a pretty baby! What did you do to yourself?" Yes, my mother is a charming lady..) and so I have decided to be smart instead. Not that I am ugly. Apparently. I have almost convinced myself of that, but I really don't care about it, and that's such a relief.

Could you tell me, please, the title of that show with Alesha Dixon? I want to try and find it on YouTube or as a torrent. Thanks.

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