What is your number one concern right now? In 2010, Mission Australia conducted a survey on 50,000 young people (11 - 24 years) and found the number one concern - the NUMBER ONE - was body image! Out of everything else in life, body image trumped stress, family conflict and relationships.
Why? Well didn't you get the memo? You can't be successful in life unless you're beautiful. Look around you - that message is everywhere. In the media all we see is the perfect body and this puts not just pressure on everyday people but the people in the photographs.
Cindy Crawford once said; "I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford."
Even the models, the celebrities and the actors can't reach the image of beauty that advertisers desire to choke us with.
So how do they get what they want - well we know that one, Photoshop! How photoshop has changed the landscape in the past 10 years. Every single image - EVERY ONE - you see in magazines has been altered.
Photoshop is the godsend to magazines who want the fast turnaround from celebrities. When celebrities get knocked up they generally sign a deal to a magazine saying they will get the first baby shot and of course the first "look at me in my bikini, how you can lose the baby weight in three seconds like me!"
Except there is one teeny tiny problem - new mothers can't lose weight in one second...oh but photoshop can!
Seven days after Kourtney Kardashian gave birth to Mason US OK placed this altered image on the cover with the title, "My diet Secrets: How to lose 10lbs in 10 days!"
One problem - Kourtney didn't lose ANY of her baby weight because it had only been SEVEN days since she pushed a bowling ball out of her vagina!
"They doctored and photoshopped my body to make it look like I have already lost all the weight which I have not...they did not have an exclusive!" said Kourtney.
Now hold the phone - are you saying they make it all up!!!! Hell to the YES!
Now no wonder a 15 year old girl feels disgusted by her body when she sees an image of a celebrity able to lose weight and look better then her seven days after having a baby. In NSW, The Children's Hospital reported a 270% increase in the number of children being admitted for eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.
Britney Spears tried to fight back against the pressure the media puts on women to look perfect by releasing the untouched images of her Candies shoot.
Does Britney look bad? No she looks banging, especially for someone with two children, but most of all she looks like a normal human being. The alterations in these images are tame compared to the following hack job done by Ralph Lauren....the perfect body is now one with no room for internal organs.
Below is a great video about how the images in advertising are slowly killing us - not an extreme point when models who are walking the runway are literally dieing to remain thin.For those that haven't seen the below video made by Dove it is wonderful - a must to watch OVER & OVER because even though we do know images are retouched we still have a compulsive sickness to think "why don't I look like that?"
I know images I see are fake yet I still compare. I look at a flawless - poreless image of Rhianna and think, if I am the same age as her, same height why don't I look like that? Why aren't I that thin?
This issue is hard for men and apparently advertisers to understand. To comprehend that every single second of a woman's life she is presented with images of women that are FAKE. With by-lines that say "You can look like this too!" while the interview reveals all she does is drink eight glasses of water a day and eats whatever she wants....yet at no point does it reveal that the image was altered for five hours and sliced 75% of her body away.
Now when that is ALL you see EVERYWHERE you start to think that this is the norm - not only that but boys who have grown up in the photoshop realm look at real girls and think that they.are.fat!
This brave young woman nominated herself for the Photoshop treatment and it is both scary and fascinating watching how they simply shed the kilograms away.
So - will this landscape change, no, it has only gotten worse and will most likely continue to....but if we can just all remember that no matter the size, no matter the look, we are beautiful and can still give love - which really is the most important thing.
Watch this, smile and love your lady lumps.
So at what point will decide to stop wasting time worrying about how you look and worry about how you feel?
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